West Kensington tube station

West Kensington station stands in a shallow cutting on North End Road, just where it meets Talgarth Road in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The ticket office sits at street level above the tracks, reached by a short flight of steps. It belongs to the District line, sandwiched between Barons Court to the west and Earl’s Court to the east. The station sits in fare zone two, close to the busy junction of West Cromwell Road and Talgarth Road. The building dates from 1927 and was designed by Charles Holden, who also worked on the Northern line’s Morden extension the year before. Originally it opened in 1874 as North End (Fulham) on the District Railway’s new line from Earl’s Court to Hammersmith. A short-lived service called the Super Outer Circle once ran through the station between 1878 and 1880, looping from St Pancras to Earl’s Court via Cricklewood. The name changed to West Kensington in 1877, though the station actually lies within Hammersmith and Fulham. Inside, the platforms run east–west beneath the ticket office, with the westbound track curving gently towards Barons Court. A set of stairs leads down from the booking hall to both platforms. The station is served by London Buses day and night, and trains run every few minutes in each direction. Six trains an hour head to Ealing Broadway, six to Richmond, and twelve to Upminster during off-peak times.