Woodside Park

 

This is the 50th station on the Northern Line out of 52. I am visiting the station on the same day as the previous one as they are not that far apart and I am a long way from home. As with the previous station it is small and quiet.

Woodside Park station was originally opened in 1872 as Torrington Park by the Great Northern Railway. The station was on a branch line from Finsbury Park to Edgware via Highgate. Then in 1923 it became part of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). Work began in the 1930s to incorporate the line into the London Underground network and extend it to High Barnet.The work was so far advanced in 1939, that, despite the war it was decided to complete it. The station was first served by Northern Line trains in April 1940.

The building at the end of the platform is an old signal box.

The box was opened in 1906 to control the station and goods yard, using a system that involved 20 levers. In the late 1930s this was replaced by full colour-light signalling controlled by miniature lever frames in substantial brick boxes at main junctions along the line. This made signal boxes obselete. I am surprised that this one still remains but it is apparently used for storage. 

I decided I would exit the station from the other side to have a look.

Usually these bookstands for the swapping of books are overflowing with donations. The powers that be decided that on some stations these book swaps were a fire hazard and wanted them banned. I believe after much public outrage, common sense took over and they have been reinstated.

I left the station via the East exit following a walkway which, once again brought me out at the Dollis Brook walkway.

 This walkway has been a feature of the last few stations I have visited and from this map I will come across it again at the next station. The brook travels south from Arkley then eventually joins the Mutton Brook to form the River Brent, which flows south and west before it meets The Thames at Brentford. T

I left the green of the walkway and returned to the road which was very residential. Even the church had been converted into flats.

I decided to return to the station and leave by the other exit. Looking back, the station looks more like a house than a railway station. Unusually there are no shops on either side of the station.

No shops but next to the station was a sign for a cafe. Not sure it is a cafe more like a coffee stall. It was closed anyway.

A school for neurodivergent young adults and chidren aged 7 to 19 who have a primary diagnoses of autism.  This building houses the lower school. The building would have started life as a large detached house but has now been extended at the back to provide further classrooms, therapy r0oms and a playground.

At the top of the road I am back on the same High Street that I mentioned in my last post. This mile post looks as though it has just been repainted. This post dates back to between 1874-1894 but it probably replaces an earlier milepost.

This is Finchley Library

On the building is a memorial reference to Oliver Postgate, a resident of Finchley, who created a number of children's TV programme.

After walking a little further along the High Street it became obvious that I had written about this area in my West Finchley post so it was time to go home. Just two morw stations to visit on this line which I am hoping to do before winter sets in/