Arnos Grove tube station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Arnos Grove
Location
Place	Arnos Grove^[1]
Local authority	Enfield

Operations
Managed by	London Underground
Platforms in use	4 (3 tracks)

Transport for London
Zone	4
2007 annual usage	4.314 million †
History
1932 1933	Opened (as terminus) Became through station
Transport for London List of London stations: Underground \| National Rail
† Data from Transport for London [1]
London Transport Portal

Arnos Grove is a London Underground station on the Piccadilly line between Bounds Green and Southgate. The station is in Travelcard Zone 4 and is located in Arnos Grove - near Arnos Park on Bowes Road, London. The station and the surrounding neighbourhood of Arnos Grove take their names from the Arnos Grove estate, which was north of the station.^[1]. The station is the first surface station north after the long tunnelled section from Barons Court via Central London.

1 History
2 Trivia
3 Nearby places
4 Gallery
5 Transport connections
- 5.1 Arnos Grove Bus Station
- 5.2 New Southgate railway station
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

The station was opened on September 19, 1932 as the most northerly station on the first section of the Piccadilly Line extension from Finsbury Park to Cockfosters. The station acted as the interim terminus of the line until services were further extended to Oakwood on March 13, 1933. The station's name was chosen after public deliberation: alternatives were "Arnos Park", "Bowes Road" and "Southgate".

Like the other stations Charles Holden designed for the extension, Arnos Grove was built in a modern European style using brick, glass and reinforced concrete and basic geometric shapes. A circular drum-like ticket hall of brick and glass panels rises from a low single storey structure and is capped by a flat concrete roof. A similar design was employed by Holden for the rebuilding of Chiswick Park on the District Line (also in 1932), although the drum there is supplemented with an adjacent brick tower. The centre of the ticket hall is occupied by a disused ticket office (a passimeter in London Underground parlance) which houses an exhibition on the station and the line. Like Holden's other stations on the extension, Arnos Grove is a Grade II listed building.

Three parallel train tracks pass through the station, with two double-sided platforms positioned between the central track and the outer tracks. The edges of the platforms are labelled platform 1 and 2, and platform 3 and 4, respectively, in such a way that the two outer tracks are accessible by platforms 1 and 4, and the central track, usually used by trains that terminate and reverse at Arnos Grove station, is accessible via platforms 2 and 3. Platforms 1 and 2 are designated for trains to Cockfosters, platforms 3 and 4 for trains to Central London. When operational problems occur on the line, Arnos Grove station may act as a temporary terminus of a reduced service - either a shuttle service between Arnos Grove and Cockfosters or a truncated service from Central London. The station has a set of seven sidings to its south for stabling trains.

The station has recently undergone a refurbishment including improvements to signage, security and train information systems.

The station is part of the Arnos Grove group of stations, comprising all seven stations from Cockfosters to Turnpike Lane, and the management office for the group is in Arnos Grove station. Linked to the station by a lineside passageway is Ash House, which is a drivers' depot.

[edit] Trivia

Some signs are in a 'petit-serif' adaptation of the London Underground typeface, Johnston Sans. This type-face was designed by Charles Holden and Percy Delf Smith.
Piccadilly Line train announcements were, until 2006, recorded by a male Arnos Grove driver. Since late 2006, these announcements have begun to be phased-out, and Emma Clarke can now be heard.^[2]
Arnos Grove had a station cat, called Spooky.
Arnos Grove Station features as one of the 12 "Great Modern Buildings" profiled in The Guardian during October 2007.^[3]