Muswell Hill railway station

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Muswell Hill

Location
Place	Muswell Hill
Local authority	Haringey
History
Opened by	Muswell Hill Railway
Platforms	2
Key dates	Opened 1873 Closed 1954
Replaced by	none
London Transport Portal

Muswell Hill railway station is a disused station in the Muswell Hill area of north London. It was located between Cranley Gardens station and Alexandra Palace station on Muswell Hill just north of the junction with Muswell Hill Place. Nothing remains of the station today and (like Cranley Gardens station, in part) its site is now occupied by a school.

[edit] History

The station was built by the Muswell Hill Railway (MHR) and opened under the name Alexandra Park (Muswell Hill) on 24 May 1873 to coincide with the opening of Alexandra Palace. The station was on a short branch line from the Great Northern Railway (GNR) station at Highgate to Alexandra Palace. The station name was changed to its name to the final form in 1875. In 1911 the line was taken over by the GNR. After the 1921 Railways Act created the Big Four railway companies, the line was, from 1923, part of the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER).

How Muswell Hill might have appeared on the London Underground Map today if the Northern Line extension from Highgate to Alexandra Palace and Finsbury Park was completed and opened to passengers.

In 1935 London Underground planned, as part of its "New Works Programme" programme to take over the line from LNER together with the LNER's routes from Finsbury Park to Edgware and High Barnet, modernise it for use with electric trains and amalgamate it with the Northern Line.

Works to modernise the track began in the late 1930s and were well advances when they were interrupted and halted by the Second World War. Works were completed from Highgate to High Barnet and Mill Hill East and that section was incorporated into the Northern Line between 1939 and 1941. Further works on the section between Highgate and Alexandra Palace were postponed and the line continued under the operation of the LNER. Because of wartime economies services were reduced to rush hours only, so that after the war the dwindling passenger numbers and a shortage of funds lead to the cancellation of the unfinished works in 1950 and passenger services to Muswell Hill station were ended by British Railways on 3 July 1954 along with the rest of the line between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace.

The line continued to be used for goods into until 18 May 1957 when it was closed completely. Today the track has been removed and the majority of platforms and station buildings have been demolished. The track bed between Muswell Hill and Finsbury Park is now a Parkland walk.