History
Ochanomizu Station opened on 31 December 1904 when the Kōbu Railway pushed its line from Iidamachi to a then-westerly site near today's Ochanomizu police box. Nationalisation in October 1906 transferred the station to the state, and on 1 July 1932 the Sōbu Main Line began through-running into the present-day site between Ochanomizu and Hijiri bridges as part of an outside-track Chūō / inside-track Sōbu directional layout designed by Shigeru Itō in International Style. The Teito Rapid Transit Authority opened the Marunouchi Line platform on 20 January 1954. After a 1989 redesign competition was abandoned, JR East announced step-free works on 26 March 2010, lifting accessibility long deferred on the river-and-cliff-bound site.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
After a 1989 open-call competition selected a three-storey design that would have housed an aquarium and an art museum above an arched concourse, the project was abandoned when JR East concluded the cantilevers needed to span the operating tracks were not feasible without halting trains; the 1932 structure stayed in service into the 21st century.