Станция метро Шепердс-Буш: История и реконструкция

London Underground station

Shepherd's Bush is a London Underground station in the district of Shepherd's Bush in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The station is on the Central line, between and stations, and it lies in Travelcard Zone 2. The station originally opened in 1900, but was closed for eight months in 2008 while the surface station building was replaced with a completely new structure and the underground station refurbished. A number of stations in the area both past and present have borne the name Shepherd's Bush; today the Central line station shares its name with the adjacent London Overground Shepherd's Bush station, with which it shares a surface level interchange. An entirely separate London Underground station, on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines is located approximately away. Until 2008, it too was called Shepherd's Bush until it was renamed to avoid confusion.

The station opened on 30 July 1900 and was the original western terminus of the Central London Railway (CLR). The original surface level station building was a terracotta clad ticket hall with its entrance on the Uxbridge Road facing Shepherd's Bush Green. Like all CLR stations, the station building was designed by Harry Bell Measures. To the north of the station was located the CLR's power station and Wood Lane depot which was originally accessed by a single track tunnel. The eastbound tunnel ended to the west of the station in a dead end reversing siding with a cross over junction connecting it to the westbound tunnel. When the now disused Wood Lane station was opened on 14 May 1908 to the north, a loop tunnel was created connecting to the eastbound tunnel. Since 2022, London Transport Museum has been running guided historical tours of the station through its "Hidden London" programme, which take visitors to the disused original station corridors and lift shafts to look at the history of the site.

A large scale redevelopment began in 2005 to redevelop the White City area to the north of Shepherd's Bush Green and to construct the Westfield Shopping Centre. As part of this project, Shepherd's Bush Central line station was reconstructed in 2008 by Westfield as part of a Section 106 contribution. The Westfield redevelopment also included the construction of an integrated bus interchange and the new London Overground Shepherd's Bush station on the West London line. The new Overground station opened on 28 September that year and is close to the site of the former station which closed in 1940. During the reconstruction of the Central line station, Transport for London closed the station completely for eight months from 4 February 2008; TfL based their decision on the need to replace the escalators at the same time as rebuilding work. This decision caused local controversy, and critics claimed that the works had been timed to benefit incoming businesses involved in the planned redevelopment of the area, at the cost of local residents and small business holders. The local MP for the Shepherd's Bush constituency, Andy Slaughter, investigated the project and obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act which showed that the contractor, Metronet, had advised that the work could be completed without closing the station. Shepherd's Bush station re opened to passengers on 5 October that year. During the refurbishment, Transport for London did not add lifts to the station as originally planned, citing installation costs of £100 million due to the various underground utilities nearby which would have to be diverted. The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and disability pressure groups have been critical of the fact that the station remains inaccessible for those unable to use stairs.