Angel’s escalators are the longest on the London Underground, a slow 200ft ride that can feel like it takes up half your commute (unless you ski down, like this madman did back in 2007). But the Islington station could soon be forced to close for up to a year, as TfL scrambles to replace the escalators before they give up for good.
According to documents seen by London Centric, one of Angel’s three escalators broke down in April. TfL is privately warning that a second could fail at any moment and the third has two years left in it at best. The escalators have been in service for nearly 35 years and carry almost 12 million passengers a year down from the ticket hall towards the Northern line platforms.
To buy some time, TfL is considering making Angel exit-only during off-peak hours from November. That would mean you wouldn’t be able to get on a train there in the evenings or at weekends, though you’d still be able to get off.
Design work on the new escalators is due to start this autumn and could take around a year. After that, TfL would either have to shut the station completely for roughly 12 months or close it in stages for longer while each escalator is swapped out one by one. Walking up and down them isn’t an option either. TfL told the Standard they’re too long to use safely as a fixed staircase, and there’s no other safe way to get people between the ticket hall and the lower concourse
Islington Council isn’t impressed. In a letter seen by London Centric, council leader Una O’Halloran warned that a total closure would be ‘devastating’ for local businesses and accused TfL of waiting until the escalators failed before coming up with a plan. Richard Jones, director of asset performance delivery for London Underground, blamed ‘many years of constrained government funding’ for the delay in replacing them.
Angel isn’t the only station with tired escalators. The machines are one of the most prominent parts of TfL’s £6.5 billion maintenance backlog, with 153 of the network’s 566 escalators now running past their expected lifespan, according to Freedom of Information data released in July. Back in 2023, Kentish Town station shut for a year so its escalators could be replaced, and Cutty Sark DLR station only reopened in March this year after around ten months of escalator and station upgrades.
Nothing has been confirmed yet, but if Angel does close, customers can use King’s Cross St Pancras and Old Street, which are the next stops either side on the Northern line’s Bank branch.
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