The Weaver Line

Published 28 September 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

The Weaver line runs north-east out of Liverpool Street to three different ends: Chingford, Enfield Town and Cheshunt. Twenty-five stations, eight departures an hour as far as Hackney Downs, and 27 minutes from the City to the edge of Epping Forest. Almost nobody outside north-east London uses it, and there are two journeys on it that are worth an hour of anyone's visit.

The name is from November 2024 and refers to the east London cloth trade; our page on the six Overground line names explains the naming scheme and who the Weavers were. This page is the railway: the three branches and how to read them, what the trains are like, the interchanges that are not interchanges at all, the weekend service, step-free access station by station, and where the line genuinely beats the Tube.

Fares, caps and touching in are identical to the Tube. Our guide to the DLR and the London Overground covers how the whole network works.

Three destinations, one platform, five shared stations

Every Weaver train out of Liverpool Street calls at Bethnal Green, Cambridge Heath, London Fields and Hackney Downs. That is the shared section, and with eight trains an hour it behaves almost like a Tube line: turn up and wait less than eight minutes.

After Hackney Downs the line splits. Chingford trains go via Clapton, St James Street, Walthamstow Central, Wood Street and Highams Park. Enfield Town and Cheshunt trains go via Rectory Road, Stoke Newington, Stamford Hill, Seven Sisters, Bruce Grove, White Hart Lane, Silver Street and Edmonton Green, and only split from each other after that: Enfield Town trains take Bush Hill Park, while Cheshunt trains take Southbury, Turkey Street and Theobalds Grove.

The frequency difference is the thing to plan around. Chingford gets four trains an hour; Enfield Town and Cheshunt get two each. On the Enfield and Cheshunt branches a half-hour gap is normal, and a cancellation makes it an hour.

Two stations called Bethnal Green, nine minutes apart

This is the mistake visitors make on this line, and it costs about twenty minutes. The Weaver line's Bethnal Green station and the Central line's Bethnal Green station are different stations with different entrances, and TfL's own walking route between them is nine minutes. There is no interchange, no subway and no shared ticket hall. If an app tells you to change at Bethnal Green, read the small print: it means walk.

Two other pairs behave the same way. Hackney Downs and Hackney Central are four minutes apart on foot and are treated as an out-of-station interchange, which is the useful one: it is how you get from the Weaver line onto the Mildmay line across north London. And on the Chingford branch, St James Street is nine minutes' walk from Walthamstow Queen's Road on the Suffragette line, which is the only connection between those two lines in Walthamstow other than the Victoria line at Walthamstow Central and Blackhorse Road.

The genuine interchanges are Liverpool Street, where the Weaver meets the Central, Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan and Elizabeth lines under one roof, and our Liverpool Street station guide explains the layout; Walthamstow Central and Seven Sisters for the Victoria line; and Hackney Downs for the Mildmay line by way of the walk above.

What the trains are like

Nothing unusual: the standard Overground unit, set out in our guide to the six lines and the fleet they share. Twenty-seven minutes to Chingford is short enough that the side-facing seats and the absence of a toilet do not matter much, and outside the peaks you will get one of those seats.

The line is above ground for all of it and the first three miles are genuinely interesting to look at: the train leaves Liverpool Street on a viaduct and runs at roof level across Bethnal Green and Hackney, past the backs of terraces, market streets and the odd surviving weaving loft with its long upper windows. North of Hackney Downs it settles into cutting and suburban platforms.

Crowding is directional and heavy. This is a commuter line into the City, so the morning peak towards Liverpool Street and the evening peak out of it fill the trains completely. Between about 10:00 and 16:00, and all day at weekends, it is quiet.

Weekends, and the last train

The Weaver keeps its shape on a Sunday. TfL's Journey Planner gives the same four trains an hour and the same 27 minutes to Chingford at 13:00 on a Sunday as on a weekday, and the Enfield Town branch runs its usual two an hour, taking 33 to 38 minutes. That makes it one of the more reliable weekend railways in London.

Engineering work is the exception, and this corridor gets a good deal of it because the Overground shares tracks and junctions out of Liverpool Street with Greater Anglia. When the Chingford branch closes, the replacement is a bus along the Lea Bridge Road and it takes considerably longer than 27 minutes.

Nothing runs overnight on this line. Last departures are around midnight, and the only Overground trains that run through a Friday or Saturday night are on the Windrush line, south of the river. Getting home from Hackney or Walthamstow after midnight means a bus; see London night buses.

Step-free access: ten stations out of twenty-five

This is the weakest of the Overground lines for step-free travel, and the weakness is concentrated at the London end. Ten of the twenty-five stations can be entered and left without using a stair, according to the station-by-station records TfL publishes for lifts, ramps and level paths: Liverpool Street, Hackney Downs, Walthamstow Central, Highams Park, Chingford, White Hart Lane, Edmonton Green, Bush Hill Park, Enfield Town and Cheshunt.

