Angel Tube station is to become exit-only at weekends from January because TfL cannot afford to replace its 35-year-old escalators

Angel station in Islington, which sees close to 12 million passengers annually, will begin turning away arriving travellers from 2 January, with weekend visitors directed instead to nearby Northern line stops. One of the station's three escalators has been out of action since April 2026 owing to deterioration, leaving two still running. TfL has cautioned that a simultaneous failure of those two would force a full closure, because the shafts are too deep to serve safely as fixed staircases.

At more than 60 metres in length and 27 metres in height, the longest escalator makes Angel the deepest station on the entire Underground network.

TfL attributes its inability to renew the ageing equipment to 'historic shortfalls in government funding', and design work on replacement escalators is due to get under way this autumn.

Weekend travel patterns at Angel skew heavily toward exits over entrances, making that period the least disruptive time to bar entry while a full renewal plan takes shape.