Leicester Square tube station

Leicester Square station stands in the West End, on Charing Cross Road just east of Leicester Square itself. It serves the Northern and Piccadilly lines and lies in London fare zone 1. To the west are the theatres of Theatreland and the restaurants of Soho. To the east lies Chinatown with its colourful gates. The station sits between Tottenham Court Road and Charing Cross on the Northern line. Between Piccadilly Circus and Covent Garden it serves the Piccadilly line. The station opened in 1906 as Cranbourn Street but was renamed Leicester Square. In the early 1930s it was rebuilt below ground with a new sub-surface ticket hall and long escalators. The Piccadilly line escalators once measured 54 metres, the longest on the Underground until Angel station’s 60-metre escalators opened in 1992. Above ground, the red terracotta building once housed Northern line managers and Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack publishers. A small door on the Cranbourn Street stairs hides a ventilation shaft that was once a lift shaft. Inside, film sprockets are painted along all four platforms in black and dark blue, marking Leicester Square’s four premiere cinemas. The station’s original ticket hall was designed by Leslie Green and the new entrances by Charles Holden. Day and night, London buses stop nearby, linking the station to the rest of the city.