While Barbican is a London Underground station situated near the Barbican Estate, it has been known by various names since its opening in 1865, mostly in reference to the neighbouring ward of Aldersgate.

The station was opened with the name Aldersgate Street on the Moorgate extension from Farringdon. It was built on the site of an earlier building at 134 Aldersgate Street, which for many years had a sign claiming 'This was Shakespeare's House'.

The station, which has no surface building, had its name shortened to Aldersgate on 1 November 1910 and was renamed again on 24 October 1924 as Aldersgate & Barbican. On 1 December 1968 the station's name was simplified to Barbican.

Train services were disrupted during the Second World War when the station suffered severe bomb damage in the Blitz. This led to the removal of the upper floors, and in 1955 the remainder of the street-level building was also demolished. The glass roof was replaced with awnings. This urged John Betjeman to write his poem 'Monody on the Death of Aldersgate Station'.

Passenger trains from the Great Northern line, via the York Road and Hotel curves at King's Cross to the Widened Lines, ran until the Great Northern's electrification on 1976. The City Widened Lines were renamed the Moorgate line when overhead electrification was installed in 1982, allowing the Midland City Line service to run from Bedford via the Midland Main Line to Moorgate on the Thameslink service. The Thameslink platforms at Barbican were closed again in March 2009 as part of the Thameslink Programme to allow Farringdon to have its main line platforms extended across Thameslink's Moorgate branch.

Barbican now serves Underground lines only.



Attribution: https://the-underground-map.myshopify.com/

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