[10] Platform 2, serving westbound trains, is connected by a single lift to Farringdon station on the Elizabeth line.

[12] The modern entrance gives access from Aldersgate Street, through a 1990s building,[13] to a much older footbridge leading to the eastern end of the platforms.

[7][14] It was built on the site of an earlier building at 134 Aldersgate Street, which for many years had a sign claiming "This was Shakespeare's House".

[15] The building was very close to the nearby Fortune Playhouse, and a subsidy roll from 1598 shows a "William Shakespeare" as the owner of the property, however, there is no documentary evidence indicating they and the playwright were the same person.

[7][8][9] Train services were disrupted during the Second World War when the station suffered severe bomb damage during the Blitz, particularly in December 1940.

[18] This led to the removal of the upper floors,[13] and in 1955 the remainder of the street-level building was also demolished and the glass roof was replaced with awnings.

[13] At the west end of the platforms may be seen the beginnings of the complex of tunnels leading under Smithfield meat market.

[13] A display on the history of the station, including text and photographs, is just inside the barriers, on the southern side of the main entrance corridor.

[32] On 26 April 1897, a bomb exploded under a seat in a first-class carriage in the station, injuring ten people of whom two died later.

The original plan of a new footbridge spanning the tracks to the eastbound platform was not proceeded with on the grounds of engineering difficulties.