Wikipedia tells us:
"Lancaster Gate is a London
Underground station located on the Central Line near Lancaster Gate on Bayswater
Road in Bayswater (City of Westminster), to the north of Kensington Gardens. It
is between Queensway and Marble Arch on the Central line and is in Travelcard
Zone 1.
History:
Lancaster Gate station
was opened on 30 July 1900 by the Central London Railway (now the Central line).
The original station building was typical of the work of the line's original
architect Harry Bell Measures. It was demolished and a new surface building
constructed as part of the development above in 1968. The development was
designed by T P Bennett & Son as an office block but converted soon after
into a hotel. In 2004-05 the lower floors of the hotel were re-clad in white
stone to a design by Eric Parry Architects. The hotel received planning
permission for the re-cladding to include the station façade, but this did not
proceed.
Renovation:
The station was
closed from 3 July 2006 until 13 November 2006, so that the lifts and station
could be refurbished. The station's chronic lift failures were considered by
Transport for London to be a safety hazard and an inconvenience to passengers.
Passenger numbers have increased over the years and as a result the station's
small ticket hall area is often severely congested, especially at the weekends
due to the numerous hotels in the area.
Location:
Despite its name, the
station is close to the Marlborough Gate entrance to Hyde Park/Kensington
Gardens, about 300m to the east of the Lancaster Gate entrance.
The station is within walking
distance of Paddington station, providing a convenient interchange between the
Central line and the mainline station, although this is not highlighted on the
Underground map but conveniently made known by the automatic announcement just
before leaving the lifts at street level. Transport for London's September 2011
report "Central London Rail Termini: Analysing passengers' onward travel
patterns" is based on a survey which failed to include Lancaster Gate as a means
of getting from Paddington to destinations on the Central line.
Transport links:
London bus
routes 46 (to the north), 274 (to the east), and 94, 148 and 390 (to east and
west). Night bus routes are N207 (to east and west), and 94, 148, 274 and
390."
Wikipedia also tells about the London Underground per se:
"The London Underground (otherwise
known as the Underground or the Tube) is a metro system in the United Kingdom,
serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire,
Hertfordshire and Essex. The system serves 270 stations and has 402 kilometres
(250 mi) of track, 45 per cent of which is underground. Since 2003 LUL has been
a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL), the statutory
corporation responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater
London, which is run by a board and a commissioner appointed by the Mayor of
London.
It incorporates the first
underground railway in the world, which opened in 1863 and now forms part of the
Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines and the first line to
operate underground electric trains, in 1890, now part of the Northern line. The
first tunnels were built just below the surface; later circular tunnels (tubes)
were dug through the London Clay. When the Central London Railway opened in
1900, it was known as the "twopenny tube". The lines were marketed as the
UNDERGROUND in the early 20th century on maps and signs outside stations.
Originally private companies owned and ran the railways and in 1933 these merged
to form the London Passenger Transport Board. Harry Beck's tube map appeared for
the first time in 1933. The Victoria line was opened 1968–71 and the Jubilee
line in 1979, and this was extended in 1999. The Travelcard was introduced in
the mid 1980s and the Oyster card in 2003.
Today in official publicity, the
term 'tube' embraces the whole underground system, and the tube map now includes
the other TfL railways such as the Docklands Light Railway and London Overground
as well as the Emirates Air Line. It is the fourth largest metro system in the
world in terms of route miles, after the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, Shanghai
Metro and the Beijing Subway. It also has one of the largest numbers of
stations. In 2011/12 there were 1.2 billion passengers making it the third
busiest metro system in Europe, after Moscow and Paris.[citation needed] As of
2011, 86 per cent of operational expenditure on the London Underground is
covered by passenger fares. The oldest sections of the London Underground
completed 150 years of operations on 10 January 2013. The system is currently
being upgraded to increase capacity."