Station sign at Bethnal Green
Located on the Central Line Bethnal Green Underground station is physically separate to the London Overground station on the Liverpool Street to Chingford and West Anglia main line which also shares the same name. However there is a tragic story with regard to Bethnal Green Underground station as the station was opened as part of the long-planned eastern extension of the Central Line from Liverpool Street out to Stratford in December 1946 after having previously been used as an air-raid shelter. Sadly on the evening of 3rd March 1943 173 people (including 62 children) were killed in a mass stampede while attempting to rush down the stairs into the shelter during a heavy air raid over London's East End in what is believed to be the largest loss of civilian life in the UK during the World War 2. In 2017 a sculpture remembering and honouring those innocent people who died called the 'Stairway To Heaven' was installed and unveiled by the eastern entrance to Bethnal Green Underground station where this tragedy occurred back in March 1943.
Station sign at Bethnal Green
Located on the Central Line Bethnal Green Underground station is physically separate to the London Overground station on the Liverpool Street to Chingford and West Anglia main line which also shares the same name. However there is a tragic story with regard to Bethnal Green Underground station as the station was opened as part of the long-planned eastern extension of the Central Line from Liverpool Street out to Stratford in December 1946 after having previously been used as an air-raid shelter. Sadly on the evening of 3rd March 1943 173 people (including 62 children) were killed in a mass stampede while attempting to rush down the stairs into the shelter during a heavy air raid over London's East End in what is believed to be the largest loss of civilian life in the UK during the World War 2. In 2017 a sculpture remembering and honouring those innocent people who died called the 'Stairway To Heaven' was installed and unveiled by the eastern entrance to Bethnal Green Underground station where this tragedy occurred back in March 1943.