History
Canada Water was originally intended to be a stop on the aborted Fleet Line Extension to Thamesmead. The extension was never built, but Canada Water became the only projected Fleet Line Extension station to be realised on the Jubilee Line Extension.
The station is a wholly new building on a derelict site formerly occupied by Albion Dock, part of the old Surrey Commercial Docks. The station was one of the first designed for the Jubilee Line Extension. The contract for the station's construction was initially awarded to Wimpey in 1993 for the sum of £21.3 million and was later taken over by Tarmac (now Carillion). Construction began in 1995. It proved extremely challenging, requiring the excavation (by cut-and-cover) of a void 150 m (490 ft) long, 23 m (75 ft) wide and 22 m (72 ft) deep. The building of the East London Line station required a separate slot at right angles, 130 m (430 ft) long, 13 m (43 ft) deep and tapering in width, incorporating a Victorian railway tunnel. Construction was complicated by the high water table on the site, which is located on the Thames flood plain; extensive deep-well dewatering was required to lower the water table before the enclosure to the excavations could be built. A total of 120,000 m³ (4,237,760 ft³) of spoil had to be excavated. An additional complication was the location of the excavation site, near the foundations of two existing 22-storey tower blocks and the northern end of the former Canada Dock, now the ornamental lake Canada Water. The section of East London line running through the station was completely reconstructed, with the 19th-century brick railway tunnel being dismantled and the track relaid over a new structure bridging the Jubilee line tracks below. As the East London line had to be closed for this work, London Underground took the opportunity to carry out other remedial works such as repairs to the Thames Tunnel, a short distance to the north.
It was opened on 19 August 1999, served initially by East London line trains. The Jubilee line passenger service from the station began on 17 September 1999
In 2012, it was used as a filming location for part of the pilot episode of the BBC/Cinemax British-American spy drama, Hunted (TV series).
Read more about this topic: Canada Water Station
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