Harrow-on-the-Hill

This is the 14th station I have visited on the Metropolitan Line. The station was opened as Harrow in August 1880 when the Metropolitan Railway was extended from its previous terminus at Willesden Green. Four years later the name was changed to Harrow-on -the-Hill, which is a bit misleading as the village of Harrow-on-the-Hill is at the top of the hill. 

The journey out to Harrow-on-the-Hill wasn't too bad as they run fast and semi fast trains on this line. So instead of stopping at every station I got on the semi fast which stopped here. The Metropolitan line is the only underground line to offer this service. The station has four platforms that serve the Metropolitan line and two platforms that serve National Rail on the London Aylesbury line. This is the final Metropolitan line stop before the line splits.

The round ended art deco style waiting room is an interesting feature on the platform.

The station has two entrances which are linked by this passageway. During the station's opening hours it provides a useful shortcut preventing the longer walk round via the bridge.

I left the station via the exit on the right which took me past a few food shops and out onto College Road and the main shopping area.

  

It is a large travel interchange here with a bus station on the same road. 

Across the road from the station were a couple of shopping malls. They were only small, but they had lots of shops and it felt busy.

I returned to the station and walked through to the South exit. It is noticeably greener on this side of the station with a recreation ground across the road. The hill is 124m above sea level, so I decided to walk up there and have a look at the village.  

 This large statue of a leaf is symbolic of Harrow-on-the-Hill's green land. It is on Grove Open Space which I walked across to get to the road going uphill to the village.

At the other side of the green were some newly planted trees. 

This is the first memorial I have seen dedicated to the victims of Covid. It's good to be reminded that so many people died from Covid. To date over 200,000 have died in the UK. 

You enter the village with a view of Harrow School. The school was founded in 1572 under a Royal charter by Elizabeth I which was granted to John Lyon, a local wealthy farmer. The school was founded to provide free education for 30 poor boys of the parish. The School Master was allowed to accept 'foreigners' (boys from outside the parish) from whom he received fees. This private, independent school now has over 830 boys between the ages of 13 to 18. They are all boarders living in one of 12 houses within the village. Fees for 2022-23 are £46,710. Even if you could afford the fees, you still need to pass an entrance exam and probably have had your name down since birth. There are many famous old Harrovians such as Sir Winston Churchill, the actor Benedict Cumberbatch, Jawaharlal Nehru and so on.

This is part of the original building at Harrow. It was finished in 1615 and enlarged in 1820 and given its present distinctive appearance. 

I wandered down the High Street. It was very, very quiet in complete contrast to the High Street at the bottom of the hill by the station. It seems that the vast majority of buildings are owned by Harrow School.

One of the boarding houses.

There are a few restaurants and coffee shops. This was an interesting one with these sculptures above the doors but I couldn't find out anything about the history of the building.

This is the site of the former town well which was sunk in 1816 and was a primary source of drinking water to the residents of Harrow. In 1880 the well was replaced with this fountain. The fountain was not used for many. many years until 2004 when a restoration project run by Harrow on the Hill Trust and the London Borough of Harrow restored it and reintroduced the provision of drinking water.

After walking through the village, I stopped for lunch at The Doll's House. 

 

It was a mixture of shop and cafe.  

Being lunchtime groups of pupils from the school walked past. They were all dressed in light grey flannel trousers, dark navy blazers and straw hats. Their uniform also includes morning suits and top hats which are worn on Sundays. 

Whilst in the cafe I noticed a poster advertising free lunchtime concerts in the church. So once I had finished lunch I wandered up to the church to listen to four 13yr old boys from the school each playing a short piece of classical music. Three played the violin and the fourth played a cello. I think they probably played in order of proficiency. They were all good but the final violinist was amazing. They have free recitals in the church every Tuesday lunchtime performed by musicians from from the school. Voluntary donations were collected for the church restoration fund. Afterwards I had a look around the church.

The church of St Mary sat at the top of the hill.  A church here was completed and consecrated by St Anselm in Jan 1094. Little of the original building remains apart from the lower section of the tower.

There are many memorials in the church.

The grave of the founder of Harrow school, John Lyon.                                                  .




 

This spot at the back of the churchyard is where Lord Byron (1788-1824) sat and wrote some of his poetry.

This is the view from where he would sit. Obviously far more rural in Byron's day.

In the graveyard is a memorial to the daughter of Lord Byron 

I also found out that on some Tuesday afternoons the Old Speech Gallery at the school is open to the public for a couple of hours. I decided to walk back into the village to see if it was open. 

The Old Speech Room was completed in 1820 and was used as a space where boys could learn the art of public speaking. In 1976 it was converted into a gallery and is used to display some of the School's collection of antiquities and fine art.

