For the first time a brand new station on the Tube will be given a disused station name. Wood Lane will open in 2008 a hundred years after the old Wood Lanes opened in May 1908. There was one on the Central line and the other on the Hammersmith & City line. The new Wood Lane will be back on the Hammersmith & City Line between the new Shepherd's Bush station (Shepherd's Bush Market) and Latimer Road (Thanks to Moley for giving me the heads up here).
The renaming of Shepherd's Bush to Shepherd's Bush Market is to stop the confusion between the two Shepherd's Bush stations that exist. One on the Central Line and one on the Hammersmith & City Line. Mmm like the two old Wood Lanes. Are you still with me on this?
LU Managing Director Tim O'Toole said in a press release: "The new Wood Lane station on the Hammersmith & City line is a very welcome addition to the Underground network.
"The station will play an important role in getting people to and from the new Westfield London development, the major new retail development in the area.
"The other major benefit is that passengers will be able to travel straight to the White City area on the Hammersmith & City line instead of having to change to the Central line." Good news if you work at or are travelling to the BBC.It came as a surprise to me to learn that the last station name change occurred on the Tube in 1989 when Surrey Docks on the East London line was renamed Surrey Quays. Apparently London Underground received a load of requests to change the names of Tube stations (most recently in the news was the move to change Arsenal back to Gillespie Road) But they very rarely change them.
If you're wondering what the significance of the first picture is to this story, it's from 1970's UK sci-fi TV series The Tomorrow People. They were a group of trendy teleporting teenagers whose base "The Lab" was in a disused Tube station.
"With a hiss and a rumble the underground train moved slowly out of the station, treating its discarded passengers to a low, whining farewell as it disappeared into the tunnel. The assorted throng of theatre-goers and businessmen kept late at the office scurried for the escalators, hardly sparing a glance for the two boys in Hell's Angel jerkins who hung around a chocolate machine at the rear end of the platform. Watching until the attendant was out of sight, they immediately turned back and raised a small trapdoor hidden close to the tunnel entrance. In a moment they were bent low in a sewer-like gallery which ran off at an angle and eventually brought them to that little-known part of the London Underground which was doomed to remain forever sealed off and silent."
That little known part of the Underground was Wood Lane and you can just about make out the A-N-E from the remaining letters in the roundel.
If you want to find out more about Wood Lane, past, present and future check out Hywel Williams' disused Tube Stations site.
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