Leytonstone tube station

Leytonstone
Eastern entrance on Church Lane
Leytonstone Location of Leytonstone in Greater London
Location	Leytonstone
Local authority	London Borough of Waltham Forest
Managed by	London Underground
Number of platforms	3
Fare zone	3 and 4
OSI	Leytonstone High Road
London Underground annual entry and exit
2012	10.10 million
2013	10.38 million
2014	11.05 million
2015	11.24 million
Key dates
22 August 1856	Opened
1 September 1955	Goods yard closed
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
WGS84	51°34′06″N 0°00′30″E / 51.5683°N 0.0083°E / 51.5683; 0.0083Coordinates: 51°34′06″N 0°00′30″E / 51.5683°N 0.0083°E / 51.5683; 0.0083

Leytonstone is a London Underground station on the Central line, on the boundary of Zones 3 and 4. Towards London the next station is Leyton, while going east from Leytonstone, the line divides into two branches. On the direct route to Woodford and Epping the next stop is Snaresbrook, and on the Hainault loop it is Wanstead.

The station was opened by the Eastern Counties Railway on 22 August 1856. In turn it became, from 1862, part of the Great Eastern Railway system and then in 1923 part of the London & North Eastern Railway before being transferred to London Transport in 1947. This formed part of the "New Works Programme 1935 – 1940" that was to see major changes at Leytonstone with the station becoming the junction of the existing Epping branch, newly electrified, with the new tube tunnel running under Eastern Avenue towards Newbury Park. This work saw a complete reconstruction of the station along with the removal of the level crossing at Church Lane and its replacement by an underbridge. The work stopped in May 1940 due to wartime priorities; further delays were caused by the station buildings being hit by a German bomb in January 1944. During the war, the new tunnels were used as an aircraft component factory; the part closest to Leytonstone was a public air-raid shelter.

The station was first served by the Central line on 5 May 1947 when it became the temporary terminus of the line, passengers changing on to steam shuttle onwards to Epping. This ceased on 14 December 1947 with the extension of Underground services to Woodford and Newbury Park.

In honour of the centenary of the birth of film director Sir Alfred Hitchcock (born 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone), the London Borough of Waltham Forest commissioned the Greenwich Mural Workshop to create a series of mosaics of Hitchcock's life and works in the tube station. Work was started in June 2000 and the mosaics were unveiled on 3 May 2001.