Hammersmith (Grove Road) was a railway station on the

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

(LSWR), located on Grove Road (now Hammersmith Grove) in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

, west London. It was opened in 1869 and closed in 1916. For much of its existence, the station was also served by the

Metropolitan Railway The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...

(MR; the precursor to today's

Metropolitan line The Metropolitan line, colloquially known as the Met, is a London Underground line between in the City of London and and in Buckinghamshire, with branches to in Hertfordshire and in Hillingdon. Printed in magenta on the tube map, the line i ...

) and the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

(GWR). Its site was adjacent to another station named Hammersmith, which today is served by the

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is const ...

and

Hammersmith & City line The Hammersmith & City line is a London Underground line that runs between Hammersmith in west London and in east London. Printed in pink on the Tube map, it serves 29 stations over . Between and it skirts the City of London, the capital's fin ...

s. LSWR trains serving Hammersmith (Grove Road) ran from Waterloo via Addison Road (now called Kensington (Olympia)) to

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

. MR and GWR trains ran from

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

via the Hammersmith & City Railway (HCR; now the Hammersmith & City line) and also on to Richmond.

History

Hammersmith (Grove Road), as it was officially named but often referred to as simply Hammersmith, was opened on 1 January 1869 by the LSWR on a new branch line from a junction with the West London Joint Railway (WLJR) north of Addison Road to

via

Turnham Green Turnham Green is a public park on Chiswick High Road, Chiswick, London, and the neighbourhood and conservation area around it; historically, it was one of the four medieval villages in the Chiswick area, the others being Old Chiswick, Little S ...

. To the north of Hammersmith (Grove Road) the line ran parallel with the HCR before passing under the line and turning through a wide arc south of

Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a district of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character, i ...

before reaching the WLJR at a southward pointing junction. To the west of the station, the line became what is now the

District line The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One branch runs to in south-west London and a short branch, with a limited servic ...

to Richmond, starting just to the east of

Ravenscourt Park Ravenscourt Park or RCP is an public park and garden located in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England. It is one of the Borough's flagship parks, having won a Green Flag Award. Stamford Brook and Ravenscourt Park tube stations ar ...

. In 1870, Grove Junction was built north of the station connecting the HCR and LSWR tracks, enabling GWR trains on the HCR to access Hammersmith (Grove Road) and run on to Richmond. However, the GWR service ran for only a few months during 1870. In June 1877, the

District Railway The Metropolitan District Railway, also known as the District Railway, was a passenger railway that served London from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete an " inner circle" of lines connecting railway termini in London, the first par ...

(DR; now the

) opened an extension from its own Hammersmith station to a junction (Studland Road Junction) to connect to the LSWR tracks east of Ravenscourt Park. From 1 October 1877, the MR began to run trains through Hammersmith (Grove Road) to Richmond. From 1 January 1894, the GWR also initiated services along this route. The more direct route of the DR into central London had a competitive advantage over the other operators of the Richmond service and gradually the other railway companies ended their operations on the Richmond branch. MR services ended on 31 December 1906, shortly after the HCR tracks from Paddington were electrified. GWR services continued until 31 December 1910 and LSWR services continued until 3 June 1916 when the loop line between the Studland Road Junction and Addison Road was closed. The section west of the junction remains part of the District line. In 1919 the

Central London Railway The Central London Railway (CLR), also known as the Twopenny Tube, was a deep-level, underground "tube" railwayA "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a cylindrical tunnel by the use of a tunnelling shield, usually deep below g ...

(CLR; today's Central line) published plans to build a tunnelled link from west of its Shepherd's Bush station to the disused tracks north of the station so that it might run trains to Richmond via Hammersmith (Grove Road) and Turnham Green. Although authorisation was granted in 1920,Central London and Metropolitan District Railway Companies (Works) Act, 1920 the connection was never realised. Hammersmith (Grove Road) was demolished in the mid 1950s having been used to store bananas until June 1954. The tracks on the loop line to the WLJR were lifted in 1932 with further demolition continuing into the 1950s with the bridge over Grove Road being demolished. Although remnants of the viaduct at the Studland Road Junction where the LSWR tracks turned north-east are still visible west of the current Hammersmith station on the District and Piccadilly lines. The station site is now occupied by an office block on Hammersmith Grove.

References

External links

Abandoned stations - Addison Road to Hammersmith

Disused Station - Hammersith Grove Road
{{Disused railway stations of London Disused railway stations in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Former London and South Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1869 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1916 Hammersmith 1869 establishments in England 1916 disestablishments in England