Ravenscourt Park tube station

Ravenscourt Park is a London Underground station located in west Hammersmith, west London. The station is served by the District Line and is between Hammersmith and Stamford Brook stations.

The station is located between Dalling Road (B408) and Ravenscourt Road and is about 100 m north of King Street (A315). The station takes its name from the nearby Ravenscourt Park and is in Travelcard Zone 2.

The station also maintains platforms for the Piccadilly Line but these are only put to use occasionally. This is usually on the occasion of engineering works taking place on other sections of the District Line, and during all-night services on New Years Eve. London Assembly member Murad Qureshi has called for Piccadilly Line trains to stop at Ravenscourt Park on a regular basis with an [http://www.muradqureshi.com/index.php?id=265 online petition] .

History

The line through Ravenscourt Park station was opened on 1 January 1869 by the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) on a new branch line to Richmond. The branch was 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 initially the next station west from Grove Road station in Hammersmith (also now closed) was Turnham Green.

Ravenscourt Park station was opened as Shaftesbury Road by the L&SWR on 1 April 1873.

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) also started a service to Richmond via Grove Road station.

On 5 May 1878 The Midland Railway began running a circuitous service known as the Super Outer Circle from St Pancras to Earl's Court via Cricklewood and South Acton. It operated over a now disused connection between the North London Railway and the L&SWR Richmond branch. The service was not a success and was ended on 30 September 1880.

The Richmond branch was a major stimulus to residential development along the route and traffic on the line was high. The MDR's service between Richmond, Hammersmith and central London was more direct than either 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 and it took much of the custom.

On 1 March 1888, the station was given its present name in advance of the nearby park being opened to the public.

From 1 January 1894, the GWR began sharing the MR's Richmond service and served Turnham Green once again, meaning that passengers from Ravenscourt Park could travel on the services of four 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 Ravenscourt Park. The tracks between Acton Town and central London were electrified on 1 July 1905. Whilst MDR services were operated with electric trains, the L&SWR, 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 Ravenscourt Park to the MDR (by then known as the District Railway) and L&SWR. The L&SWR constructed an additional pair of non-electrified tracks between Turnham Green and its junction with the District at Hammersmith and opened these on 3 December 1911 although their use was short-lived as the District's trains out-competed the L&SWR's to the extent that the L&SWR withdrew its service between Richmond and Addison Road on 3 June 1916, leaving the District as the sole operator.

In the early 1930s, the London Electric Railway, precursor of the London Underground and owner of the District and Piccadilly Lines, began the reconstruction of the tracks between Hammersmith and Acton Town to enable the Piccadilly Line to be extended from Hammersmith to Uxbridge and Hounslow West (then the terminus of what is now the Heathrow branch). The inner tracks at Ravenscourt Park were designated for the Piccadilly Line between the stopping lines of the District Line. Services on the Piccadilly Line began running through Ravenscourt Park on 4 July 1932.

To the east of the station, the remaining parts of the viaduct taking the L&SWR's tracks to Grove Road station are situated between the eastbound District and Piccadilly Lines on the approach to Hammersmith station.

External links

* [http://photos.ltmcollection.org London's Transport Museum Photographic Archive]
**ltmcollection|19/9887819.jpg|Ravenscourt Park station, 1890
**ltmcollection|i0000cnn.jpg|View of platforms, 1921
**ltmcollection|26/9871426.jpg|Booking Hall, 1928
**ltmcollection|72/997072.jpg|Ravenscourt Park station, 1932
**ltmcollection|32/9871432.jpg|Booking Hall, 1956
**ltmcollection|65/9861365.jpg|Ravenscourt Park station, 1956

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