Hounslow Town tube station

Infobox Closed London station
name=Hounslow Town


owner=Metropolitan District Railway
locale=Hounslow
platforms=2
start=1883
Closed 1886
Reopened 1903
end=1909
replace=Hounslow Central
Hounslow East
tubestation=yes

Hounslow Town was a London Underground station in Hounslow in west London. The station was at the east end of Hounslow High Street at the junction with Kingsley Road. Its site is now occupied by Hounslow bus garage.

History

Hounslow Town station was opened by the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR, now the District Line) on 1 May 1883 as the terminus of a new extension of the MDR from Acton Town. The station was constructed with the intention of continuing the line south to join the tracks of the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) close to Hounslow station. To facilitate this the tracks were built at an elevated level in readiness to cross the High Street via a bridge. The L&SWR objected to the MDR connecting to its tracks as the new MDR route to central London would compete with its own route to Waterloo and the extension was never undertaken.

In 1884 a branch was constructed from shortly north of Hounslow Town to Hounslow Barracks (now Hounslow West). The branch line was constructed as single track and initially had no intermediate stations between the terminus and Osterley & Spring Grove (now Osterley).

Following its failure to extend south from Hounslow Town, the MDR turned its attention to the new Barracks branch and closed Hounslow Town station on 31 March 1886 less than three years after it had been opened. A new station, Heston & Hounslow (now Hounslow Central), was opened on the Barracks branch as its replacement the following day, 1 April 1886.

In 1903 Hounslow Town was reopened. Trains were divided at Osterley with part running to Hounslow West and the other part to Hounslow Town as a short shuttle. Electrification of the MDR's tracks took place between 1903 and 1905 with electric trains replacing steam trains on the Hounslow branch from 13 June 1905. When the branch was electrified, the track between Osterley and Hounslow Central was closed and a new loop was opened from Hounslow Town back to Hounslow Central. Trains would run from Osterley to Hounslow Town then reverse and run to Hounslow West.

This method of operation was unsuccessful and short-lived. On 2 May 1909 the track between Hounslow Central and Osterley was reopened with a new Hounslow Town station (now Hounslow East) located about 300m west of the loop to the old station. The old Hounslow Town station and its two loop tracks were closed for good.

Today, nothing remains of Hounslow Town station and the site is now occupied by Hounslow Bus Station (operated by London United Busways), and a sign in front of the bus station gives a brief history of the station. The Garage itself is now planned to be extensively rebuilt 2007.

External links

* Hounslow Town station, showing the elevated platforms.