Wood Lane (Metropolitan Line) Tube Station - Overview

Overview

The two Wood Lane stations were opened in 1908 to serve the Franco-British Exhibition and the 1908 Summer Olympics in the area that was to become known as White City. Wood Lane (Metropolitan Line) opened on 1 May 1908 and Wood Lane (Central Line) opened on 14 May 1908. Both stations were intended to be temporary and to be closed after the exhibition. Wood Lane (Metropolitan Line) was closed on 31 October 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War.

The station was brought back into use on 5 May 1920, but was open only when an exhibition was being staged.

The Wood Lane station on the Central Line was closed and replaced by White City station to the north on 23 November 1947 and the Metropolitan Line station changed its name to "White City" on the same date.

Following a fire, in which one of the wooden platforms was destroyed, the station closed on 24 October 1959, and the BBC Television Centre development now runs on both sides of the railway. The station at viaduct level was demolished completely and little is left of it today. The original ticket office at ground level still remains, although it has been repainted and is not visible from public property.

The entrance from Wood Lane (and a main entrance to the exhibitions) was along a road which no longer exists, but ran approximately on the line of the entrance to the Television Centre multi-storey staff car park. The centre point of the original platforms can be located from trains as approximately opposite the largest of the BBC satellite dishes now to the west of the line.