Angel Road was a railway station in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

in the

London Borough of Enfield The London Borough of Enfield () is a London boroughs, London borough in North London. It borders the London boroughs of London Borough of Barnet, Barnet to the west, London Borough of Haringey, Haringey to the south, and London Borough of Walt ...

, north London, on the

Lea Valley line The Lea Valley lines are two Commuter rail in the United Kingdom, commuter lines and two branches in north-east London, so named because they run along the Lower Lea Valley of the River Lea. They were part of the Great Eastern Railway, now par ...

that forms part of the

West Anglia Main Line The West Anglia Main Line is one of the two main lines that operate out of , the other being the Great Eastern Main Line, which operates services to Ipswich and Norwich via Colchester. It runs generally north through Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Har ...

, down the line from

London Liverpool Street Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...

. It was between and in

Travelcard zone 4 Fare zone 4 is an outer zone of Transport for London's zonal fare system used for calculating the price of tickets for travel on the London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and, since 2007, on National Rail services. It ...

and had the three-letter station code AGR. It is located beneath the

A406 The North Circular Road (officially the A406 and sometimes known as simply the North Circular) is a ring road around Central London in England. It runs from Chiswick in the west to Woolwich in the east via suburban North London, connecting ...

flyover of Meridian Way, and was accessed via a footpath from Conduit Lane, on an adjacent flyover to the north. The station's immediate surroundings include non-manufacturing industrial businesses and a former gas works. In 2016–17 it was the least-used station in London, with an estimated 33,500 passenger entries/exits. Angel Road closed permanently to the general public on 31 May 2019 and was replaced by station, which opened on 3 June 2019 and is located south of Angel Road.

History

The station was opened on 15 September 1840 by the

Northern and Eastern Railway The Northern & Eastern Railway (N&ER) was an early British railway company, that planned to build a line from London to York. Its ambition was cut successively back, and it was only constructed from Stratford, east of London, to the towns of Bi ...

as "Edmonton", although it was situated from Edmonton village.Great Eastern Railway Society Journal volume 61 page 11 Dave Taylor January 1990 The Northern and Eastern Railway was leased by the

Eastern Counties Railway The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) was an English Rail transport, railway company incorporated in 1836 intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then extend to Norwich and Great Yarmouth, Yarmouth. Construction began in 1837 on t ...

in 1844, which took over operation of the line. The line was initially laid to a gauge of but that had already been identified as non-standard, and between 5 September and 7 October 1844 the whole network was re-laid to . The

renamed the station "Water Lane" on 1 March 1849, after it became a junction, following the opening of a branch to

Lower Edmonton Edmonton is a town in north London, England within the London Borough of Enfield, a local government district of Greater London. The northern part of the town is known as Lower Edmonton or Edmonton Green, and the southern part as Upper Edmonton ...

to the north-west. The station was taken over by the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

in 1862 and renamed "Angel Road" on 1 January 1864. It had a small goods yard to the west and the Tottenham gas works was located to the south. Following the

grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

of 1923, Angel Road became part of the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

. Regular passenger services ceased on the Lower Edmonton line in 1939, although it was still used as a diversionary route. With

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

in 1948 the station came under the control of the

Eastern Region of British Railways The Eastern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948, whose operating area could be identified from the dark blue signs and colour schemes that adorned its station and other railway buildings. Together with the North Eastern Region ( ...

. Freight services ceased in 1964 on the Lower Edmonton line and that route was lifted the following year. The Lea Valley line between Copper Mill Junction and

Cheshunt Cheshunt ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London on the River Lea and Lee Navigation. It contains a section of the Lee Valley Park, including much of the River Lee Country Park. To the north lies Broxbourne and Wormley, Hertfor ...

was electrified at 25 kV AC in 1969. Prior to the completion of electrification, passenger services between Cheshunt and London through Angel Road were normally operated by Class 125

diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

s, which had been purpose-built for the line in 1958. When sectorisation was introduced in 1986, the station was served by

Network SouthEast Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the netwo ...

until the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the industr ...

in 1994. With privatisation, management of the state-owned track and signals passed to

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...

, which was succeeded by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

in 2004. In August 2002, signalling control of the relevant section of track was transferred to the Liverpool Street Integrated Electronic Control Centre (IECC).

Management companies

Following privatisation in 1994, management of the station was allocated to a business unit before being taken over by

West Anglia Great Northern West Anglia Great Northern, commonly shortened to ''WAGN'', was a train operating company in England. It operated the West Anglia Great Northern franchise between January 1997 and March 2004, as well as the Great Northern franchise between Apri ...

(WAGN) in January 1997, at the time owned by

Prism Rail Prism Rail was formed in July 1995 to bid for rail franchises in the United Kingdom during the privatisation of British Rail. It expressed interest in eighteen franchises, was shortlisted for twelve and was ultimately awarded four, LTS Rail, Val ...

National Express National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...

acquired the franchise holder in July 2000. The WAGN franchise was replaced in 2003 by the One franchise, later renamed National Express East Anglia. In February 2012, operation of the station changed once again with

Abellio Greater Anglia Greater Anglia (legal name Abellio East Anglia Limited) is a train operating company in Great Britain owned as a joint venture by Abellio (transport company), Abellio, the international arm of the state-owned Dutch national rail operator Neder ...

taking over the franchise.

Closure

The

announced in January 2014 that a new station, named "Meridian Water", and some to the south, would be constructed as an integral part of the proposed

Meridian Water Meridian Water is a £6bn, 20-year regeneration programme in Upper Edmonton, in the south-east of the London Borough of Enfield, North London. Led by the council, the project will build 10,000 homes next to the Lee Valley Regional Park. The dev ...

development. The new station is required to cope with the expected increase in passengers associated with the project. A public consultation was held, in which 78% of consultants opined that the footbridge should be moved to

Pilning railway station Pilning railway station is a minor station on the South Wales Main Line near Pilning, South Gloucestershire, England. It is from and is the last station on the English side before the Severn Tunnel through to Wales. Its three letter station c ...

to replace one removed in 2016. The new station was expected to open in May 2019. In August 2018, the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

began a consultation on the proposal to close Angel Road. On 24 January 2019, the DfT announced that Angel Road would officially close on 19 May, with Meridian Water opening on the same day. The closure of the station was ratified by the

Office of Rail and Road The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways. ORR regulates Network Rail by setting its ...

on 11 April, although the closure date was subsequently rescheduled for 31 May.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

*
Angel Road – Least Used Station in London
2018 YouTube video by

Geoff Marshall Geoff Marshall is an English video producer, performer, and author from London who runs a YouTube channel which is predominantly transport-themed. Born in London, he spent a short period living in the United States between 2006 and 2009, and no ...

about the station. {{Transport in London Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1840 Disused railway stations in the London Borough of Enfield Edmonton, London Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 2019