Covent Garden tube station

Covent Garden
Station entrance
Covent Garden Location of Covent Garden in Central London
Location	Covent Garden
Local authority	City of Westminster
Managed by	London Underground
Number of platforms	2
Fare zone	1
London Underground annual entry and exit
2012	21.29 million
2013	21.17 million
2014	15.38 million
2015	14.67 million
Railway companies
Original company	Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway
Key dates
15 December 1906	Line opened
11 April 1907	Station opened
Listed status
Listing grade	II
Entry number	1401025
Added to list	20 July 2011
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
WGS84	51°30′47″N 0°07′27″W / 51.5130°N 0.1243°W / 51.5130; -0.1243Coordinates: 51°30′47″N 0°07′27″W / 51.5130°N 0.1243°W / 51.5130; -0.1243

Covent Garden is a London Underground station in Covent Garden. It is on the Piccadilly line between Leicester Square and Holborn stations and is in Travelcard Zone 1. The station is at the corner of Long Acre and James Street and is a Grade II listed building.

The station was planned by the Great Northern and Strand Railway (GN&SR), which had received parliamentary approval for a route from Wood Green station (now Alexandra Palace) to Strand in 1899. After the GN&SR was taken over by the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway (B&PCR) in September 1901, the two companies came under the control of Charles Yerkes' Metropolitan District Electric Traction Company before being transferred to his new holding company, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) in June 1902. To connect the two companies' planned routes, the UERL obtained permission for new tunnels between Piccadilly Circus and Holborn. The companies were formally merged as the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway following parliamentary approval in November 1902. The station was opened by the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway on 11 April 1907, four months after services on the rest of the line began operating on 15 December 1906.

In 1929, Covent Garden was one of the stations suggested for closure in connection with the extension of the Piccadilly line: the elimination of less-busy stations in the central area would improve both reliability and journey times for long-distance commuters but this did not happen.