Liverpool Street station, also called London Liverpool Street, is a mainline railway station in the north of the City of London, on Bishopsgate. It was opened in 1874 by the Great Eastern Railway, whose chief engineer, Edward Wilson, designed it. It was built on the site of the original Bethlem Royal Hospital. The adjoining Great Eastern Hotel was designed by Charles Barry (junior) (son of Sir Charles Barry) and his brother Edward Middleton Barry. The station was extensively modified between 1985 and 1992.

Liverpool Street services destinations to eastern England including London Stansted Airport, Cambridge, Norwich, Ipswich, Chelmsford, Colchester, Braintree, and the port of Harwich. A daily express train to Harwich connects with the ferry from Harwich to Hoek van Holland.

To clear up any potential confusion, especially for foreign visitors: trains from Liverpool Street do not go to Liverpool. For that city Euston is the London terminus.

There are currently three mainline train operators serving Liverpool Street:

• Anglia Railways - long distance expresses to Norwich, Harwich boat trains and occasional through trains to other destinations in East Anglia
• First Great Eastern - suburban and medium distance services on the Norwich mainline as far North as Ipswich and branch lines in East Essex
• WAGN - suburban and medium distance services on the West Anglia Line via Hackney Downs as far as Enfield, Hertford East, Chingford, Stansted Airport and Cambridge

In the near future, one operator will be awarded the franchise (the Greater East Anglia franchise) to provide all passenger services from Liverpool Street. Currently, the bidders are National Express Group who own WAGN, and GB Railways who own Anglia Railways. First Group (owners of First Great Eastern) had submitted a bid, but were rejected at an early stage, despite being the best performing of the three Liverpool Street mainline services.

The connected London Underground station has surface-level platforms on the Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines. Below the station are platforms for east and westbound Central Line services. Current plans for the Crossrail service would see a new station at Liverpool Street (with full mainline and underground connections).

The Central Line platforms opened on July 28, 1912.

See also

• Charing Cross
• Euston
• Fenchurch Street
• Kings Cross
• London Bridge
• Marylebone
• Paddington
• St Pancras
• Victoria
• Waterloo

• British railway system
• UK topics