Gunnersbury station

Gunnersbury station is a London Underground and National Rail station in Gunnersbury in west London. The station is served by the District Line and London Overground trains on the North London Line and is managed by London Underground. On the District Line the station is between Turnham Green and Kew Gardens stations. On the North London Line the station is between South Acton and Kew Gardens stations. The station is located off Chiswick High Road (A315) and is in Travelcard Zone 3.

History

The station was opened as Brentford Road on 1 January 1869 by the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) on a new branch line to Richmond built from the West London Joint Railway starting north of Addison Road station (now Kensington (Olympia)). The line ran through Shepherd's Bush and Hammersmith via a now closed curve and Grove Road station in Hammersmith (also now closed). A short connection was also made from the North & South Western Junction Railway (N&SWJR) line to Brentford meeting the L&SWR line immediately north of the station. This line was served by the North London Railway (NLR).

Brentford Road station originally had four platforms; two on the line to Richmond and two serving a loop (the Chiswick Curve) which connected to the line through Kew Bridge station.

Between 1 June 1870 and 31 October 1870 the Great Western Railway (GWR) briefly ran services from Paddington to Richmond via Hammersmith & City Railway (now the Hammersmith & City Line) tracks to Grove Road then on the L&SWR tracks through Gunnersbury.

The station was given its current name in 1871.

On 1 June 1877, the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR, now the District Line) opened a short extension from its terminus at Hammersmith to connect to the L&SWR tracks east of Ravenscourt Park station. The MDR then began running trains over the L&SWR tracks to Richmond. On 1 October 1877, the Metropolitan Railway (MR, now the Metropolitan Line) restarted the GWR's former service to Richmond via Grove Road station.

The MDR's service between Richmond, Hammersmith and central London was more direct than the NLR's route via Willesden Junction, the L&SWR's or the MR's routes via Grove Road station or the L&SWR's other route from Richmond via Clapham Junction. From 1 January 1894, the GWR began sharing the MR's Richmond service and served Gunnersbury once again, meaning that passengers from Gunnersbury could travel on the services of five operators.

Following the electrification of the MDR's own tracks north of Acton Town in 1903, the MDR funded the electrification of the tracks through Gunnersbury. The tracks on the Richmond branch were electrified on 1 August 1905. Whilst MDR services were operated with electric trains, the L&SWR, NLR, GWR and MR services continued to be steam hauled.

MR services were withdrawn on 31 December 1906 and GWR services were withdrawn on 31 December 1910 leaving operations at Gunnersbury to the MDR (by then known as the District Railway), the NLR and L&SWR. By 1916, the L&SWR's route through Hammersmith was being out-competed by the District to such a degree that the L&SWR withdrew its service between Richmond and Addison Road on 3 June 1916, leaving the District as the sole operator over that route.

In 1932 the Chiswick Curve was closed and the tracks were later removed. The site of the curve is now a housing estate known as Chiswick Village.

On 8 December 1954 the station was damanged by a tornado which ripped off the roof and injured six people [ [http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~taharley/1954_weather.htm History of UK Weather - 1954] [http://www.jamd.com/image/g/72773926 Photo of wreckage of Gunnersbury Station] ] . Almost exactly fifty-two years later, another tornado hit London, damaging several properties in the Kensal Rise area on 7 December 2006 [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6220000.stm BBC News Report of December 2006 Tornado] ] . In the 1960s the station was redeveloped with just the two platforms it currently possesses. The National Rail and London Underground services share the same tracks.

References

External links

* [http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/xls/station_usage_2005-06.xls Excel file displaying National Rail station usage information for 2005/06]
* [http://photos.ltmcollection.org London's Transport Museum Photographic Archive]
** ltmcollection|37/9886637.jpg|Gunnersbury station, 1928
** ltmcollection|45/9873945.jpg|Gunnersbury station, 1955
** ltmcollection|c8/i00001c8.jpg|View of platform, 2001
** ltmcollection|c7/i00001c7.jpg|Station Entrance, 2001