Tower Hill tube station

This article is about the current Tower Hill tube station. For the closed station latterly of the same name but originally called Mark Lane, see Mark Lane tube station.

Tower Hill is a London Underground station in Tower Hill in the East End of London. It is served by the Circle and District lines, and is located in Travelcard Zone 1. It is within and is a short distance from Tower Gateway station for the Docklands Light Railway, Fenchurch Street station for National Rail mainline services, and Tower Millennium Pier for River Services.

Tower Hill
Entrance opposite the Tower of London
Tower Hill Location of Tower Hill in Central London
Location	Tower Hill
Local authority	London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Managed by	London Underground
Owner	Transport for London
Number of platforms	3
Accessible	Yes[1]
Fare zone	1
OSI	Fenchurch Street Tower Gateway [2]
Cycle parking	No
Toilet facilities	No
London Underground annual entry and exit
2019	20.59 million[3]
2020	4.12 million[4]
2021	7.33 million[5]
2022	15.40 million[6]
2023	14.97 million[7]
Railway companies
Original company	London Transport Executive
Key dates
4 February 1967 (1967-02-04)	Opened
Other information
External links	TfL station info page
Coordinates	51.51°N 0.076°W / 51.51; -0.076
London transport portal

On the Circle line, the station is between Aldgate and Monument stations. On the District line, it is between Monument and Aldgate East stations.

The station was built on the site of the former Tower of London station that closed in 1884. The present Tower Hill station opened in 1967 and replaced a nearby station with the same name but which was originally called Mark Lane, that was slightly to the west.

History

In 2021, Transport for London made Tower Hill the tenth Underground station to replace some standard platform logos with 'poppy roundels' for the period leading up to Remembrance Day each year.^[8] Opposite the station in Trinity Square Gardens is The Merchant Navy Memorial^[9][10] commemorating merchant seafarers lost in the two World Wars and Falklands Campaign who have no grave but the sea. Its total of some 36,000 names is greater than that of any other Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorial in the UK.^[11]

Design

The entrance to Tower Hill station is a few metres from one of the largest remaining segments of the Roman London Wall which once surrounded the historic City of London. A small section of this wall is visible above the track at the far Eastern end of the Westbound platform, near the ceiling.

Services

Train frequencies vary throughout the day, but the typical off-peak service pattern is:

• District line:
  • Eastbound:
    • 12 tph (trains per hour) to Upminster.
    • 3 tph to Barking
    • 3 tph terminate here
  • Westbound:
    • 6 tph to Ealing Broadway;
    • 6 tph to Richmond;
    • 6 tph to Wimbledon.
• Circle line:
  • Anti-clockwise:
    • 6 tph to Hammersmith via Aldgate.
  • Clockwise:
    • 6 tph to Edgware Road via Embankment.

Preceding station	London Underground			Following station
Aldgate towards Hammersmith via King's Cross St Pancras		Circle line		Monument towards Edgware Road via Victoria
Monument towards Wimbledon, Richmond or Ealing Broadway		District line		Aldgate East towards Upminster

Future

A Transport Supporting Paper released by the office of the Mayor of London envisages the closure of Tower Gateway DLR station and the branch serving it, with a replacement interchange being provided via new platforms at Tower Hill tube station. The reasoning is given that currently, 90 per cent of DLR City passengers use Bank station, but only 75 per cent of services go there; this would increase service to Bank from 23tph to 30tph, thereby unlocking more capacity on the Bank branch.^[12]

Connections

London Buses day and nighttime routes, plus long-distance coach routes serve the station.^[13]