Arsenal tube station
Piccadilly line · Zone 2 · Islington
About Arsenal station
Look at the platform walls and you will still read Gillespie Road, spelt out in large tiled letters. That was the name under which the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opened the station, now on the Piccadilly line, on 15 December 1906, to serve a residential street and a divinity college. In 1913 Arsenal Football Club moved from Woolwich to Highbury, onto the college’s former playing fields, and a campaign for a new name followed, championed above all by the club’s manager Herbert Chapman. On 31 October 1932 the station became Arsenal (Highbury Hill); the suffix was dropped around 1960. It is the only tube station named directly after a football club.
Leslie Green’s red terracotta building, squeezed into the width of two terraced houses, was replaced in the 1930s by a wider one after a further house was demolished, yet the frontage is still among the narrowest on the Underground. Although it is a deep-level station, there are no lifts or escalators: the tunnels are fairly shallow here and lie some way from the entrance, under the East Coast Main Line, so a sloping passage leads down, with short flights of stairs at each end. A second tunnel dug in the 1930s now carries match-day crowds, and a fenced-off narrow lane gives the station a tidal flow system found nowhere else on the network. The tiling was fully restored in 2007.
First and last trains from Arsenal
| Line and direction | Mon–Thu first – last | Friday first – last | Saturday first – last | Sunday first – last |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piccadilly towards Northfields, Heathrow Terminal 5 or Heathrow Terminal 4 | 05:32 to Heathrow Terminal 5 – 00:18 to Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 | 05:32 – all night | 24 hours | all night – 23:24 to Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 |
| Piccadilly towards Cockfosters, Arnos Grove or Oakwood | 06:04 – 00:48 | 06:04 – all night | 24 hours | all night – 00:31 |
Times are TfL’s published timetable departures from this station; on Saturday the list follows TfL’s “Saturdays and public holidays” timetable.
At the busiest hour on a weekday there are up to 24 Piccadilly trains an hour per direction from Arsenal, counting both directions separately.
Next stations from Arsenal
Running times between Arsenal and the adjoining stations, from TfL’s timetable.
| Line | Next station | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Piccadilly | Finsbury Park | 1.7 min |
| Piccadilly | Holloway Road | 1.5 min |
Connections
Arsenal is served by the Piccadilly line only; there is no interchange with other rail lines here.
Station facilities
What is near Arsenal station
Arsenal sits on a narrow Victorian residential street in Highbury, away from main roads, and unusually no bus route passes its entrance; the nearest buses run along Blackstock Road. Although Highbury Stadium closed in 2006, the station still fills with spectators heading for Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium nearby, and the Arsenal Museum is about 230 m away. For quieter visits, Isledon Gardens is about 200 m from the station and the Gillespie Park Nature Reserve about 250 m.
| Place | Walk from the station |
|---|---|
| Arsenal Museum | 230 m |
| Gillespie Park Nature Reserve | 250 m |
| Isledon Gardens | 200 m |
Frequently asked questions
The station opened on 15 December 1906 as Gillespie Road, and the original platform tiling with that name was kept. It was renamed Arsenal (Highbury Hill) on 31 October 1932, after a campaign backed by Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman, and became plain Arsenal around 1960. The tiles were restored in 2007.
An extra tunnel to platform level, dug during the early 1930s rebuild in anticipation of more traffic, now handles the match-day crowds. The station also has a tidal system unique on the network: a narrow lane, separated from the main passage by a full-height fence, carries the lighter flow before or after a game.