Alperton tube station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alperton | |
Location | |
---|---|
Place | Alperton |
Local authority | London Borough of Brent |
Operations | |
Managed by | London Underground |
Platforms in use | 2 |
Transport for London | |
Zone | 4 |
2006 annual usage | 2.765 million † |
2007 annual usage | 3.006 million † |
History | |
1903 1932 1932 |
Opened (MDR) Start (Piccadilly Line) End (District Line) |
Transport for London List of London stations: Underground | National Rail |
|
† Data from Transport for London [1] | |
Alperton is a London Underground station on the Uxbridge branch of the Piccadilly Line. The station is between Sudbury Town and Park Royal. It is located on Ealing Road (A4089 road) a short distance from the junction with Bridgewater Road (A4005) and is close to Alperton Bus Garage and the Paddington branch of the Grand Union Canal. The station is in Travelcard Zone 4
Contents |
[edit] History
Perivale Alperton station was opened on June 28, 1903 by the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR, now the District Line) on its new extension to South Harrow from Park Royal & Twyford Abbey.[1] Park Royal & Twyford Abbey had itself opened five days earlier.[1]
This new extension was, together with the existing tracks back to Acton Town, the first section of the Underground's surface lines to be electrified and operate electric instead of steam trains.[2] The Deep level tube lines open at that time (City & South London Railway, Waterloo & City Railway and Central London Railway) had been electrically powered from the start.
The station was subsequently renamed Alperton on October 7, 1910.[1]
The original station building was a modest timber framed structure and in 1930 and 1931 this was demolished and replaced by a new station in preparation for the handover of the branch from the District Line to the Piccadilly Line. The new station was designed by Charles Holden in a modern European style using brick, reinforced concrete and glass. Like the stations at Sudbury Town and Sudbury Hill to the north and others that Holden designed elsewhere for the east and west Piccadilly Line extensions such as Acton Town and Oakwood, Alperton station features a tall block-like ticket hall rising above a low horizontal structure that contains station offices and shops. The brick walls of the ticket hall are punctuated with panels of clerestory windows and the structure is capped with a flat concrete slab roof. Alperton shared with Greenford (on the Central Line) the distinction of being one of the only two stations to have an escalator going up to a platform. The escalator served the eastbound platform and had originally been used at the South Bank exhibition of the Festival of Britain.[3] Now out of use, the escalator remains in place behind a wall.[4]
On July 4, 1932, the Piccadilly Line was extended to run west of its original terminus at Hammersmith sharing the route with the District Line to Ealing Common. From Ealing Common to South Harrow, the District Line was replaced by the Piccadilly Line.[1]
[edit] Services
The typical off-peak service is a train in each direction every ten minutes. Half of northbound trains terminate at Rayners Lane and the other half continue to the terminus of the line at Uxbridge.
[edit] External links
- London's Transport Museum Photographic Archive
- Alperton station, 1916
- Ticket office, 1927
- New station, 1933
- Ticket hall, 1933. Showing structure of reinforced concrete roof
- View of platforms and shelter, 1958
- Alperton Station, 2001. With appearance marred by rooftop safety barriers
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Rose, Douglas (1999). The London Underground, A Diagrammatic History. Douglas Rose/Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-219-4.
- ^ Clive's Underground Line Guides, District Line, Dates
- ^ London Transport Museum, caption to picture of escalator
- ^ Clive's Underground Line Guides - Vertical Transport, Escalators
Preceding station | London Underground | Following station | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
towards Uxbridge
|
Piccadilly line |
towards Cockfosters
|