Mill Hill (The Hale) railway station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mill Hill (The Hale) | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | |
| Place | Mill Hill |
| History | |
| Opened by | Great Northern Railway |
| Platforms | 1 |
| Key dates | Opened 1906 Closed 1939 |
| Replaced by | none |
Mill Hill (The Hale) railway station is a former station in the Mill Hill area of north London. It was located near Mill Hill Broadway on a closed section of railway between Mill Hill East Underground station and another closed station at Edgware.
[edit] History
The railway line was built by 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 station was not opened until 1906. 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 to take over the line from LNER as part of its "New Works Programme". The line was to be modernised for use with electric trains and amalgamated with the Northern Line.
Works began in the late 1930s and were at an advanced stage 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 lead to the cancellation of the unfinished Northern Line elements of the "New Works Programme" in 1950. Mill Hill (The Hale) was the only station between Edgware and Mill Hill East and, as Edgware was already served by the Underground from its own station in the town and Mill Hill was served by the nearby London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Mill Hill Broadway station, there was little need for the completion of the track modernisation works and the reopening of the line for passenger services. The line continued to be used for goods until 1964 when it was completely closed.
Until the early 1970s it was possible to buy an Underground ticket to "Mill Hill The Hale" even though no such station had existed for years. This enabled passengers to keep their tickets upon alighting at Mill Hill East and to travel onward by 240A bus anywhere between Mill Hill and Edgware.
Today the track has been removed and the platforms and station buildings have been demolished. The site of Mill Hill (The Hale) station was covered by material excavated for the construction of slip roads to the nearby section of the M1 motorway.
In 2007 work began to build flats on the site of the former station, but the bridge over the former tracks remains.
| Preceding station | Disused railways | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edgware | EH&LR Mill Hill Line |
Mill Hill East | ||
| Abandoned Northern Heights Extension | ||||
| Preceding station |  London Underground |
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edgware | Northern Line | Mill Hill East |
