Editing Notting Hill Gate tube station (section)

==History==
The sub-surface Circle and District line platforms were opened on 1 October 1868 by the [[Metropolitan Railway]] (MR) as part of its extension from [[Paddington tube station (Bakerloo, Circle and District lines)|Paddington]] to [[Gloucester Road tube station|Gloucester Road]]. The Central line platforms were opened on 30 July 1900 by the [[Central London Railway]] (CLR). Entrances to the two sets of platforms were originally via separate station buildings on opposite sides of the road; access to the CLR platforms was originally via [[elevator|lifts]].

The station name Notting Hill Gate had potential for confusion with the MR station to the north in Ladbroke Grove which was known as "Notting Hill" when opened in 1864, and renamed "Notting Hill & Ladbroke Grove" in 1880.  This latter station eventually, in 1919, dropped its reference to Notting Hill, becoming "Ladbroke Grove (North Kensington)" in 1919 and, simply, "Ladbroke Grove" in 1938 (see [[Ladbroke Grove tube station|Ladbroke Grove Underground station]]).

On the Circle and District lines, Notting Hill Gate is a [[Cut-and-cover|cut and cover]] station still covered with a glass roof, despite many other similar stations having lost theirs.<ref>{{cite book |last=Martin |first=Andrew |year=2013 |title=Underground Overground: A Passenger's History of the Tube |location=London |publisher=Profile Books |page=31 |isbn=978-1846684784 }}</ref>

===Redevelopment=== 
The station was rebuilt in the late 1950s and reopened on 1 March 1959, now linking the two 'Notting Hill Gate stations' on the Circle and District and Central lines, which had previously been accessed on either side of the street, with a shared sub-surface ticket hall and [[escalator]]s down to the deeper Central line, replacing the aged and now sealed-off lifts. The escalators were the first on the Underground to have metal side panels rather than wooden. The new entrance also acts as a pedestrian subway under the widened Notting Hill Gate. The mosaic columns at the southern entrance were created in 2006 by local public art organisation [[Urban Eye]].

====Refurbishment====

The station was refurbished from 2010 to 2011, with new ceramic tiling throughout the subway entrances, deep-level passageways and Central line tube platforms as well as a modified ticket hall layout.

During the refurbishment works an abandoned lift passageway from the original 1900 CLR station, closed to the public after Notting Hill Gate was last upgraded in 1959, was rediscovered and found to contain a series of original posters dating from the late 1950s. Images have been posted online.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2010/10/vintage-posters-discovered-abandoned-london-tube-station/ |title = Urban Ghosts Media is coming soon}}</ref>

A scheme was developed by the architects [[Weston Williamson]] to provide canopies over the entrances from the street,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.westonwilliamson.com/projects.php?a=central_line_canopies|publisher=Weston Williamson Architects|access-date=28 April 2011|title=London Underground Entrance Canopies|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110909075707/http://www.westonwilliamson.com/projects.php?a=central_line_canopies|archive-date=9 September 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> but this has not been implemented.

[[File:Notting Hill Gate Tube Station, West London (2021).jpg|thumb|left|Notting Hill Gate, Tube Station (north side), West London (2021)]]