Edgware railway station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Edgware | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | |
| Place | Edgware |
| History | |
| Opened by | Great Northern Railway |
| Platforms | 1 |
| Key dates | Opened 1867 Closed 1939 |
| Replaced by | none |
Edgware railway station is a former London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) station in the Edgware area of north London. It should not be confused with the similarly named Edgware Underground station on the Northern Line of the London Underground. That is a separate station approximately 200 metres to the north of the site of Edgware railway station.
[edit] History
The station was built as the northern terminus of the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway and was opened on 22 August 1867 by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) (which had taken over the EH&LR) in what was then rural Middlesex. The line ran from Finsbury Park to Edgware via Highgate with branches to Alexandra Palace and High Barnet. The previous station on the line (actually it was only a Halt) was Mill Hill (The Hale).
The line became part of the LNER in 1923 after the 1921 Railways Act created the Big Four railway companies.
In 1935, London Underground planned to take over the line from LNER as part of its "New Works Programme". The track would be modernised for use with electric trains and amalgamated with the Northern Line. The integration of the line would have meant the closure of Edgware railway station and the diversion of its tracks into the Underground station which would have been expanded to take the additional traffic. The Northern Line was also to be extended from Edgware to Bushey Heath in Hertfordshire with three new stations at Brockley Hill, Elstree South and Bushey Heath.
Works began in the late 1930s and were advanced when they were interrupted and halted by the Second World War. The section of line between Finchley Central station and Edgware was closed to passenger services on 10 September 1939. On the Edgware branch of the line, only the works on the section from Finchley Central to Mill Hill East were completed. That section reopened with Underground services in 1941 as a one-station spur.
After the war a shortage of funds and the passing of Green Belt legislation lead to the cancellation of the unfinished Northern Line elements of the "New Works Programme" in 1950. The extension of the line to Bushey Heath was no longer viable as the new housing developments that it would have stimulated and served could no longer be constructed on land designated as Green Belt. Additionally, without the extended line, the completion of the work between Edgware and Mill Hill East was no longer needed. The only station on that section of the line was Mill Hill (The Hale) and passengers from Mill Hill could easily use the nearby Mill Hill Broadway station on the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) to travel into London.
Edgware railway station and the tracks to Mill Hill East continued to be used for goods services until 1964 when it was completely closed. Today the track has been removed and the platforms and station buildings have been demolished. The site of Edgware railway station is now occupied by a shopping centre, alongside part of whose car park runs a small stretch of the former trackbed, leading to the the still-standing bridge over the Northern Line tracks into Edgware Underground station.
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