Arsenal is a stop on the London Underground Piccadilly Line in North London between
Finsbury Park and
Holloway Road.
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| 1973 Tube Stock arrives at Arsenal |
| Information |
| Type: |
Transport for London (London Underground Piccadilly Line) |
| Station code: |
ZAS |
| Opened: |
1906 |
| Platforms: |
2 |
The station was opened as
Gillespie Road in 1906 by the Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway. In 1913 Arsenal Football Club moved from Woolwich to nearby Highbury. A campaign to rename the tube station after the club began, the station was renamed
Arsenal (Highbury Hill) in 1932 though still carries the original station name on some platform tiles (see below). The final name change to just Arsenal was in about 1960. This is the only tube station named after a football club (no
West Ham doesn't count!)
The station was rebuilt and expanded in the 1930s, the original station building replaced by a larger more modern design. Arsenal station has no lifts or escalators instead, unusually for a deep level tube station, access between the surface and platform level is via a long sloped ramp [1]. An extra access tunnel was built during the 1930s rebuilding to handle the greater flow of passengers on match days. A unique tidal flow system is fitted to the ramps to allow people to still get down to the platform when loads of football supporters are coming up the other way (and vice versa of course!)
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| View down one of the platforms |
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| View down the other platform |
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| Current and original name |
[1] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 100
