Green Park tube station

History and structure

The station was opened on 15 December 1906 by the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR), the precursor of the Piccadilly line. When the station was rebuilt in 1933 with escalator access to the platforms, a new sub-surface ticket hall was built to the west under the roadway and new station entrances were constructed on the corner of Piccadilly and Stratton Street and on the south side of Piccadilly. The station name was changed at this time.

With the rebuilding of the station and similar works at Hyde Park Corner, the little-used Piccadilly line station between the two at Down Street was taken out of use.

The Victoria line platforms opened on 7 March 1969; interchange between that line and the Piccadilly line was via the ticket hall (without having to pass through the exit barriers). Even today changing between the Jubilee and Victoria lines and the Piccadilly line involves a long walk.

The Jubilee line platforms opened on 1 May 1979, at which time the next station south on the Jubilee line was its then southern terminus, Charing Cross; those platforms were closed when the Jubilee line was extended on a new alignment towards Westminster, during the same time that interchange facilities at Green Park were improved. When travelling south from Green Park on the Jubilee line, Green Park Junction, where the new line diverges from the old, is visible from the train. While passenger services no longer operate to Charing Cross on the Jubilee line, the old line is used regularly to reverse trains when the eastern part of the line is closed due to engineering works.

On 9 October 1975, terrorists belonging to the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb outside Green Park tube station, killing 23-year-old Graham Ronald Tuck. Similar attacks during The Troubles resulted in deaths at West Ham station in 1976 and Victoria station in 1991.

Step-free access project

In 2008 TfL proposed a project to provide step-free access to all three lines. The project was a TfL-funded Games-enabling project in its investment programme (and not a project specifically funded as a result of the success of the London 2012 Games bid). The project was included in the strategy on accessible transport published by the London 2012 Olympic Delivery Authority and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Work commenced in May 2009 to install two lifts from the ticket hall to the Victoria line platforms and an existing interchange passageway giving access to the Piccadilly and Jubilee lines platforms from the lower lift lobby. This work was completed ahead of schedule in August 2011 when the new lifts were brought into service, along with a third lift between street level on the south side of Piccadilly and the ticket hall. All platforms have level access to the trains, making the station fully accessible (the first one within the Circle line).

There is also a new ramp from the ticket hall into the park featuring green walls and a stunning canopy above the staircase and lift on the south side of Piccadilly, the new street structures featuring artwork within the Portland stone cladding designed by John Maine RA. The Diana Fountain was relocated from its original site in the centre of the park to form the centrepiece of the new entrance.

Platform level tiling

The stations along the central part of the Piccadilly line, as well as the Bakerloo and some sections of what is now the Northern line, were financed by Charles Yerkes, and are famous for the Leslie Green-designed deep red station buildings, and distinctive platform tiling. Each station had its own unique tile pattern and colours. The remains of the tile rings can still be seen at Green Park.

There is a unique pattern to the tiles between the Jubilee and Piccadilly line platforms – there are several silver tiles at the Jubilee line end of the tunnel, which are gradually replaced by dark blue tiles at the end of the tunnel with the Piccadilly line platforms.

In popular culture

The opening scene of the 1997 film version of Henry James's The Wings of the Dove was set on the east-bound platforms at both Dover Street and Knightsbridge stations, both represented by the same studio mock-up, complete with a working recreation of a 1906 Stock train.

Connections

London Buses routes 9, 14, 19, 22, 38 and C2 serve the station.