As many regular daily commuters alight at the peculiar station under St Paul’s, many others on the train may not know where exactly they are. The train station is in the beating heart of the City on Fleet Street and is unique for a range of reasons….
City Thameslink is an elusive station that everyone has a question or two about: why is it named like that? Why does only one type of train stop there? So we thought we’d share with you these facts about City Thameslink station and answer some of those burning questions. Or if you’d like, you can check out our video about the station.
The name:
The Square Mile is… well, around one mile square. That’s quite a big place, so why is the station only called “City”? The station was previously named St Paul’s Thameslink due to its proximity to the City’s icon, but it was renamed back in 1991, one year after its opening in 1990, to avoid confusion with the Central Line’s St Paul's station.
When the Thameslink franchise was taken over back in 2006 they then removed Thameslink from the station name, but public disapproval saw the name reappear due to it being deemed ‘distinctive’ and ‘useful’.
A romantic walk idea? A view of Blackfriars Bridge during an Illuminated River walk. © James Newton / Illuminated River
The history:
City Thameslink was originally intended to be the site of the new Ludgate Circus station on the Fleet Line (now the Jubilee Line), but this project was dropped in 1970. It is one of the very few stations within central London that has no interchange with the underground, which is partially why the name was changed from St Pauls.
The station finally opened in 1990, and because of its immediate financial success, the station was even developed to have an interchange with the underground, which still stands to this day (but sadly was never used).
The station underwent a big redevelopment in 2010 to allow for new signalling and larger trains due to high footfall, and in 2014 it was suggested that an underground walkway should be created to link St Paul's on the Central line to both Luton and Gatwick airports.
The Route:
For a small station on Fleet Street, you can go to a LOT of places from City Thameslink.
The station is considered a London terminus for ticketing purposes even though it’s through-only. The station is part of the Thameslink route running through London, with this station being used only by Thameslink trains and no other operators.
The routes going from City Thameslink span across the country, reaching as far north as Luton, Bedford and Peterborough, or as far south as Brighton on the coast. You can even reach both Luton and Gatwick airports directly from City Thameslink!
Travelling through the station multiple days per week can make it harder to stop and appreciate what is right in front of us, it can be easy to forget that the City hosts many of the country’s greatest transportation wonders such as the much-loved (or not) Bank station, home to the famous Waterloo & City line.
Now you know more about this interesting piece of City architecture, make sure to find out what else the City has to offer visitors here.
View this post on Instagram