The London Underground station that, confusingly, is not where its name suggests

Most London Underground stations are exactly where you’d expect them to be – Vauxhall, Bow, Oxford Circus, Shepherd’s Bush, you name it, they’re there. But don’t assume that the station you got off at is in the heart of the area you’re going to.

Some subway stations aren’t actually where they say they are, actually far from it. One such confusing station is Latimer Road, which is on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines between Wood Lane and Ladbroke Grove stations.

You’d expect Latimer Road station to be on… Latimer Road, but instead it’s on Bramley Road – 500 meters away. It opened on 16 December 1868 at a junction formed between two railway lines – the Hammersmith & City Railway and the West London Railway.

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Much of the station resembles Hammersmith & City Westbourne Park line station. However, what some people don’t know is how the station is very closely related to the area in which it is located.

On 14 June 2017, a fire tore through the nearby tower block, Grenfell Tower, killing 72 people. Latimer Road Station is just behind the 24-storey block, and automated announcements routinely blare, asking passengers on the platforms not to take photos.

This is done mainly as a gesture of respect for those affected by the disaster, but also because flashes from phones and cameras can distract oncoming drivers trying to pay attention to signals. In fact, in 2018 the UK government argued that Latimer Road Station should be renamed as a tribute to the Grenfell fire, although the decision ultimately rests with Transport for London (TfL).

Why is it called Latimer Road?

The station’s name comes from a local philanthropist – Edward Latymer – who also has a nearby private school named after him, says Hidden London. In the 1960s, Britain began building The Westway motorway, which crosses Latimer Road and Bramley Road (where the railway station is), and the southern section of Latimer Road was renamed Freston Road.

In fact, if you inspect Google Maps, you’ll be able to see how Freston Road and Latimer Road were once the same thing, until the highway separated them. Freston Road meets Bramley Road close to where the station is, so you can see how there was a time when the name of the station made more sense.

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