Canada Water station

Canada Water is a London Underground and London Overground station located in Canada Water, in south London, England. It takes its name from Canada Water, a lake which was created from a former dock in the Port of London.

Canada Water
Cylindrical main station entrance
Canada Water Location of Canada Water in Greater London
Location	Canada Water
Local authority	London Borough of Southwark
Managed by	London Underground
Owner	Transport for London
Station code(s)	ZCW
Number of platforms	4
Accessible	Yes
Fare zone	2
London Underground annual entry and exit
2019	13.11 million
2020	6.13 million
2021	5.97 million
2022	10.57 million
2023	9.58 million
National Rail annual entry and exit
2018–19	23.726 million
2019–20	21.797 million
2020–21	5.576 million
2021–22	13.645 million
2022–23	16.226 million
– interchange	914
Railway companies
Original company	London Regional Transport
Key dates
19 August 1999	East London line opened
17 September 1999	Jubilee line opened
23 December 2007	East London line services as part of London Underground withdrawn
27 April 2010	East London line services as part of London Overground begin
Other information
External links	TfL station info page Departures Facilities
Coordinates	51.498333°N 0.05°W / 51.498333; -0.05
London transport portal

The station is located on the Jubilee line between Bermondsey and Canary Wharf stations and on the East London line between Rotherhithe and Surrey Quays stations, and provides an interchange point between the two lines. It is in Travelcard Zone 2.

London Overground services commenced on the East London line on 27 April 2010, as the replacement extension of the historic tube line.

London Overground
Cheshunt Theobalds Grove Enfield Town Turkey Street Romford Bush Hill Park Southbury Emerson Park Upminster Edmonton Green Silver Street Chingford White Hart Lane Highams Park Watford Junction Bruce Grove Wood Street Watford Seven Sisters Walthamstow Central High Street Harringay Blackhorse Road Walthamstow Queen's Road Bushey Green Lanes Carpenders Park Crouch Hill South Tottenham St. James Leyton Midland Road Hatch End Upper () Stamford Hill Street Leytonstone Headstone Lane Holloway Stoke Newington Clapton High Road Harrow & Kentish Town West Rectory Road Wanstead Park () Wealdstone Gospel Oak Camden Road () Hackney Woodgrange Park () Kenton () Caledonian Road Canonbury Downs Barking South Kenton & Barnsbury Barking Riverside () North Highbury & Islington Dalston Kingsland Hackney Central Wembley Hampstead Heath Dalston Wembley Finchley Road & Frognal () Junction London Fields Central West Hampstead ( ) Haggerston Cambridge Homerton Stonebridge Brondesbury Hoxton Heath Hackney Wick Park Brondesbury Park Shoreditch High Street Bethnal Green Stratford Harlesden Kensal Rise Kensal Green Liverpool Whitechapel Willesden Queen's Park Street Shadwell () Junction Kilburn High Road Wapping South Hampstead Rotherhithe Shepherd's Bush () Euston () Canada Water Kensington (Olympia) Surrey Quays West Brompton Battersea Park Imperial Wharf () (limited service) New Cross Clapham Queens Road Peckham New Cross Gate Junction Peckham Rye Brockley Acton Central Wandsworth Road Denmark Hill Honor Oak Park South Acton () Clapham Forest Hill Gunnersbury High Street Sydenham Kew Gardens Richmond Crystal Palace Penge West Anerley Norwood Junction West Croydon ()
Legend
Station National Rail Liberty line Accessible station Thameslink Lioness line Interchange station Elizabeth line Mildmay line Accessible interchange Docklands Light Railway Suffragette line Internal interchange London Underground Weaver line Out-of-station interchange London Trams Windrush line (   ) Nearby interchange London River Services The new London Overground line names and colours were introduced across the London rail network in November 2024

History

Canada Water was originally intended to be a stop on the aborted Fleet line Extension to Thamesmead. The extension was never built, but Canada Water became the only projected Fleet line Extension station to be realised on the Jubilee Line Extension.

