West Kensington tube station

West Kensington is a London Underground District line station in West Kensington. It is located on North End Road (B317) close to its junction with West Cromwell Road/Talgarth Road (A4).

West Kensington
West Kensington Location of West Kensington in Greater London
Location	West Kensington
Local authority	London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
Managed by	London Underground
Station code(s)	WEK[1]
Number of platforms	2
Fare zone	2
London Underground annual entry and exit
2019	4.87 million[2]
2020	2.10 million[3]
2021	2.03 million[4]
2022	3.61 million[5]
2023	3.76 million[6]
Key dates
9 September 1874	Opened (DR)
5 May 1878	Started "Super Outer Circle" (Midland)
30 September 1880	Ended "Super Outer Circle"
14 July 1965	Goods yard closed[7]
Other information
External links	TfL station info page Departures Facilities
Coordinates	51.4908°N 0.2063°W / 51.4908; -0.2063
London transport portal

The station is between Earl's Court and Barons Court and is in Travelcard Zone 2.

The station is situated in a cutting with the ticket office at street level.

History

The station was opened by the District Railway (DR, now the District line) on 9 September 1874 as 'North End (Fulham)'^[10][11] when it opened its extension from Earl's Court to Hammersmith. At that time the next station west was Hammersmith - Barons Court did not open until 1905. It was renamed West Kensington in 1877. Despite its name, the station is located in Hammersmith and Fulham.

On 5 May 1878, The Midland Railway began running a circuitous service known as the "Super Outer Circle" from St Pancras to Earl's Court via Cricklewood and South Acton. It operated over a now disused connection between the NLR and the London and South Western Railway's branch to Richmond (now part of the District line). The service was not a success and was ended on 30 September 1880.

The entrance building was rebuilt in 1927. The design, by Charles Holden, uses similar materials and finishes to those Holden used for the Northern line's Morden extension opened in 1926.

In 2009, because of financial constraints, TfL decided to stop work on a project to provide step-free access at West Kensington and five other stations, on the grounds that these are relatively quiet stations and some are already one or two stops away from an existing step-free station.^[12] Earl's Court and Hammersmith stations which have step-free access are respectively one stop to the east and two stops to the west. £5.05 million was spent on West Kensington before the project was halted.^[13]

Services

The off-peak service pattern is:

• 6 trains per hour to Ealing Broadway
• 6 tph to Richmond
• 12 tph to Upminster.

Connections

London Buses Routes 28, 306 and Night Route N28 serve the station.