Denham railway station is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

in the village of Denham in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, England. It is on the

Chiltern Main Line The Chiltern Main Line is a railway line which links London () and Birmingham ( Moor Street and Snow Hill), the United Kingdom's two largest cities, by a route via High Wycombe, Bicester, Banbury, Leamington Spa and Solihull. It is one of tw ...

between

West Ruislip West Ruislip is a station on Ickenham High Road on the borders of Ickenham and western Ruislip in the London Borough of Hillingdon in Greater London, formerly in Middlesex. It is served by London Underground (LU) and National Rail trains on ind ...

and .

History

The station was built just north of Denham village as part of the

Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway The Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway was a railway built and operated jointly by the Great Western Railway (GWR) and Great Central Railway (GCR) between Northolt (in north west London) and Ashendon Junction (west of Aylesbury). It was ...

. It opened on 2 April 1906 as Denham for Harefield. The original station layout had four roads: two for non-stop trains, and two with platforms for stopping services. There was a small goods yard north of the line, and a signal box at the London end of the "down" platform. The two through roads have been removed, being taken up in December 1965, with all services using the platform roads and has since had improved track alignments to allow fast running trains. The signal box closed on 15 June 1975. The former goods yard is now the station car park. The station was transferred from the

Western Region of British Rail The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right on completion of the "Organising for Quality" initiative on 6 April 1992. The Region consisted principally of ex- Great ...

to the

London Midland Region The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England, Wales and Northern Irelan ...

on 24 March 1974.

Abandoned Central line Extension

Under the

London Passenger Transport Board The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was Lond ...

's 1935-40

New Works Programme The New Works Programme of 1935–1940 was the major investment programme delivered by the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB), commonly known as London Transport, which had been created in 1933 to coordinate underground train, tram, trolley ...

, Denham was to have been the terminus of the Central line's westward extension from

North Acton North Acton is a part of Acton in west London, and is within the London Borough of Ealing. It runs adjacent to the industrial district of Park Royal. Historically part of the Municipal Borough of Acton in the county of Middlesex, it has formed pa ...

, with Central line platforms south of those on the main line. The continuation to Denham was added in 1937. Work on the extension was postponed in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The introduction of the

Metropolitan Green Belt The Metropolitan Green Belt is a statutory green belt around London, England. It comprises parts of Greater London, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey, parts of two of the three districts of Bedfordshire and a s ...

limited the expansion of the London urban area and the extension beyond

was cancelled. No visible signs of the extension works remain at Denham.

Development

The station was built with a pedestrian underpass linking the platforms, but this was inaccessible to people with impaired mobility. Further, the embankment supporting the "down" (westbound) platform and buildings was subsiding, so the "down" platform has been relocated as an island north of the "down" road, in the gap left by the removal of the original through roads, and to provide a footbridge and lifts, similar to those at Gerrards Cross, for disabled access. The new "down" platform was opened for use in late July 2008, and the original "down" platform and buildings have been removed. A proposed second phase, providing a third reversible track between the rear of the new platform and the existing "up" (eastbound) platform road, would improve operational flexibility by allowing stopping services to be passed by following non-stop trains.

Services

The typical Monday - Friday off-peak service consists of: *1 train per hour to *1 train per hour to

Cultural Use

Denham Station served as "New Milton station" in the 1949 British comedy,

The Chiltern Hundreds (film) ''The Chiltern Hundreds'' (released in the U.S. as ''The Amazing Mr. Beecham'') is a 1949 British politically-themed comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs, adapting William Douglas Home's 1947 play of the same name and starring Lana Mor ...

, starring

Cecil Parker Cecil Parker (born Cecil Schwabe, 3 September 1897 – 20 April 1971) was an English actor with a distinctively husky voice, who usually played supporting roles, often characters with a supercilious demeanour, in his 91 films made between ...

and

David Tomlinson David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson (7 May 1917 – 24 June 2000) was an English stage, film, and television actor and comedian. Having been described as both a leading man and a character actor, he is primarily remembered for his roles as authori ...

. In

New Tricks ''New Tricks'' is a British television police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the ...

series 9 episode "Queen and Country" Denham station was the location used for an unspecified station in Exeter. In The Good Life series 2 episode 6 "Home Sweet Home" the Goods are dropped off by Mr May outside the main building at Denham station after viewing a

smallholding A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology ...

References

External links

www.railwayarchive.org.uk
*
Denham Junction station during construction, 1903
*
Denham Junction station during construction, 1903
*
Construction of viaduct over River Thame, close to Denham, 1903
{{Coord, 51.579, N, 0.497, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Railway stations in Buckinghamshire Former Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1906 Railway stations served by Chiltern Railways Proposed London Underground stations Unbuilt London Underground stations Denham, Buckinghamshire