Chancery Lane tube station platform, eastbound

Chancery Lane tube station platform, with arriving Central Line train

Chancery Lane is a London Underground station in central London. It is only open Monday to Saturdays, as it is very close to neighbouring stations. It is on the Central Line between St. Paul's, and Holborn, and is in zone 1. Originally the station had been more evenly spaced, but when the Central Line station at British Museum was closed and replaced with a new one at Holborn, this ceased to be the case.

The station was opened on July 30, 1900 with its current name, but from June 25, 1934 was known for a brief while as Chancery Lane (Grays Inn).

For a similar reason as the station at St. Pauls, the narrow street forced the Westbound platform to be below the Eastbound. The street has since become wider, though not as wide as at St. Pauls.

The original exit was on the north side of the street, by the junction with Chancery Lane, but was later moved to Staple Inn (one of the few surviving buildings from before the great fire of london) when the provision of escalators necessitated a new ticket hall to the east of the original. The new ticket hall was chosen to be subterranean, and as such connects both sides of the street as a subway.

It is one of eight London Underground stations which has a deep_level air_raid shelter underneath it. After World War 2 this was turned into Kingsway telephone exchange.

On January 25th, 2003, a Central Line train derailed at Chancery Lane, injuring 32 passengers, after a motor became detached from the train. The entire line, and the Waterloo & City line (which use the same kind of train), was closed whilst the cause of the failure was determined and appropriate modifications made to the trains.