Chancery Lane tube station

Chancery Lane tube station stands in central London where High Holborn, Hatton Garden and Gray’s Inn Road meet. It opened in 1900 on the Central line between Holborn and St Paul’s, with entrances in two boroughs yet no building above ground. The original lift station still exists a few hundred metres west on High Holborn, now disused. The rebuilt ticket hall below the road junction opened in 1934 after the station switched from lifts to escalators. During the Second World War the deep-level shelter beneath became the Kingsway telephone exchange. In 2003 a train derailment injured thirty-two passengers and suspended Central line services. Visitors enter through subway passages that lead down to the ticket office under the roadway. The platforms lie one above the other, the eastbound tunnel above the westbound to protect nearby buildings. Bus routes and night buses stop at the street entrances, linking the station to the surrounding streets.