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| Bayswater exterior, 26th May 2017 |
I finished my exams on Thursday, and as promised, I would be back out on the London Underground. Like I said earlier in the month, I have a few projects up my sleeves, but I thought I would kick off with a more familiar blog post. Yesterday I visited Bayswater for the first time. The station is situated on the District line between Edgware Road and Earl's Court, and is on the Circle line going anti-clockwise from Edgware Road round to Hammersmith via Victoria, Liverpool Street and King's Cross St. Pancras. With just over 5 million annual users, Bayswater is the least used on the branch for the District line between Edgware Road and Earl's Court, and likewise the section of the least used on the Circle line between Edgware Road and Gloucester Road.
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| Bayswater area in October 1868 |
Bayswater opened in October 1868 when the Metropolitan Railway extended south towards Gloucester Road and connected with the Metropolitan District Railway at South Kensington in December 1868. This would later officially become the Circle line in 1949. The diagram to the left displays how this part of the network would have looked in October 1868. It was not until November 1926 that services from the District line would open from Edgware Road to Putney Bridge. 24 trains an hour typically serve the station, with 6 in each direction on both the District and Circle lines.
Although the station opened as Bayswater, the same name it is known as now, Bayswater has had three other names. When District line services opened in 1926, the station was renamed to Bayswater (Queen's Road) & Westbourne Grove. In 1933 the station was again renamed, this time to just Bayswater (Queen's Road). In 1946 the station was renamed slightly to Bayswater (Queensway), but the suffix of Queensway was gradually dropped. The Queensway was dropped due to people being confused by the nearby Queensway station on the Central line, which is also just a short walk south along the road Queensway.
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| Bayswater ticket hall, 26th May 2017 |
Bayswater bestows a similar style to other stations on the network, particularly the near by stations of Paddington, Notting Hill Gate and High Street Kensington. This is not surprising, as these stations were designed and built at the same time. I particularly enjoy the brick walls and arches of the platforms, the flowers in the ticket office, and the lovely station building.
A short walk from Bayswater station is the street Leinster Gardens. In order to build the Metropolitan Railway in the 1860s, they had to remove two houses, 23 and 24 Leinster Gardens. The local residents did not want to see an empty space along the street, so they built two 'fake houses' which blend into the street and look like real houses.
Bayswater is a lovely station in the heart of the city, located to the nearby Portobello Market. Next time you visit the station, why not take a quick walk to Porchester Terrace where you can actually see the 'fake houses' on Leinster Gardens.
More photos
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| View from the Eastbound platform, 26th May 2017 |
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| Brick work at Bayswater, 26th May 2017 |
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