Highbury & Islington station

Highbury & Islington station is a London Underground and National Rail station in the London Borough of Islington in north London. It is on the dividing line between North London (Highbury) and Central London (Islington).

On the Underground Victoria line the station is between and  stations. It is on the National Rail North London and Northern City lines. It is in Travelcard Zone 2.

To allow four-car trains to run on the London Overground network, the North London Line between Gospel Oak and was closed between February and May 2010 while a new signalling system was installed and 30 platforms were extended. During this closure, the Highbury & Islington station ticket hall was enlarged and step-free access installed to the Overground platforms. The North London Line re-opened on 1 June 2010 though further work is planned until May 2011, partly to complete the link from Dalston Junction; during this time there will be an extensive programme of weekend closures.

History
The current station derives from two earlier stations. The first, on the same site, was an impressive Victorian-gothic building, with a drive-in forecourt, built in 1872 by the North London Railway (NLR).



The second station, on the opposite side of Holloway Road, was opened on 28 June 1904 was the Great Northern & City Railway (GN&CR) on its underground line, between and. This line and station were operated by the Metropolitan Railway and its successors from 1913 until 1975 when the line, then called the Northern City Line, was transferred to British Rail. Trains do not serve the Northern City Line in the late evening or at weekends, running instead to London King's Cross.

The NLR station was damaged by a V-1 flying bomb on 27 June 1944, but its main building remained in use until demolished in the 1960s during the building of the Victoria line. The original westbound platform buildings remain, as does a small part of the original entrance to the left of the present station entrance.

Today's single-storey structure was built in the 1960s for the opening of the Victoria line on 1 September 1968 and is the entrance for all lines. When the escalators to the deep level platforms were opened the GN&CR station building was closed. Its disused entrance remains and was refurbished externally in 2006 - it houses signalling equipment for the Victoria line.

The Victoria line was built to give as many interchanges as possible with Underground and British Rail lines, with, wherever possible, cross-platform connection between different lines heading in the same direction. To this end at Highbury & Islington the northbound Northern City Line platform was reallocated to the southbound Victoria line to give a direct link between the two southbound platforms; a new northbound platform was constructed for each line; the northbound running NCL tunnel was diverted to its new platform; and the southbound Victoria tunnel was joined to the old northbound NCL tunnel.



Former train operating company Anglia Railways ran services known as London Crosslink from Norwich to Basingstoke via Stratford. This service started in 2000 and ended in 2002.

Platforms
Platforms for North London Line (NLL) services are operated by the London Overground. On 1 June 2010, following the temporary closure of the route from February 2010 to May 2010, NLL services were rerouted to the new platforms 7 and 8 for the AC lines, replacing the old "special use" platform. Platforms 1 and 2, which previously served the North London Line (NLL) on third rail lines were closed from February 2010 for reconstruction and expected to reopen in 2011 to serve East London Line (ELL) services. The change of platforms allows ELL services to operate without having to cross over NLL tracks.

Platforms 3 to 6 are deep-level platforms. Platforms 3 and 5 are used for Victoria line services; 4 and 6 are used for First Capital Connect services on weekdays only.

Future
In 2011, phase one of the East London Line extension (part of London Overground) will be extended from Dalston Junction to Highbury & Islington station. There will be four platforms for London Overground services: the existing two for East London Line trains and two new ones on the north side of the station for North London Line trains.

Islington Council is considering redeveloping the site of the current station, and Highbury Corner generally, possibly covering the North London Line tracks with an office block above the site.

Transport links
London bus routes 4, 19, 30, 43, 271, 277, 393 night routes N19 and N41.