When I got there, another lady was waiting outside and as it was after 2.30, she rang the bell. The curator opened the door and said only members of staff could go in and not members of the public as her assistant wasn't there. It just so happened that the other lady, who was waiting with me, was a matron at the school so, as the curator thought I was with her, I was invited inside. I had no idea what would be on display. I did explain I was not a member of staff but managed to talk my way into being given a 1:1 guided tour of this small but amazing gallery. As 2022 is the 450th anniversary of the founding of the school there were many drawings and paintings on display relating to the buildings. But also on display were its treasures such as a silver 3 pence coin from Elizabeth I's reign, dated the year the school was founded. There were three silver arrows which were given as prizes for an annual archery competition, last held in 1770. Clothes worn by the boys for the competition were also on display. I was told this would be the last time they would be displayed due to their fragility. There was a terracotta bust of Sir Winston Churchill (an old Harrovian); a Constable painting of Harrow; a stamp album with original penny black stamps. I was there for about one and a half hours. I couldn't believe my luck. Sadly, I can't share any of these items with you as no photography was allowed.

This is the 'new' Speech Room built in 1876.

In the end I was there for over four hours in the little village at the top of the hill. This was one station's environs that I thoroughly enjoyed visiting. Sometimes these stations I visit allow me to experience things I would never do or see. Harrow is a long journey from where I live and, but for this underground challenge, I would probably never just go all that way to visit the village. 

Northwick Park

 

Here I am at Northwick Park on the Metropolitan Line. This is going to be a short visit as I have already visited this area when I explored Kenton on the Bakerloo Line.

From the island platform I had a good view of the Wembley Arch.

You walk down from the platform to the exits. On the walls are a number of pieces of artwork created by students from Westminster University.

The area around the station is made up of the park, the university, the hospital and you can see that Kenton station is just a 5min walk away.

There is an exit on either side of the station. This one leads out into the park and Westminster University campus. The university has four campuses. The other three are in central London but this one is a 30 min tube journey from the others. This campus focuses on fashion, media, music, film and television and art and design. 

Exit from the other side of station closest to Kenton station.

Preston Road

 

After completing the Jubilee Line a couple of months ago I am now visiting the Metropolitan Line. This will be the 8th Underground line out of a total of 11 lines that I will have explored on my Underground Challenge. Although it sounds as though I am close to the finish I still have well over 100 stations on my list. Most of these stations are out of Central London so I am not expecting to find treasures round every corner but I am sure there will be some surprises on the way.

 The Metropolitan Line was the first underground railway in the world and opened on Jan 10 1863. The main line runs from Aldgate in the City of London to Amersham with branch lines to Uxbridge, Watford and Chesham. There are 34 stations on the Metropolitan Line and I have already visited 11 of them on my travels on other lines. The stations I will be visiting are all in the open, in fact only 11 stations on this line are underground. It is one of the least used lines on the Underground for its length of track and according to statistics it's the 9th busiest.

The Metropolitan Line is the magenta coloured line on the map. As you can see from the map this line stretches a long way out of London probably further than my free travel pass will allow. In some ways I have been dreading this section of the Underground because of the time it will take me to travel to and fro without finding anything more interesting than suburban estates. The yellow dots on the map are the stations I've already visited.

So here I am at Preston Road station. A proposal to build a station here in 1896 was vetoed because of its sparse population. When it was decided to use a local farm to hold the shooting events for the 1908 Olympic Games, a stopping place or wooden halt was opened. It was another 23 years before a station was built here. Once the railway arrived more houses, shops and schools were built.

As I got off the train the first thing I noticed were flats above the station building and railway lines. I have seen shops but not residential buildings overlooking a station.

The station had an island platform with shrubs and flowers planted in boxes.

In the waiting room, which was quite large for a small station, there were copies of photos taken in 1947, 2001 and 2009 showing that station staff have always taken an interest in making the platform more attractive with the use of shrubs and flowers.

The staircase leading up from the platform to street level.

The station building is part of a terraced block with shops and flats above.

Not far from the station was The Preston Pub built in the 1920s as the Preston Park hotel.

It dominates the corner of Preston Road and Carlton Avenue East.

Across the road from the pub they are building a new library. rather than close it completely for months and months the community library has moved to this temporary building a short walk away.

Preston Park, which is surrounded on all sides by housing is well laid out with lots of facilities.

The outdoor gym and children's playground looked clean and well maintained. I would have been happy with a nice cafe but there didn't seem to be one.

As I left the park I saw the local primary school. On one of the websites describing the area it states that 45 different languages are spoken by the children at this school which indicates the multi cultural population around Preston Road  station. The local shops were a mixture of Asian and East European. 

The streets I walked along were wide tree lined with the majority of the houses being 1930s built semi-detached family homes. 

For a multi cultural area I did not come across any temples or mosques on my walk but there were a number of churches which have been built since the 1930s. Of course if you are looking for a Hindu temple, the largest one in the UK is just a couple of miles away in Neasden. 

 

This Catholic church caught my eye because of its name. Apparently St Erconwald came to London as the Bishop of London in 675AD and was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury but died before he could take up office. This church opened its doors for business in 1970.

With the coming of the railway to the area, the movement of the Jewish population from East London came to the northwestern suburbs with its greater accessibility. The Jewish community greatly increased prior to the outbreak of the second world war and the need for a school and synagogue increased. After much fundraising a new synagogue was built here in 1956.

The station is close to other stations I visited on the Bakerloo Line so after a couple of hours I felt I had seen as much as I wanted of this pleasant but unremarkable area.