The station is a wholly new building on a derelict site formerly occupied by Albion Dock, part of the old Surrey Commercial Docks. The station was one of the first designed for the Jubilee line Extension. The contract for the station's construction was initially awarded to Wimpey in 1993 for £21.3 million and was later taken over by Tarmac. Construction began in 1995. It proved extremely challenging, requiring the excavation (by cut-and-cover) of a void 150 m (490 ft) long, 23 m (75 ft) wide and 22 m (72 ft) deep. The building of the East London Line station required a separate slot at right angles, 130 m (430 ft) long, 13 m (43 ft) deep and tapering in width, incorporating a Victorian railway tunnel. Construction was complicated by the high water table on the site, which is located on the Thames flood plain; extensive deep-well dewatering was required to lower the water table before the enclosure to the excavations could be built. A total of 120,000 m³ (4,237,760 cu ft) of spoil had to be excavated. An additional complication was the location of the excavation site, near the foundations of two existing 22-storey tower blocks and the northern end of the former Canada Dock, now the ornamental lake Canada Water. The section of East London line running through the station was completely reconstructed, with the 19th-century brick railway tunnel being dismantled and the track relaid over a new structure bridging the Jubilee line tracks below. As the East London line had to be closed for this work, London Underground took the opportunity to carry out other remedial works such as repairs to the Thames Tunnel, a short distance to the north.

It was opened on 19 August 1999, served initially by East London line trains. The Jubilee line passenger service from the station began on 17 September that year.

In 2012, it was used as a filming location for part of the pilot episode of the BBC/Cinemax British-American spy drama, Hunted (TV series).

Canada Water was the first station to receive external sponsorship; Nestlé sponsored the station on the day of the 2015 London Marathon, and roundels in the station were edited to advertise Nestlé's Buxton Water. The one-day sponsorship was part of a plan to increase Transport for London's non-fare revenue, costing Nestlé £110,000.

Architecture

Station viewed from the roof of Canada Water library

Below-ground view of the "drum"

Canada Water station

The station, which was the first to be designed in the Jubilee line Extension project, has been described by the Hong Kong MTR's chief architect Roland Paoletti as "the only station on the JLE that has been built to the strict engineering economies of the specification of a Hong Kong interchange station." Above ground, its most salient feature is a striking glass "drum" 25 m (82 ft) across, which covers a deep opening descending almost to the Jubilee line platforms, 22 m (72 ft) below the surface. This feature was designed to allow natural light to reach deep into the station, a design principle common to many of the stations on the Jubilee line Extension. The drum was designed and constructed by Buro Happold. It is notably similar to the brick drum designed by Charles Holden for Arnos Grove station on the Piccadilly line in the 1930s, but is much more oriented towards the entry of daylight.

The drum is accompanied by a glass-roofed bus station designed by Eva Jiřičná which serves as a hub for services in the Rotherhithe and Bermondsey areas. The bus station was designed to fit in a relatively small site between the station drum, the railway's ventilation openings, a high wall and the adjoining tower blocks. Its most distinctive feature is a row of 16 m (52 ft)-long roof spans cantilevered from a row of central columns supporting a 100 m (330 ft)-long glass and aluminium canopy. This provides acoustic protection to the residential blocks and shelters passengers waiting below.

Below ground, the station is dominated by a huge concrete box, large enough to accommodate one of the Canary Wharf skyscrapers on its side. It is lined by a series of huge concrete pillars designed to take the weight of a planned nine-storey building on the surface as well as the roadway and bus station. The station has four lifts and eight escalators with an average rise of about 6.5 m (21 ft) to connect the lower parts of the station with street level. It is built on three levels: the ticket office and shops lie immediately below ground, the two north-south East London line platforms are situated on the second level 11 m (36 ft) below the ground, and the two east-west Jubilee line platforms are on the lowest level 22 m (72 ft) down.

The station was the winner of the Civic Trust Building of the Year Award for 2000, and the Interchange Awards' Medium Size Project of the Year award for 2001.

Connections

London Buses routes 1, 47, 188, 199, 225, 381, C10, P12 and night routes N199 and N381 serve the station and bus station.

Services

The station currently is served off peak during the day by 24 Jubilee line trains per hour, increasing to 30 in the peak, and 16 London Overground trains per hour at all times. On Friday and Saturday nights, the station receives 6 Jubilee line trains per hour and 4 London Overground trains per hour. Canada Water is the busiest two-platform National Rail station, with 25 million entries and exits to the NR platforms in 2017–18.

There is a scissors crossover to the south of the London Overground platforms to enable trains to terminate there.

Preceding station	London Underground			Following station
Bermondsey towards Stanmore		Jubilee line		Canary Wharf towards Stratford
Preceding station	London Overground			Following station
Rotherhithe towards Highbury & Islington or Dalston Junction		Windrush line East London line		Surrey Quays towards New Cross, Clapham Junction, Crystal Palace or West Croydon
Former Service
Preceding station	London Underground			Following station
Rotherhithe towards Shoreditch		East London line (1999-2007)		Surrey Quays towards New Cross or New Cross Gate

External links

• Eva Jiricna Architects - Canada Water Bus Station