Harefield Road tube station

Harefield Road tube station was a proposed London Underground station on the western extension of the Central line beyond its current terminus at West Ruislip.

Under the London Passenger Transport Board's 1935-1940 New Works programme, the station would have been built on the existing Great Western & Great Central Joint Railway (GW&GCJR) line between West Ruislip and Denham, the extension's intended terminus.

Like many other new stations built by London Underground in rural areas around the capital, the construction of the station was intended to stimulate new housing developments in what was a rural part of Middlesex. Works on the extension were postponed during World War II and, after the war, green belt legislation was introduced to limit the expansion of urban areas. The area beyond West Ruislip was within the designated Metropolitan Green Belt and the intended developments were no longer allowed. Consequently the extension was cut back to West Ruislip, and opened in stages in 1947 and 1948.

Earlier station

The Central Line station site - immediately west of the Harvil Road overbridge - was that of an earlier station on the GW&GCJR line. That station opened on 24 September 1928 as "Harefield Halt" and was renamed "South Harefield Halt" in May 1929.^[1] It was served by shuttle trains forming the main line local service between Uxbridge High Street, Denham and Gerrards Cross. However, the station lay two miles south of Harefield village and the building boom for which the later Central Line extension was intended to cater had not occurred; traffic was so thin that the Halt closed again on 1 October 1931.^[2] The small goods yard closed at the end of 1952, and the site is now occupied by a commercial company: it has no rail access. The location of Denham East Junction lies immediately to the west of the old goods yard. No trace remains of the 1928 halt.

References

External links

• Map sources