Aldgate East’s original station opened in 1884. The new station opened on 31 October 1938, with the changeover taking place overnight. The hooks that suspended the track in the air on that night still remain in place today.

Next door to the station is the Whitechapel Gallery, in which Pablo Picasso’s Guernica was displayed in 1938 for the first and only time in the UK. On the external walls of the gallery climbs Rachael Whiteread’s frieze of golden leaves.