History
The station was opened on 3 August 1840 as part of the London and Blackwall Railway, located in the parish of Stepney within the hamlet of Ratcliff. It was named Stepney, lying between Shadwell and a completely different station called "Limehouse", located within the Limehouse parish. On 28 September 1850 an extension was opened from Stepney to Bow, to join the L&BR with the Eastern Counties Railway, with a second set of platforms (the present-day platforms 1 & 2) constructed to serve that line.
The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway was opened in 1854 and it eventually became the sole railway using the Bow platforms. The station was renamed Stepney East on 1 July 1923. The London & Blackwall Railway platforms were closed on 3 May 1926 as passenger services were withdrawn, leaving the LTSR as the only railway regularly serving the station. The L&BR platforms were demolished c. 1936 and the line gradually fell into disuse.
The station remained LTSR-only for over sixty years, until the arrival of the Docklands Light Railway, which operated over the old L&BR line. The DLR opened on 31 July 1987, with new platforms (platforms 3 & 4) built on the site of the old L&BR platforms; the station had been renamed Limehouse on 11 May that year. The DLR platforms were extended in 1991 to accommodate the DLR's new two-carriage trains.
Since the opening of the DLR, Limehouse has become a useful interchange for Essex commuters who work in the Canary Wharf area, but the two viaducts remained separate, resulting in an awkward interchange between the DLR platforms and the National Rail platforms, as passengers had to pass down and then up flights of stairs. To remedy this, at least in part, a bridge was built to connect the westbound c2c platform with the adjacent eastbound DLR platform. It was originally due for completion by the end of 2008, but was finally opened in November 2009. At the same time as the bridge was being built, other improvements were made, including readying the station for three carriage operations on the DLR and the construction of an additional eastern entrance, with lifts and stairways for platform access.
Read more about this topic: Limehouse Station
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