If you were to wait for a southbound Northern line train at Bank tube station you might have noticed that a strange door has appeared on the wrong side of the railway tracks.

Seemingly hidden behind the metal rings that have very visibly been recently removed.

Looking totally out of place on the wrong side of the tracks you might not unreasonably wonder why its there, has it always been there, where does it go.

The door is in fact brand new, so why has the London Underground put a double-door on the wrong side of the tracks — after all no one can use it.

It’s all to do with the massive Bank station upgrade project which is seeing an entirely new tunnel dug right next to the current one, a new travolator added and lots more escalators.

As part of the upgrade, the existing southbound rail tunnel will have the railway filled in, and turned into a passenger corridor, with a link to the new southbound tunnels — which just happens to be on the other side of that door.

As they get closer to opening the new tunnels up, they are in various locations cutting into the existing station to create the new links, which you will be able to see in a number of locations along the Northern line and DLR.

This new door now leads to a corridor to the new southbound platform, and during construction works, they are required to put in place a fire door between the live railway and the new construction site.

Hence, the odd sight of a door in a wall where there reasonably shouldn’t be one.

In a couple of years, that door will vanish and an entirely new Northern line platform will open on the other side.

Northbound Northern line platform (c) TfL

To see more from the Bank station upgrade, click here.

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5 comments
  1. Ian Carter says:

    I believe this is exactly what they did at Angel station some years ago. Originally there was one dangerously narrow island platform with the tracks either side.

    • Jon Jones says:

      ..and at other places on the underground too. A similar trick was pulled at Euston when they built the Victoria lines. The Carto Metro Map is a useful resource to see all these changes.

  2. Melvyn says:

    I was at Bank Station today but obviously at wrong part of platform will need to look this up next time ..

    It’s noticeable how when leaving DLR trains passengers now walk on temporary metal floors and further holes between platform and subway can be spotted if you look up .. Images of the future show where passengers walk today betgween DLR platforms will become escalators down directly to the Northern Line replacing the current position where you go up escalators and then walk down stairs to reach the Northern Line .

    Hopefully a scheme like this although more akin to what happened at Angel Station will be used at Clapham stations to remove remaining narrow island platforms with step free access included.

  3. Marlaine Marday says:

    Upgrading the stations is great.
    It appears that during our journeys we end up walking a whole mile to reach the side we need.
    It’s equivalent to walking from 1 stop to the next.
    It’s not what I want after a 12hour shift.
    THANK you for understanding.

  4. Chris.Rogers says:

    Pity we have to have a 3m closure of the Bank branch next year to achieve it. Should be fun.

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