Mudchute DLR station

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Image:011245 5da7c3ec.jpg
Mudchute
Location
Place	Mudchute
Local authority	Tower Hamlets
Operations
Managed by	Docklands Light Railway
Platforms in use	2
Transport for London
Zone	2
History
Key dates	Opened 1987
Transport for London List of London stations: Underground \| National Rail

Mudchute DLR station is on the Isle of Dogs near to Millwall Dock. It is on the Lewisham branch, in Travelcard Zone 2. On the route of the Millwall Extension Railway, an old Victorian railway line, the elevated station opened on August 31, 1987 the last station before the then terminus at Island Gardens. When the line was extended to Lewisham, involving tunnelling under the River Thames, the station was rebuilt in a shallow cutting immediately before the tunnel entrance, opening on November 20, 1999.

The station was originally intended to be named Millwall Dock, but around the time the DLR was being constructed, Millwall F.C. had experienced some particularly nasty incidents of hooliganism, and a minority of its fans were considered to be amongst the most riotous in the country. Despite the fact that the club's ground is some distance away on the other side of the River Thames, it was thought that the original name carried an unacceptable risk of attracting these undesirables to the area and so the name Mudchute was chosen.

The name of the area refers to the engineering overspill when Millwall Dock was being created in the 1840s. Spoil from the excavation of the Dock and silt from its channels and waterways were dumped on nearby land, creating "The Mudchute", which quickly established itself as a wildlife habitat and adventuring location for local children.