Tracking area’s rail history
UXBRIDGE IS NOW LINKED TO THE UNDERGROUND NETWORK, BUT THE TUBE STATION ISN’T THE FIRST TO SERVE THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
UXBRIDGE residents will no doubt be familiar with the town’s Tube station. The beautiful art deco building is well worth a visit and the station harks back to another era on the London Underground with character that is all-too-often being stripped from stations when they get renovated.
But did you know the town had two other stations? One in Cowley and one right by the Tube in Vine Street. The Uxbridge town centre station opened in the 1860s and lasted 80 years before being dismantled after almost 100 years serving the area.
Have you ever wondered why the train doesn’t come to Uxbridge? Especially considering it calls at Hayes and Harlington, West Drayton and Heathrow Airport, all of which are so close by?
Well it once did. The Uxbride (Vine Street) branch was operated by Great Western Railway and opened in 1856 as a route from West Drayton on the main line.
Thanks to the canals and its location on the road from London to Oxford, Uxbridge always had a lot going for it in terms of trade.
But the lack of a rail route to the town started to pinch as the rail boom of the 1800s took off.
Even though parliament agreed in 1846, the short 2.5 mile branch was simply not making any progress until construction eventually started in 1853.
A station was built on the south side of Vine Street from yellow brick with red brickwork in the arches.
The L-shaped station had a number of rooms inside including toilets, first class waiting rooms, ladies waiting rooms and many more.
It featured a central island platform flanked on either side by tracks, while a trainshed covered the roof of the platform areas.
Slowly but surely, services to West Drayton picked up, and by the 1870s, there were even services straight to Paddington.
Even more impressively, by the early 1900s, you could go direct from Uxbridge to Victoria and Liverpool Street, a feat which is not possible today without changing trains. Another station was opened on the line at Cowley.
But the Metropolitan Railway also wanted in, first building a station in Belmont Road in 1904 and later moving to Uxbridge High Street, the current station, in 1938.
Not only was there competition from the Underground, but a tram also began running from Uxbridge to Shepherd’s Bush, further increasing competition in the town.
Soon the rooms inside the station were converted to shops and store rooms, but business was not healthy enough to justify the short branch. In 1910 the District line had also connected with Uxbridge station, eventually becoming teh Piccadilly line in 1933.
Great Western tried to make the station and the line work, but eventually the line was making a loss and had to go.
The final decision was made in 1962 and despite protests at the time, the station closed. Freight and parcel services were cut by 1964 and the station demolition began.
Tracks were lifted in 1965, with the platform following soon after. The building itself managed to hang on until 1968, 100 years after it was built, but was pulled down.
The whole area now lies under the A4020 Hillingdon Road, while the office building Hertz House sits above where the station building would have been.