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/

West Finchley

 

The first thing I noticed when I stepped off the train was the quiet. No passengers hurrying to get on or off the train. In fact, no passengers at all. A small station that surprisingly had public toilets. Not a feature you find at central London tube stations. 

West Finchley station was opened by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) in 1933 on its line to High Barnet. It was opened to serve the new housing developments and was only ever going to be a small station. This section of the LNER was incorporated into the Underground network in the late 1930s. This station was first served by the Northern Line in 1940. For the following year both LNER and Northern Line trains used the station. The LNER services stopped in 1941.

This is the main exit/entrance to the station taking me onto Nether Street. There is a smaller exit on the other side of the tracks but that is only open Mon to Fri.

There was a small shopping parade next to the station. Being a Sunday morning the majority of the shops were closed.

I turned right onto the first road I came across as there seemed to be some greenery at the bottom. Once again, I came across the Dollis Brook Greenway, but this section looked far better kept than the previous sections I've visited. It had been raining before I arrived and everything looked clean and fresh. 

I could hear the river flowing gently through the undergrowth making its way towards the Thames.

Volunteers were out collecting litter and chatting to passers by.

The Greenway took me passed allotments - small patches of land where people usually grow vegetables rather than flowers.

The history of allotments goes back to the 1500s when peasants shared common land to graze animals and grow crops. Between 1604 and 1914, Parliament passed over 5200 individual Enclosure Acts that turned shared common land and open fields into private property. This ended traditional farming rights and the rural landscape of Britain changed forever. As compensation for the change in land use, small patches of land were given to the rural poor to grow food. During the Industrial revolution these areas of land were expanded near cities to help workers grow their own food and feed their families. This was followed by a wartime campaign to 'Dig for Victory'. Currently there is often a long waiting list for people to rent an allotment.

 

After following the Greenway for about 20 mins, I decided it was time to turn round and go back to the station to have a look at the other side. Walking along the residential streets with their tidy gardens, I wasn't sure I would find anything else of interest but then I hit the main road with a sign for North Finchley. Here I came across the old Gaumont Cinema which has been converted into the Art Box.

Beside the staircase they had a timeline of its history:

They had a lovely cafe inside where I had a sit down with a cup of tea and croissant.

The rest of the High Street had a feel of faded grandeur about it. I'm sure it must have been a very elegant place at the turn of the 20th century, but now there is nothing Grand about the art deco 1930s Grand Arcade.

 

The once beautifully tiled floor is dirty and you can only just see the original pattern. the shops inside the bazaar have long since closed down.

Elsewhere on the High Street there was a variety of Middle Eastern shops and restaurants. 

These two buildings look as though they were once cinemas on this long, straight High Street.

This is Tally Ho corner where Ballards Lane in the West meets the High Road (Great North Road) from the East. The corner was named in the 1830s after the Tally-Ho Company which maintained stables for about 16 horses. The junction was a staging post and horse changing station for fast horse drawn mail and stagecoaches on their way to and from Birmingham to London.

On the wedge of land created by the merging of the roads is the Tally Ho pub. Built in 1927 it replaced

 the Park Road Hotel on the same site.

There was a sign close by directing me to the next station so I decided to wander down the road and unusually for me visit two stations in one day. I spent a couple of very pleasant hours discovering this area of Finchley so am hopeful I will find one or two things of interest at the next station.

Mill Hill East

 Late on a Sunday afternoon, I decided to visit the next Underground station. We had been in the middle of a heat wave last week in London with temps between 35-39 deg C. We had been given a red alert meaning danger to life for vulnerable groups. Today was cooler and cloudy by mid afternoon so I decided to travel to Mill Hill East, the next station on the Northern Line.

 

This station is the only one on this branch of the Northern Line.

This branch line was originally a proposed extension to the Northern Line to Edgware and then further into Hertfordshire. Three new stations were planned at Brockley Hill, Elstree South and Bushey Heath. The extension was announced in 1935 and construction began shortly afterwards. However with the onset of WW2, plans for a tube extension were put on hold. Post war Green Belt legislation meant that the proposed building of new commuter towns could not go ahead and as a consequence there was no reason to continue with the Northern Line extension. The Mill Hill East section had already been built and so survived. It is a small station with two platforms. As this is a terminus there was always one train waiting at the platform so I couldn't get a clear photo. I don't think I missed much though.

My first and lasting impressions of the area were the new housing estates. There was no evidence of the gas works or military establishments that used to be here just a variety of new housing.

Just passed the station was a green walkway taking you into another housing estate which looked more upmarket. 

From this point I could see the green topped Tower of the old Christ's College that I saw when I visited the previous station at Finchley Central.

I walked through and came out at a large Virgin Leisure Cena atre and Waitrose. The housing industry refers to this as the Waitrose effect. If you look at houses for sale in this area they all mention the proximity of the property to the Virgin Leisre Centre and Waitrose supermarket.

There were other smaller shops, nearby.

Walking further on I found the Dollis Brook Greenway. If I had followed it I assume It would have taken me back to the path by the large viaduct that I saw when I visited the previous station.

Despite the continued dry weather we are experiencing, there was still plenty of water in the river.

I wandered around this pleasant residential area for a bit longer  but could find no buildings of historical or architectural interest.  I have been spoiled by the last few stops which all have a variety of places to research. There are just four more stations for me to visit on the Northern Line so I am hoping to find  one or two more surprises.