Holloway Road Tube Station

Holloway Road Tube Station

Holloway Road is a station on the London Underground. It is on the Piccadilly Line between Caledonian Road and Arsenal stations, and in Travelcard Zone 2. The station opened on 15 December 1906.

The station was constructed by the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway and was built with two lift shafts, but only one was ever used for lifts. The second shaft was the site of an experimental spiral escalator which was built by the American inventor of escalators, Jesse W. Reno. The experiment was not successful and was never used by the public. In the 1990s, remains of the escalator equipment were excavated from the base of the lift shaft. These are stored at the London Transport Museum Depot in Acton. From the platforms, you can see a second exit which is no longer in use. This exit leads to the back of the used lift shaft.

The station is adjacent to the site of the former Holloway and Caledonian Road railway station.

The station is close to the new Emirates Stadium, the new home of Arsenal football club. As part of the planning permission £5m was due to be spent expanding the current station to cope with increased passenger numbers on match days. However subsequent studies showed that to ensure the station could cope with the numbers the lifts would have to be replaced with escalators which would cost £60m. As a result the redevelopment plans were put on hold and now at match times the station is exit only, and before a match eastbound trains do not call.