Wood Lane tube station (Central line)

Wood Lane
The remains of the station pictured in 2001
Location	Shepherd's Bush
Owner	Central London Railway
Number of platforms	4
Key dates
1908 (1908)	Opened
1947 (1947)	Closed
Replaced by	White City
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink

Wood Lane is a disused station on the London Underground located in Shepherd's Bush, west London. It was latterly served by the Central line and from 1908 to 1920 was the western terminus of the Central line's precursor, the Central London Railway (CLR).

Wood Lane station was built to serve the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition and the 1908 Olympic Games. Its location was very confined and its configuration awkward, requiring alterations on a number of occasions to meet operational requirements.

It closed in 1947 following the opening of the nearby White City station. In 2008, a new Wood Lane station was opened on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines.

Prior to the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition, the western terminus of the Central London Railway (CLR) was at Shepherd's Bush. North of Shepherd's Bush was the CLR's power station and Wood Lane depot. Trains originally accessed the depot via a single, sharply-curved tunnel from the station's westbound platform, heading northwards under Caxton Street. Trains then exited the tunnel to the north of the depot and used a reversing siding to run into the depot in a southbound direction. Trains running from the depot reversed the process and entered the eastbound platform of Shepherd's Bush station via a junction to the west of the station.

When the exhibition opened, a temporary station was constructed within the northern perimeter of the depot on the site of the reversing siding. A new tunnel was bored to connect directly to the end of the eastbound tunnel at Shepherd's Bush station, forming a loop.