The fifteen that are not step-free are Bethnal Green, Cambridge Heath, London Fields, Clapton, St James Street, Wood Street, Rectory Road, Stoke Newington, Stamford Hill, Seven Sisters, Bruce Grove, Silver Street, Southbury, Turkey Street and Theobalds Grove. None of those fifteen is recorded as keeping a boarding ramp on the platform, so there is no assisted alternative at any of them.

Read that list against the map and the pattern is clear: the three stations closest to the centre, which are the ones a visitor would use, are all inaccessible, while the outer suburban stations are mostly fine. At Walthamstow Central the Weaver platforms are at street level and step-free, but the Victoria line below is not, which is an odd reversal of the usual situation. What help you can expect at the ten that do work is in our guide to step-free travel.

The Sunday ride this line owns: five minutes to Cambridge Heath

The single best use of the Weaver line for a visitor takes five minutes and costs £3.10 off-peak. Liverpool Street to Cambridge Heath is one stop past Bethnal Green, four trains an hour on a Sunday morning, and it puts you at the top of the streets that lead down to Columbia Road. Walking the same distance takes 38 minutes by TfL's own measure.

Cambridge Heath, not Bethnal Green, is the station for the Sunday flower market, and it is also the closest station to Broadway Market and the London Fields end of Hackney. The next stop, London Fields, is closer still to the park and the Saturday market. Our pages on Columbia Road flower market and Hackney and London Fields cover what is actually there; neither station is step-free, which is the catch.

The other journey: 27 minutes to a forest

Liverpool Street to Chingford is 27 minutes, four trains an hour, £3.80 off-peak, and Chingford station is the only entrance to Epping Forest with visitor facilities at it rather than a map and good luck. The station itself is step-free and at street level, which is rare at this end of the line, and the walk into the trees is about five minutes.

Our guide to Epping Forest has the trails, the Tudor hunting lodge and the opening days. Two stops earlier, Walthamstow Central and Wood Street put you in Walthamstow, which is worth an afternoon on its own, and one stop on from there Highams Park has its own lake and is a quieter way into the same woods.

On the other branch, the two stations worth knowing are Stoke Newington, five minutes' walk from the gates of Abney Park Cemetery and the Church Street shops, and Enfield Town at the end, where the town centre and the New River path start a few minutes from the platform; see Enfield Town and the Lea Valley edge. Stoke Newington station is not step-free; Enfield Town is.

What goes wrong

Branch confusion is the first problem. Three destinations share a platform at Liverpool Street and the only way to tell them apart is to read the destination blind and the platform screen. An Enfield Town train will not take you to Chingford, and finding out at Hackney Downs costs twenty minutes.

The second is frequency on the outer branches. Two trains an hour to Enfield Town and Cheshunt means that missing one is a half-hour penalty, and the two branches are interleaved unevenly rather than at neat fifteen-minute spacings, so the wait is not always what you would guess.

The third is shared track with Greater Anglia out of Liverpool Street: a problem on the main line stops the Overground too, and there is no parallel Tube line north of Walthamstow at all.

One consolation: on the two-train-an-hour branches, the half-hour threshold that Overground compensation starts at is a single missed connection at Hackney Downs. Our page on complaining in Britain has the claim deadline and the amount.

Frequently asked questions

Where does the Weaver line go?

From London Liverpool Street north-east through Bethnal Green, Cambridge Heath, London Fields and Hackney Downs, then to one of three ends: Chingford, Enfield Town or Cheshunt. There are 25 stations altogether. Chingford takes 27 minutes, Enfield Town 33 and Cheshunt 39.

Is the Weaver line Bethnal Green the same as the Central line Bethnal Green?

No. They are separate stations about nine minutes' walk apart, with no interchange between them. This is the most common mistake on the line. If you are coming from the Central line, stay on to Liverpool Street and take a Weaver train from there instead.

How often do Weaver line trains run?

Eight an hour on the shared section from Liverpool Street to Hackney Downs, then four an hour to Chingford and two an hour each to Enfield Town and Cheshunt. The Sunday service matches the weekday one on the Chingford branch, which is unusual on London's railways.

Which Weaver line stations are step-free?

Ten of twenty-five: Liverpool Street, Hackney Downs, Walthamstow Central, Highams Park, Chingford, White Hart Lane, Edmonton Green, Bush Hill Park, Enfield Town and Cheshunt. The three stations nearest central London, Bethnal Green, Cambridge Heath and London Fields, are not step-free and hold no boarding ramp.

What is the best station on the Weaver line for Columbia Road market?

Cambridge Heath, one stop beyond Bethnal Green and five minutes from Liverpool Street. It costs £3.10 off-peak with contactless and runs four times an hour on a Sunday morning, which is when the flower market is on. The station has stairs only, so it is not suitable if you need step-free access.

Sources

• Transport for London Unified API - Weaver line stop sequences and the three branches (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London Unified API - single fare, Liverpool Street to Chingford (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - detailed station data: lifts, ramps, same-level paths and boarding ramps (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - London Overground (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - live line status and planned engineering work (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - Tube and rail fares, peak and off-peak times (checked September 2026)