Mile End tube station

Mile End station stands on Mile End Road in the Mile End district of Tower Hamlets, East London. It serves three Underground lines: the Central line between Bethnal Green and Stratford, and the District and Hammersmith & City lines between Stepney Green and Bow Road. The station opened in 1902 on a new route linking Whitechapel with the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway. Electric trains replaced steam in 1905, and the Central line began stopping here in 1946 after a rebuild. The station’s history includes an 1883 proposal to connect the Metropolitan Railway with the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway, revived in 1897 with the District Railway. Designed by engineer Cuthbert Arthur Brereton, the original above-ground building was identical to Stepney Green station. The station was rebuilt in the 1940s as part of the Central line extension, with Stanley Heaps designing the new subterranean structures. Today, Mile End has two island platforms with four tracks, allowing cross-platform interchange between lines. Cream and blue tiling survives from the original entrance, while platforms were retiled in 2009 and 2010. The station handles over ten million entries and exits each year, making it one of London’s busiest. Local buses run day and night, linking Mile End to Bow Road, Stepney Green, Stratford and Bethnal Green.