Shoreditch

Shoreditch is in London's East End, just northeast of the centre. Back in the day a railway line run north-south through the area into Broad Street station, which at one time was the third busiest station in London, handling predominately suburban trains. It closed in 1986, but part of the line was later reinstated as part of the Windrush line.

Nothing remains of Broad Street Station besides the word "Broad", but it was right next door to Liverpool Street Station. The area has been redeveloped as Broadgate, an office and retail estate.


This is the view looking up Shoreditch High Street, which goes north under the bridge. This is where the new alignment for the Windrush line comes from the right, turning as it crosses the bridge to follow the original alignment.


The road to the left is Great Eastern Street, which takes its name from the railway company that built Liverpool Street Station. A short way along it you can see the abutments for the bridge that used to take the railway into Broad Street, and on the north side it has been adorned with two old tube trains.


The other side is not so interesting...


Back to Shoreditch High Street, going under the bridge and looking back... The concrete box to the left of the bridge is the new Shoreditch High Street station, and when you go through the station it feels like you are in a tunnel, despite it being above ground level. Apparently this is so a building can be constructed over the top of it at some point.


Heading north, on the right is St Leonard's Church, most famous for featuring in the  nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons: "'When I grow rich', say the bells of Shoreditch". The church was built ca. 1740, though it is thought there has been a church there since Angle-Saxon times.


Behind the church is the Mildmay hospital, which dates from 1877, though the current building only from 2015! In the 80s and 90s it provided support for HIV/AIDS sufferers, and this work was recognised when its name was used for the Mildmay Overground line in 2024. So odd that the line nearest to it is the Windrush line....


Across the road from the church is Shoreditch Commercial Ironworks, built in 1877.


Shoreditch High Street ends at the junction with Old Street and Hackney Road, becoming Kingsland Road, which is on the right in the image below, going under the railway some way in the distance. The building in the centre was Shoreditch Station. The station opened in 1865, though the building dates from 1929. It closed in 1940, possibly due to air raid damage, though that might have just been an excuse to close it.


Looking briefly down Old Street, under the bridge on the left, is this fine building, Shoreditch Town Hall, completed in 1866. Shoreditch became part of the London Borough of Hackney in 1965, and it is no longer used as a town hall.


Kingsland Road continues north. This is just beyond the bridge.


Junction with Cremer Street.


The Windrush Line crosses Cremer Street on the same infrastructure built for the railway into Broad Street. The station, Hoxton, is new, built 2010.


Back on Kingsland Road, St Leonard's Hospital.


St Columba's Church, now Christ Apostolic Church, built 1867-69 is a rather bleak edifice to my mind, but is Grade I listed. Columba is not a saint I had heard of before; an Irish abbot, he is credited with spreading Christianity to Scotland.


Suleymaniye Mosque serves Turkish Sunni Muslims in London, and opened in 1999. It has the highest minaret in the UK. I had heard of Suleiman the Magnificent, Ottoman sultan from 1520 to 1566.


Kingsland Road crosses Regent's Canal, which seems a convenient point to stop this post.



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