Cockfosters tube station
{{short description|London Underground station}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2012}}
{{Infobox London station
| name = Cockfosters
| symbol = underground
| manager = London Underground
| locale = Cockfosters
| borough = London Borough of Enfield/London Borough of Barnet
| platforms = 4
| tracks = 3
| fare_zone = 5
| image_name = Cockfosters tube at night Feb 2020 02.jpg
| caption = Station entrance
| coordinates = {{coord|51.6516|-0.1488|type:railwaystation_region:GB|display=inline,title}}
| years1 = {{start date|1933|07|31|df=y}}
| events1 = Opened (Piccadilly line)
| listing_grade = II
| listing_start = 26 May 1987
| listing_entry = 1358718
| listing_reference= {{NHLE | num=1358718 | desc=COCKFOSTERS LONDON REGIONAL TRANSPORT STATION INCLUDING PLATFORMS AND PLATFORM CANOPIES | access-date=15 April 2018 }}
| access = yes
| access_note = {{cite map/Standard Tube Map}}
}}
Cockfosters ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|ɒ|k|ˌ|f|ɒ|s|t|ər|z}}) is a London Underground station. It is located on Cockfosters Road (A111) approximately nine miles ({{convert|9|mi|disp=output only}}) from central London and serves Cockfosters. It is on the boundary of the London Borough of Barnet and the London Borough of Enfield. It is the northern terminus of the Piccadilly line and the next station towards south is Oakwood. The station is in Travelcard Zone 5.
History
The station opened on 31 July 1933, the last of the stations on the extension of the line from Finsbury Park to do so and four months after Oakwood station (then called Enfield West) opened.{{sfn|Horne|2007|p=90}} Prior to its opening, Trent Park and Cock Fosters (an early spelling of the area's name) were suggested as alternative station names. The original site hoarding displayed the name as a single word.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}
The station was designed by Charles Holden in a modern European style using brick, glass and reinforced concrete.{{cite news|last=Paulsen|first=Ingvild|title=Undergrunnsarkitektur|newspaper=Dagens Næringsliv|date=14 June 2003|page=28|language=no}} Compared with the other new stations Holden designed for the extension, Cockfosters' street buildings are modest in scale, lacking the mass of Oakwood or Arnos Grove or the avant-garde flourish of Southgate. Holden's early design sketches show the station with two towers.{{cite web |url=http://www.architecture.com/LibraryDrawingsAndPhotographs/Exhibitionsandloans/VARIBAArchitecturePartnershipexhibitions/UndergroundJourneys/ChangingthefaceofLondonUnderground/Cockfosters.aspx |title=Underground Journeys: Cockfosters |publisher=Royal Institute of British Architects |access-date=20 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707161516/http://www.architecture.com/LibraryDrawingsAndPhotographs/Exhibitionsandloans/VARIBAArchitecturePartnershipexhibitions/UndergroundJourneys/ChangingthefaceofLondonUnderground/Cockfosters.aspx |archive-date=7 July 2011 }} The most striking feature of the station is the tall concrete and glass trainshed roof and platform canopies, which are supported by portal frames of narrow blade-like concrete columns and beams rising from the platforms and spanning across the tracks. The trainshed roof constructed at Uxbridge from 1937 to 1938 was built to a similar design. Cockfosters station is a Grade II listed building.
The station has three tracks with platforms numbered 1 to 4, the centre track being served from both sides by platforms 2 and 3. This is an example of the so-called Spanish solution. Most eastbound Piccadilly trains terminate here, although some terminate at Arnos Grove or Oakwood, particularly in peak hours or in the evenings. Some trains may even terminate at Wood Green; however, this is only used very early in the morning or in emergency situations. Cockfosters depot is located between Oakwood and Cockfosters and trains can enter or leave it from either direction.{{cite map |url=http://carto.metro.free.fr/documents/CartoMetroLondon.v3.7.pdf|title=Greater London Transport Tracks Map |work=CartoMetro London Edition |version=3.7 |last=Jarrier |first=Franklin |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726123826/http://carto.metro.free.fr/documents/CartoMetroLondon.v3.7.pdf |archive-date=26 July 2020 |access-date=5 August 2020}}
In September 2020, works to provide step-free access were completed with a lift providing access to the platform, making Cockfosters the 80th accessible Tube station.{{Cite web|last=Desborough|first=Jenny|date=30 June 2017|title=Two stations in north London to go step-free by 2020|url=https://www.times-series.co.uk/news/15383006.two-stations-north-london-go-step-free-2020/|access-date=9 October 2020|website=Times Series|language=en}}{{Cite web|date=12 February 2020|title=Step free access|url=https://www.london.gov.uk/questions/2020/0359|access-date=9 October 2020|website=London Assembly}}{{Cite web|date=12 October 2020|title=Cockfosters becomes 80th step-free London Underground station|url=https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2020/october/cockfosters-becomes-80th-step-free-london-underground-station|access-date=13 October 2020|website=Transport for London|language=en-GB}}
Future property development
