Bow was served not only by the NLR but also by Great Eastern Railway (GER) trains to Fenchurch Street and a shuttle service to Plaistow.

After being left derelict, Bow station was ultimately demolished during the construction of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) which reused the old NLR line.

An ornate fountain was installed in 1872 to commemorate the local firm Bryant and May who had led a campaign to defeat the match tax proposed by then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Robert Lowe.

This was a steeply graded line and heavy trains required banking assistance (a second locomotive at the rear) from Bow to get up the gradient in the early days of operation.

Services between Islington and Fenchurch Street started operating on 26 September 1850 but the line to Poplar docks was not opened (to goods traffic until 1 January 1852.

The opening of Broad Street and Poplar East India Road resulted in a change to the services that served Bow.

The station was comprehensively rebuilt when the curve to the London Tilbury & Southend Railway (LTSR) at Bromley was being built in the late 1860s.

Through trains from the NLR calling at Bow ran to Thameshaven (for connecting Margate steamer), Chalk Farm to Southend (1869-1886) and an LT&SR operated Chalk Farm to Southend service ran between 1907 and 1914 using an LT&SR locomotive and NLR coaching stock.

That service was in decline at this point and on 1 July 1890 all NLR trains were cut back to (Poplar East India Road).

The withdrawal of the GER shuttle must have also simplified operations in the area which had four Broad Street services and frequent goods trains to and from the docks.

[8] During World War I the Plaistow shuttle was withdrawn from service as a wartime economy measure on 1 July 1916 and thereafter the platforms were only used for excursion travel until the 1920s.

Planned prior to grouping the LMS operating an up and down morning and down evening peak hour services from 1 January 1923 using the Bromley to Bow curve.

The service's carriages were stabled at Devons Road between the peaks and the locomotive probably returned to Plaistow LT&S engine shed.

By 1927 there were three trains per day from the LTS line to Broad Street with one starting at Thorpe Bay, one at Southend and one at Tilbury.

Significant improvements to the peak hour LTS line timetable (following rebuilding and re-signalling) in February 1935 saw the service discontinued from April 1935.

The Bow Institute, by this time known as the Emerald Ballroom, suffered a fire on 15 October 1956 and the grandiose upper storeys were demolished soon after.