Aldgate East station’s name remains unchanged despite its proximity to Brick Lane, due to high costs of rebranding.
London: The London Underground is a massive network, taking people all over the city. It connects places like Essex to Uxbridge and Morden to Edgware.
With so many stations, it’s no surprise that some names have changed as the city has grown. But one station, Aldgate East, has stuck with its original name.
Even though it’s really close to the famous Brick Lane, it hasn’t been renamed. There was talk about changing it, but it turned out to be too expensive.
Former Mayor Ken Livingstone once suggested that one of the Shepherd’s Bush stations should be called ‘Shepherd’s Bush Market’ to make things clearer. He even mentioned Aldgate East back in 2008, thinking about changing its name along with two Edgware Road stops.
But he realized that since Aldgate East is on two different lines, the cost of changing all the signs would be pretty high. He said, “This is a good time to change the name of Shepherd’s Bush (HandC) to Shepherd’s Bush Market.”
Livingstone also noted that there weren’t many other stations that could be renamed, including Aldgate East, because of the costs and its historical ties to the area.
Transport for London (TfL) added that they’d also need to update maps and signals if a name change happened. So, for now, Aldgate East will keep its name, even if it seems a bit out of place.
