Farringdon station

Farringdon (/ˈfærɪŋdən/) is an interchange station located in Clerkenwell, London, England, in the London Borough of Islington, just outside the boundary of the City of London for London Underground, Elizabeth line and National Rail services. It is in London fare zone 1.

The London Underground station is on the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines, between King's Cross St Pancras and Barbican stations. The Elizabeth line station is between Tottenham Court Road and Liverpool Street stations. The National Rail station is on the Thameslink route between St Pancras and City Thameslink.

Opened in 1863 as the terminus of the Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground passenger railway, Farringdon is one of the oldest surviving underground railway stations in the world.

The station was opened on 10 January 1863 as the terminus of the original Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground metro line. The station, initially named Farringdon Street, was originally a short distance from the present station building. The line ran from the Farringdon area to Paddington, a distance of 4 mi (6 km).

The station was relocated on 23 December 1865 when the Metropolitan Railway opened an extension to Moorgate. It was renamed Farringdon & High Holborn on 26 January 1922 when the new building by the architect Charles Walter Clark facing Cowcross Street was opened, and its present name was adopted on 21 April 1936. It was built in conjunction with a freight station to take livestock to a slaughterhouse to its south-east to supply Smithfield Market; remains of cattle ramps on a street outside the market, West Smithfield. Smithfield was redesignated as a wholesale 'deadmeat' market in the 19th century and the freight station was last used in the 1920s.

The lines from Farringdon towards King's Cross St. Pancras run alongside the Fleet ditch, culverted since 1734. The station building is unusually well-preserved early 20th-century London Underground architecture. It retains indications of the Metropolitan Railway's main-line style operation such as a sign for a parcel office on the outer wall and some original signage, with the 1922–1936 name on the facade.

After the bay platforms at Blackfriars closed on 21 March 2009, Southeastern services that previously terminated at Blackfriars were extended to Kentish Town, St. Albans, Luton or Bedford, calling at this station. Thameslink trains to Moorgate ceased at the same time.

Farringdon has recently received significant upgrades to allow it to meet the needs of a series of major rail upgrade projects: The Thameslink Programme was a major upgrade to the existing north-south Thameslink route, enabling longer and more frequent trains, completed in 2018; and the Four Lines Modernisation involves the wholesale resignalling of the London Underground's sub-surface lines bringing a major boost in capacity to Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan line services calling at Farringdon. In addition the station has been significantly expanded to serve as a stop on the new east-west Elizabeth line providing interchange between Thameslink and the Elizabeth line.