A Walk Through London's Liverpool Street Railway Station

Liverpool Street, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London. It is the London terminus of the West Anglia Main Line to Cambridge, the busier Great Eastern Main Line to Norwich, local and regional commuter trains serving east London and destinations in the East of England, and the Stansted Express to London Stansted Airport. It opened in 1874 as a replacement for the Great Eastern Railway's main London terminus, Bishopsgate station, subsequently converted into a goods yard. Liverpool Street was built as a dual-level station with an underground station opened in 1875 for the Metropolitan Railway, named Bishopsgate until 1909, when it was renamed Liverpool Street. An additional station called Bishopsgate (Low Level) existed on the main line just outside Liverpool Street from 1872 until 1916. During the First World War, Liverpool Street was a target of one of the deadliest daylight air raids by fixed-wing aircraft; the attack killed 162 people. In the build-up to the Second World War the station served as the terminus for thousands of child refugees arriving in London as part of the Kindertransport rescue mission. The station was modernised and rationalised between 1985 and 1992; at the same time the neighbouring Broad Street station was demolished and its lines redirected to Liverpool Street. As part of the project, the Broadgate development was constructed on the Broad Street site. Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the modified station in December 1991. The Underground station was damaged by the 1993 Bishopsgate bombing, and during the 7 July 2005 terrorist attacks seven passengers were killed when a bomb exploded aboard an Underground train just after it had left Liverpool Street. With over 58 million passenger entries and exits in 2012-13, Liverpool Street is one of the busiest railway stations in the United Kingdom and is the third busiest in London after Waterloo and Victoria. It is one of 19 UK stations managed directly by Network Rail. It has three main exits: to Liverpool Street, after which the station is named, to Bishopsgate, and to the Broadgate development to the west of the station. The Underground station is served by the Central, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, and is in fare zone 1.