The line and station construction were authorised by the Great Eastern Railway (Metropolitan Station and Railways) Act 1864. The station was built on a site previously occupied by the Bethlem Royal Hospital, adjacent to Broad Street station, west of Bishopsgate and facing onto Liverpool Street to the south. The development land was compulsorily purchased, displacing around 3,000 residents of the parish of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate. Around 7,000 people living in tenements around Shoreditch were evicted to complete the line towards Liverpool Street, while the City of London Theatre and City of London Gasworks were both demolished. To manage the disruption caused by rehousing, the company was required by the 1864 Act to run daily low-cost workmen's trains from the station.