22/270 - Walthamstow Central

There is more to Walthamstow Central than being the northern terminus of the Victoria line. Walthamstow Central has become a station that I now frequently use in recent months, and with over 22 million passengers using the station in 2016, it is the most used zone 3 terminus station on the network. 

Welcome to Walthamstow. Walthamstow was originally Wilcumestowe, meaning the holy place with a welcome. There has been a railway station here since April 1870, originally called Hoe Street, when the Great Eastern Railway opened a line from Lea Bridge to the temporary station, Shern Hall Street. Shern Hall Street was replaced by the present day Wood Street station when the Great Eastern Railway gradually introduced a line from Bethnal Green to Chingford between 1872 and 1873, through the station at Hoe Street. The line was then electrified in the 1960s, but the spur from Lea Bridge station was removed in 1967 due to low passenger numbers.

Lea Bridge is an interesting station too. The station building was built on a road bridge across the railway in the 1840s and is thought to be the first of its kind. Originally opened as Lea Bridge Road in September 1840, by 1841 it was renamed Lea Bridge. In the 1930s the station received services from Liverpool Street, via. Stratford, to Hetford East and Palace Gardens. The station was damaged by a fire in March 1944, and by 1976 the station was unstaffed. By this time services were removed and the only service that served the station was from Tottenham Hale to North Woolwich, via Stratford, when this service was withdrawn, the station was closed and the station building was demolished. A new service in 2005 from Stratford saw regular passenger trans passing through the closed station, and the station was reopened in May 2016 and saw over 350,000 passengers in the 2016-17 figures. 

However, back in Walthamstow, as Lea Bridge closed, a major infrastructure project was about to open, the Victoria Line. In September 1967, the Victoria Line opened between Highbury & Islington and the newly renamed Walthamstow Central. The Victoria Line was extended to Brixton by 1971. Walthamstow Central was never supposed to be the terminus of the Victoria line, the original plans were to have the terminating station at Wood Street. However, in 1961 before construction began, it was decided that Walthamstow Central was to become the terminating station. 

This new line linked five mainline stations and seven London Underground lines across the city, and in 2018 the only station on the line that does not link with any national rail, London Underground lines or London Overground services is Pimlico.

2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the Victoria line, and it is safe to say it is a very popular line, in terms of usership and tube enthusiasts. Despite Victoria line stations looking similar in terms of layout, each station has an individual tile motif. The motif at Walthamstow Central is inspired by William Morris, an artist, textile designer, poet and social activist  who was born in Walthamstow. You can visit his childhood home in nearby Lloyd Park where this is an art gallery dedicated to his life and work. 

I also need to mention the nearby Walthamstow Queen's Road station. Observant passengers may have noticed that on the tube map, Walthamstow Central also linked with Walthamstow Queen's Road. A station was opened 300 meters away from Hoe Street, called Walthamstow, in July 1894 and is part of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line, commonly known as the GOBLIN. To avoid confusion, the station was reamed in May 1968 just before the Victoria line opened. The two stations are now connected by a footpath that opened in 2014 called Ray Dudley Way, named after a member of the Barking-Gospel Oak Line User Group who campaigned for a link between the two stations.

If you are a tube enthusiast who also enjoys the London Overground and railways, then I highly recommend visiting Walthamstow where you can enjoy all three easily. For more information on transport in the area, visit the Walthamstow Pump House museum where there is an original 1968 Victoria line tube car, a model London 'B' type bus (which was built in Walthamstow) and a machine workshop. With the nearby William Morris Gallery in Lloyd Park, the Walthamstow Wetlands, the longest outdoor street market in Europe and Waltham Forest being the first Borough of Culture in 2019, there is plenty to do in the area as well.