Shepherd's Bush is an area of west London, England, which has been served by a number of London Underground and commuter rail stations over the past 150 years, many of which have had similar names. The names Shepherd's Bush, Wood Lane and White City have each been used by several separate stations around the Shepherd's Bush district, following a number of station renamings and closures.
The London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) opened its Shepherd's Bush station in 1869 on a loop line that connected the West London Line to the Hammersmith & City line and the L&SWR's tracks to Richmond (now the District line). The station was located on the west side of Shepherd's Bush Road (A219) at the junction with Sulgrave Road. It closed in 1916.
The Central London Railway (CLR) opened its subterranean Shepherd's Bush station in 1900, with its entrance overlooking Shepherd's Bush Green, next to the MR's Uxbridge Road station.
The Franco-British Exhibition and the 1908 Summer Olympics brought about the development of the exhibition and events area known as the White City, and two new Underground stations opened to serve these major international events, both named Wood Lane: the CLR Wood Lane station was a sub-surface station located on the eponymous lane, while the Wood Lane Metropolitan station was situated on a viaduct on its Hammersmith branch nearby. The CLR station closed in 1947 and lay derelict until 2008 when it was demolished to make way for the White City bus station. The Metropolitan station was renamed White City in 1947 and finally closed in 1959.
The new London Overground line names and colours were introduced across the London rail network in November 2024
In 2008 the arrangement of Shepherd's Bush stations changed when two new stations were opened, Shepherd's Bush on the West London Line (close to the location of the former Uxbridge Road Metropolitan line station) and Wood Lane station on the Hammersmith & City line (situated near the former Wood Lane/White City Metropolitan line station). Today, two stations bear the name Shepherd's Bush: Shepherd's Bush station, on the Central line, and the West London Line Shepherd's Bush station. The two present-day Shepherd's Bush stations are in close proximity and form an interchange between London Underground and National Rail.
With the addition of another station bearing the name Shepherd's Bush, it was decided to rename the Shepherd's Bush station on the Hammersmith & City line (the old 1914 Metropolitan line Shepherd's Bush station) to Shepherd's Bush Market to avoid confusion with the Overground and Central line stations.[1]
None of the 1908 White City exhibition stations now survive and all the stations in the Wood Lane area are newer constructions: the present Central line White City Underground station (opened in 1947 to replace the former Wood Lane station) and the 2008 Wood Lane Hammersmith & City line station.