Crouch End railway station

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Crouch End

Location

Place

Crouch End

Local authority

Haringey

History

Opened by

Great Northern Railway

Platforms

Key dates

Opened 1867
Closed 1954

Replaced by

none

Tube Portal

Crouch End railway station is a former station in the Crouch End area of north London. It was located between Stroud Green station and Highgate station on Crouch End Hill just north of its junction with Hornsey Lane. The station building was located on the road bridge over the railway but nothing remains of the structure today.

[edit] History

The station was built by the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway and opened on 22 August 1867. The line ran from Finsbury Park to Edgware via Highgate with branches to Alexandra Palace and High Barnet. After the 1921 Railways Act created the Big Four railway companies, the line was, from 1923, part of the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER).

In 1935 London Underground planned, as part of its "New Works Programme" programme to take over the line from LNER, 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 Finsbury Park, 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 Crouch End station were ended by British Railways on 3 July 1954 along with the rest of the line between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace.

How Crouch End 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.

The line continued to be used for goods into the 1960s and by London Underground for train stock movements until 6 October 1970 when it was completely closed. 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.