Angel is a London Underground station in the Angel area of the London Borough of Islington. It is on the Bank branch of the Northern line, between King's Cross St. Pancras and Old Street stations, in Travelcard Zone 1.^[6] The station was originally built by the City & South London Railway (C&SLR) and opened on 17 November 1901. The station served as a terminus until the line was extended to Euston on 12 May 1907.

Quick Facts Location, Local authority ...

Angel
Entrance of the post-1992 Angel station on Islington High Street. The building above has since been demolished.
Angel Location of Angel in Central London
Location	Angel
Local authority	London Borough of Islington
Managed by	London Underground
Number of platforms	2
Fare zone	1
London Underground annual entry and exit
2018	17.02 million[1]
2019	17.71 million[2]
2020	5.26 million[3]
2021	7.26 million[4]
2022	12.37 million[5]
Key dates
17 November 1901 (1901-11-17)	Opened
1990–92	Rebuilt
Other information
External links	TfL station info page
Coordinates	51.532°N 0.106°W / 51.532; -0.106
London transport portal

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The station was rebuilt between 1989 and 1992 to accommodate the large number of passengers using the station. As a result, it has an extra-wide southbound platform, surfaced over the original island platform which served both north- and south-bound trains. The station has the longest escalators on the Underground network,^[7][8][9] and the fourth-longest in Western Europe.^[10][11][12]

It is a candidate station on the proposed Crossrail 2 line from north Surrey and south-west London to south-east Hertfordshire.

On Islington High Street, the station provides access to several nearby Off West End or Fringe theatre venues including the Old Red Lion Theatre, Sadler's Wells Theatre, the King's Head Theatre and the Almeida Theatre.^[13] It is the nearest station to City University's main campus, Chapel Market,^[13] and the antiques market and dealers of Camden Passage. Between Angel and Old Street is the disused City Road station.^[14]

Angel station was originally built by the City & South London Railway (C&SLR), and opened on 17 November 1901^{[note 1]} as the northern terminus of a new extension from Moorgate.^[17][18] The station building was designed by Sydney Smith and was on the corner of City Road and Torrens Street.^[19] On 12 May 1907, the C&SLR opened a further extension from Angel to Euston^[17] and Angel became a through station.^[18]

As with many of the C&SLR's stations, it was originally built with a single central island platform serving two tracks in a single tunnel^[7] – an arrangement still seen at Clapham North and Clapham Common. Access to the platforms from street level was via three Euston Anderson electric lifts before the rebuilding of the station. When the C&SLR line was closed for tunnel reconstruction in the early 1920s to accommodate larger trains,^[17] the station façade was reclad with tiling and the lifts were replaced by new ones from Otis.^[19]

The station's ticket hall has a sculpture of an angel by Kevin Boys.

When Angel was first opened, a long dead-end siding was provided for train stabling, converging from the left onto the northbound line just south of the station.^[14][29] This was retained over the years but eventually it was closed on 23 January 1959 (along with the signal box at the south end of the platform) to simplify through running.^[14] The siding lay derelict and unused until the rebuilding scheme.^[14] Part of the siding was used as the northbound diversion tunnel, which branched off the existing northbound line, cut through into the end of the siding and continued along it until it branched off left to the new northbound platform.^{[14][note 3]}

Train frequencies vary throughout the day, but generally operate every 3–6 minutes between 06:03 and 00:25 in both directions.^{[30][31][note 4]}

London Bus routes and night routes serve the station.^[32][33]

Angel is a proposed station on the Crossrail 2 (Chelsea-Hackney line) project,^[34][35] providing an interchange between Crossrail 2 and the Northern line. Depending on the route constructed, it would be between King's Cross St. Pancras and Dalston Junction or Hackney Central.^[34] It was officially safeguarded as part of the route in 2007, although there had been proposals for a route for some time previously and safeguarding had been in place since 1991.^[35]

The station's escalators and the southbound platform were featured in the Bollywood hit film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.^[36][37][38]

The station was the subject of a 1989 episode of the 40 Minutes BBC documentary series titled 'Heart of the Angel'.^[20] The programme depicted everyday life in the station just a few months before its closure for rebuilding. The programme depicted the staff's daily struggles with overcrowding, frequent lift breakdowns and dealing with constant complaints from passengers. The interiors of the original station building and the old island platform are clearly shown in the footage, as is the construction site of the adjacent Angel Square development which would incorporate the new station's escalator shafts and ticket hall.