Harefield Road tube station

Infobox Closed London station
name=Harefield Road


owner=Never Opened
planner=London Underground
locale=Ruislip
platforms=2
tubestation=yes

Harefield Road was a proposed London Underground station on the western extension of the Central Line beyond the current terminus of the line 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 the 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 Green Belt area and the intended developments were, therefore, no longer allowed. Consequently, the extension was cut back to West Ruislip and it opened in stages during 1947 and 1948.

The Central Line station site - the Harvil Road overbridge - was chosen because an earlier station had existed at the same place on the GW&GCJR lines. This station was named South Harefield Halt and opened on 24 September 1928. It was served by shuttle trains forming the main line local service to Uxbridge, 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 taken place; traffic was so thin that the station closed again after traffic on 30 September 1931. 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. There is now no sign at the site of the 1928 station.

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