Seven Sisters Station - History

History

The station was constructed by the Great Eastern Railway (GER) on its Stoke Newington & Edmonton Railway line and opened on 22 July 1872. On 1 January 1878, the GER opened a branch line, the Palace Gates Line, from Seven Sisters station to Palace Gates (Wood Green) station to the north-west.

Due to unprofitability, the Palace Gates Line was closed by British Rail in 1963 and the branch line track and platforms at Seven Sisters have been removed.

The first section of the Victoria Line opened on 1 September 1968 serving Seven Sisters, although a shared entrance and interchange facilities with the surface station were not opened until December 1968. The original GER entrance to the station was situated in West Green Road at the north end of the surface station, but the new combined entrance was opened in Seven Sisters Road at the south end on the site of a former wood merchants yard, connecting to the west end of the Victoria Line platforms. The original (1872) entrance was closed at that time.

A second entrance at the east end includes the main Victoria Line ticket hall, and is accessed via subways on each side of High Road just north of the junction with Seven Sisters Road. There are three Victoria Line platforms at Seven Sisters: with one platform (platform 4) reserved for services which terminate at the station to return to the depot or reverse back into central London, although a connection is available for trains to continue to Walthamstow Central.

The section of Victoria Line between Seven Sisters and Finsbury Park stations is the longest between adjacent stations in deep level tunnels on the London Underground network. During the planning phase of the Victoria Line, thought was given to converting Manor House into a Victoria Line station and diverting the Piccadilly Line in new tunnels directly from Finsbury Park to Turnpike Lane, but the inconvenience this would cause, as well as the cost, ensured that this idea was abandoned.

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