In the late 2010s, the station car park at Cockfosters was proposed by Transport for London's property arm Places for London for property development, as part of TfL's plans to increase the amount of income generated from land in their ownership.{{Cite web|title=Property Development - Projects and communities|url=https://www.tfl.gov.uk/info-for/business-and-commercial/communities|access-date=4 October 2020|website=Transport for London|language=en-GB}}{{Cite web|date=13 September 2018|title=TfL in rental flats debut with homes above Tube stations|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/business/tfl-in-rental-flats-plan-with-homes-above-tube-stations-as-it-looks-to-raise-money-a3934831.html|access-date=4 October 2020|website=London Evening Standard|language=en}} By September 2020, it was proposed that over 350 new homes (with 40% affordable homes) would be built on the current car park at the station by TfL and Grainger.{{Cite web|title=Give My View - Cockfosters|url=https://www.givemyview.com/cockfosters/faq|access-date=9 October 2020|website=Give my view|language=en}} The plans also included new public space, cycle parking and dedicated disabled car parking spaces.{{Cite web|date=28 January 2020|title=Cockfosters Station car park plans revealed|url=https://enfielddispatch.co.uk/cockfosters-station-car-park-plans-revealed/|access-date=9 October 2020|website=Enfield Dispatch|language=en-GB}} The proposal was criticised due to the loss of Tube car parking and the amount of new homes proposed on the site.{{Cite web|last=Villiers|first=Theresa|date=27 June 2019|title=Villiers to fight TfL plan to build over Cockfosters station car park|url=https://www.theresavilliers.co.uk/news/villiers-fight-tfl-plan-build-over-cockfosters-station-car-park|access-date=9 October 2020|website=Theresa Villiers MP|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Elvery|first=Martin|date=7 July 2020|title='Atrocious' towers on Cockfosters Tube station car park would 'destroy the area'|url=https://www.mylondon.news/news/north-london-news/enfield-campaigners-say-atrocious-plan-18552221|access-date=9 October 2020|website=MyLondon}}
Despite approval from the local council, the development was blocked by Conservative Transport Secretary Grant Shapps in 2022, following campaigning by local residents and MP Theresa Villiers.{{Cite news |last=Lees |first=Martina |date=2023 |title=Theresa Villiers interview: If we keep building, we'll turn our suburbs into east Berlin |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/theresa-villiers-interview-if-we-keep-building-well-turn-our-suburbs-into-east-berlin-9sjzh6zxn |newspaper=The Times |language=en |issn=0140-0460}}{{Cite web |last=Salisbury |first=Josh |date=2022-03-11 |title=Grant Shapps blocks TfL proposal for flats by Cockfosters Tube |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/grant-shapps-cockfosters-tube-station-tfl-flats-b987586.html |access-date=2024-09-03 |website=Evening Standard |language=en}} In September 2024, Labour Transport Secretary Louise Haigh approved the development.{{cite news |last1=Prior |first1=Grant |date=2 September 2024 |title=Tube station housing plan gets Government green light |url=https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2024/09/03/tube-station-housing-plans-get-government-green-light/ |access-date=3 September 2024 |work=Construction Enquirer}}
Nearby attractions
- Trent Park
- The "London LOOP" walk uses the station's foot tunnel to cross Cockfosters Road.
In popular culture
Cockfosters tube station features prominently in the novel While England Sleeps by American author David Leavitt. One of the novel's protagonists is writing a book entitled The Train to Cockfosters.{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-03-bk-41528-story.html | work=Los Angeles Times| first=D.T. | last=Max | date=3 October 1993 | title=The Lost Language of Leavitt : WHILE ENGLAND SLEEPS By David Leavitt (Viking: $22; 304 pp.) }}
A commercial for Foster's lager shown on UK television in the 1980s features Paul Hogan sitting in an Underground station near to a Japanese man who is looking at the Tube map on the wall. The man asks Hogan, "Can you tell me the way to Cockfosters?", to which Hogan replies, "Drink it warm, mate".{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSOR2jGv2uc|title=Paul Hogan Cockfosters commercial|website=YouTube}}
Connections
London Buses routes 298, 299, 384, school routes 692, 699 and night bus N91 serve the station.{{Cite web|url=https://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/cockfosters-a4-131117.pdf|title=Buses from Cockfosters|date=13 November 2017|website=TfL|access-date=22 August 2021}}
Gallery
File:CockfostersExterior better.jpg|Main (east) entrance
File:Cockfosters (1) 02.jpg|Main entrance
File:Cockfosters (1) 03.jpg|West entrance
File:Cockfosters (1) 04.jpg|Subway leading to west entrance
File:Cockfosters (1) 05.jpg|Concourse with original ticket booth
File:Cockfosters interior.jpg|Concourse with original clock
File:Cockfosters (1) 09.jpg|Platform 3
References
Citations
{{Reflist}}
Sources
{{refbegin}}
- {{cite book|last=Horne|first=Mike|title=The Piccadilly Line|year=2007|publisher=Capital Transport|isbn=978-1-85414-305-1}}
{{refend}}
External links
{{commons category|Cockfosters tube station}}
- [https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/photographs London Transport Museum Photographic Archive]
- {{LTM archive|1998-61241|Cockfosters station, 1934}}
- {{LTM archive|1998-87996|View of platform showing concrete structure and glazed screens, 1933}}
- {{LTM archive|1998-88893|Long view of trainshed and canopies spanning three tracks, 1935}}
- {{LTM archive|1998-61248|Bus shelter and subway entrance opposite station, 1935}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110707161516/http://www.architecture.com/LibraryDrawingsAndPhotographs/Exhibitionsandloans/VARIBAArchitecturePartnershipexhibitions/UndergroundJourneys/ChangingthefaceofLondonUnderground/Cockfosters.aspx Early sketch design by Charles Holden], 1931, Royal Institute of British Architects
{{Adjacent stations|system=London Underground|line=Piccadilly|left=Oakwood}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cockfosters Tube Station}}
Category:Piccadilly line stations
Category:London Underground Night Tube stations
Category:Tube stations in the London Borough of Enfield
Category:Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Enfield
Category:Grade II listed railway stations
Category:Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1933