Brockley Hill tube station

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Brockley Hill
Location
Place Brockley Hill
Local authority Hertsmere
History
Opened by Never Opened
Planned by London Underground
Platforms 2


Brockley Hill tube station was an unbuilt London Underground station in the Brockley Hill area of north London. The planned location of the station was close to Edgwarebury Park and adjacent to the north side of the current roundabout junction of the A41 (Watford Bypass) and the A410 roads.

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[edit] History

Planned Bushey Heath extension of Northern Line
Planned Bushey Heath extension of Northern Line

The station was the first of three planned by London Underground in 1935 for an extension of the Northern Line from Edgware to Bushey Heath. There was considerable debate about the name for the proposed station, with Edgewarebury, North Edgware and All Souls all being proposed before settling on Brockley Hill.

The previous station on the route was the existing Edgware Underground station. The next station to the northwest would have been Elstree South.

The extension was part of the Northern Heights project which was intended to electrify a number of steam-operated London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) branch lines and to incorporate them into the Northern Line. The powers to build the extension came from the purchase in 1922 of the unbuilt Watford and Edgware Railway which had planned an extension of the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway to Watford Junction via Bushey, but had never been able to raise the capital required for construction to start.

How Brockley Hill tube station would appear on the London Underground Map today if the Northern Line extension from Edgware to Bushey Heath and Mill Hill East was completed
How Brockley Hill tube station would appear on the London Underground Map today if the Northern Line extension from Edgware to Bushey Heath and Mill Hill East was completed

Construction works on the Northern Heights project began in the late 1930s but were interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. Most of the work undertaken to that date had been carried out on the existing LNER branch tracks but some work between Edgware and Bushey Heath had taken place. The route of the new rail line had been laid out and some earthworks had been constructed. On the site of Brockley Hill station construction of the arches of a viaduct that would have carried the track over low ground had been begun when work stopped.

The sites of all three new stations were in semi-rural locations and, as it had elsewhere, it was intended that the opening of the new section of Underground line would stimulate the construction of new residential estates that the stations would then serve. After the war, new legislation was introduced with the intention of limiting the continuing expansion of urban areas into their surrounding countryside This legislation created the Green Belt around London and the area designated included the area covered by the new Northern Line extension. Without the possibility of constructing the new housing estates, the new line had no purpose and the plans for the extension were cancelled in 1950. Some consideration was given to finishing the station at Brockley Hill, as it had some nearby housing and the site lay just within the green belt; the line beyond to Bushey Heath would then have been kept for access to the depot. Analysis showed that the capacity needed without the Bushey extension could be sufficiently accommodated by developing LNER's former Highgate depot, and the entire route was abandoned.

In subsequent years the viaduct arches were partially demolished, leaving just stumps of abandoned brickwork in a field to mark the planned location of the station. Earthworks running from the station site parallel with the bypass indicate the route to the next station at Elstree South.

Recent developments in the area will see a great increase in population, with the Stonegrove estate being redeveloped to have over double its previous housing density. Despite this potential customer base, there are no plans to consider the short extension to the station to serve them; so for the foreseeable future the ruined arches will remain as a monument to the abandoned works.


    Abandoned Northern Heights Extension    
Preceding station   London Underground   Following station
Elstree South   Northern Line   Edgware

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Coordinates: 51.62421° N 0.28666° W