Caledonian Road Station will close for eight months next year, it has been announced today.

The Underground station is to undergo lift refurbishments from January 4 until mid-August, Transport for London (TfL) said.

In a letter to residents, TfL managing director Nick Brown said: “The lifts at the station are around 30 years old, are unreliable and need to be refurbished.

“This decision has not been taken lightly and we will be working really hard to complete this vital work as quickly as possible.

“We explored in detail the option of refurbishing the lifts one at a time in order to keep the station open. However, this was neither the safest nor least disruptive option for customers.”

He explained: “If only one ageing lift was in operation, the larger volume of customers using it would put additional stress on the remaining aged lift and would increase the risk of customers becoming trapped should the lift fail.

“As access to the other lift shaft would be restricted because of works, rescuing customers in a single lift without full access to the entire lift shaft would take longer.”

Mr Brown added: “Safety is paramount to us, as is ensuring all investment in improving stations on our network is done as efficiently and with the least disruption possible.

“We are pleased that we can make this investment in Caledonian Road Underground station to refurbish the already failing lifts with modern, more reliable ones – and that we can do so with zero safety risk to our customers.”

During the period when the station is closed, customers are advised to use Holloway Road Underground station, a nine to 13-minute walk away, or Caledonian Road & Barnsbury Overground station, a five to 10-minute walk away.