Hammersmith & Chiswick railway station

Hammersmith & Chiswick railway station was in west London. Originally named "Hammersmith" it became "Hammersmith & Chiswick" in 1880.^[1]

History

The station was opened on 8 April 1858 by the North & South Western Junction Railway (N&SWJR) on the site of a goods yard which had opened on 1 May 1857 on Chiswick High Road in what was then a rural area.^[2] It was in neither town but midway between Hammersmith and Chiswick, and was intended to serve both.

The station was at the end of a 1½-mile (2.5 km) branch line which went northward from the North London Railway line at South Acton and turned sharply to run south into Hammersmith & Chiswick.

The station was not purpose built but was a converted private house. In 1904, a writer described it as "abounding with flowers, and resembling rather the terminus of some far distant country branch line than what one might expect to find at a place bearing the dual distinction of the names of two west London suburbs".^[3]

Operation

Until the interchange station at South Acton was opened in 1880, the line employed an unusual mode of operation. Southbound North London Railway trains to Kew (which was on the western chord to the Hounslow Loop near the present Kew Bridge station) included a carriage for passengers travelling to Hammersmith & Chiswick. This carriage was uncoupled from the train immediately south of the junction. The N&SWJR's sole locomotive would then reverse on to the mainline, attach the carriage and take it down the branch.^[1]

In 1880 an additional platform was built at South Acton, and from then on passengers would change at South Acton to access the branch.

For such an isolated station, train service was good. Before the interchange at South Acton opened one train per hour served the branch, while thereafter until closure there was train every half hour.^[2]

Other stations on the branch

In an effort to boost passenger numbers, which had been badly affected by the opening of the nearby District line station at Stamford Brook, three intermediate halts were built in 1909, at Rugby Road, Woodstock Road, and Bath Road.^[1] These were little-used, and trains stopped only on request. All three halts were closed only eight years after opening.

Closure

In 1917 all passenger services on the branch were suspended as a wartime economy measure and were never resumed. Hammersmith & Chiswick station remained in use as a goods station, primarily to serve a large coal depot. Following the passage of the Clean Air Act 1956 the demand for coal ceased, and the station and the branch were permanently closed on 3 May 1965.^[2] The station site was redeveloped in the 1980s and no trace remains.

References

External links

• Subterranea Britannica entry on the station with photographs of the station in the last days of operation
• Disused Railways entry on the branch
• Photographs of the remaining structures on the route (2005)