White City tube station

White City station stands on Wood Lane in west London, a deep brick-sided cutting on the Central line between East Acton and Shepherd’s Bush. The station opened in 1947 to replace an earlier Wood Lane stop, its construction delayed by the Second World War. The brickwork and design echo Harrow-on-the-Hill station, and the building won an award at the Festival of Britain. A plaque on the main entrance wall records this recognition. The station’s tracks run right-hand through the cutting instead of the usual left-hand arrangement. This unusual layout comes from reversing tracks built for the old Wood Lane station, opened in 1908 as the Central line’s western end. A fly-over halfway to East Acton restores normal running. Three tracks serve the platforms, with a centre track allowing trains to switch direction. A siding north of the station lets trains reverse back east, and a depot below ground stores trains out of service. Nearby stands the former BBC Television Centre, and Loftus Road, home of Queens Park Rangers, is a short walk away. The Circle and Hammersmith & City lines interchange at Wood Lane station a short distance south. In 2009 the station received a certificate of merit for modernisation that kept heritage features intact. Buses 72, 95, 220, 228, 272 and the night route N72 serve the stop directly.