| Summary : Farringdon Street station was the 'City' terminus of the Metropolitan Railway's four mile underground passenger railway from Bishops Road, Paddington. An unsavoury area of narrow alleys and yards used for the slaughter of animals from the nearby Smithfield live-meat market was claeared to build the terminus with a station located at the corner of Farringdon Road and Cowcross Street. For the Metropolitan Railway's extension to Moorgate Street, opened on 23rd December 1865, a new building was erected at Farringdon, fronting onto New Charles Street, east of the temporary terminus. Within the white Suffolk brick structure, ticket halls and booking offices for the various railway companies serving the station were placed each side of a refreshemnt room. At the rear the halls were linked by a circulating area with doorways onto the departure gallery for the island and two side platforms. To the north west of this was a separate exit gallery (since removed), the ends of which were aligned with stairs and walkways in the cutting retaining walls, giving access on the southbound side direct to Turnmill Street and on the northbound side back through the station building to Charles Street. Passengers were sheltered from the elements by a twin-arch elliptical wrought-iron roof with 11 bays each 22ft long. In 1923 the station building to Cowcross Stret was rebuilt to the designs of Charles Clark. It is constructed from brick faced with white faience and some granite dressings; to the front of the building is a glazed roof. The station is now shared by London Underground and Network Rail under LRT management. |