Aldgate Tube Station - History

History

The station was opened on 18 November 1876 with the southbound extension to Tower Hill opening on 25 September 1882, completing the Circle. Services from Aldgate originally ran far further west than they do now, reaching as far as Richmond, and trains also used to run from Aldgate to Hammersmith (the Hammersmith & City line now bypasses the station). It became the terminus of the Metropolitan line only in 1941. Before that, Metropolitan trains had continued on to the southern termini of the East London Line.

In 2005, one of the four bombs in the 7 July 2005 London bombings was detonated at 8:49 a.m. by Shehzad Tanweer on a Circle line train that had left Liverpool Street and was close to Aldgate. Seven commuters were killed in the explosion: Anne Moffatt, 46, Lee Baisden, 34, Benedetta Ciaccia, 30, Richard Ellery, 22, Richard Gray, 41, Carrie Louise Taylor, 24, and Fiona Stevenson, 29. Of the tube stations affected by the bombings, Aldgate was the first to be reopened, once police had handed back control of the site to London Underground following the extensive search for evidence. Once the damaged tunnel was repaired by Metronet engineers, the line was reopened, also allowing the Metropolitan line to be fully restored, since the closure had meant all trains had terminated two stations early at Moorgate.