A POPULAR train station is getting a long-awaited, multi-million pound upgrade.
South Kensington is often called a ‘museum hub’ by being the gateway to three free attractions – the V&A, Science Museum and the Natural History Museum.
And the train station is about to get a huge makeover to make it much easier to travel to and from.
The new plans revealed by TFL will see the Grade II listed station be modernised.
This includes step free entrances, and a new eastbound platform for the Circle and District lines.
Being the busiest London Underground station with no accessible entrance, it is though as many as 500,000 journeys aren’t made to the station because of it.
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Around 30million passengers use the station every year, with the Circle, District and Piccadilly line stopping there.
Works are set to start later this year, and will be completed by 2029.
Bruno Carr, head of investment planning at TfL, said: “This transformational scheme will deliver much-needed step-free access to this station, while also making the area around it more pleasant for the millions who visit the nearby attractions and museums every year.”
Scott Anderson, head of property development at Places for London, said the upgrade would make the station the “jewel of the Tube network”.
Part of the station opened in 1868, with the Metropolitan line (no longer running there) and the District line.
The train station’s crowds are expected to continue, especially after the nearby Natural History Museum was named the most popular attraction in the UK.
Overtaking the British Museum, more than 7.1million people visited last year.
Millions a year also visit the V&A and Science Museum in South Kensington along with the Royal Albert Hall.
South Kensington is even home to a street nicknamed Little Paris.
Also nicknamed Frog Alley, Bute Street has French bookshops and bakeries throughout.
Another train station getting an upgrade is London Liverpool Street, the UK’s busiest railway station.
And a new £460million, “first of its kind” train station is opening in Birmingham as part of the HS2 plans.
