Kensal Green is a railway station served by

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...

Bakerloo line The Bakerloo line () is a London Underground line that goes from in suburban north-west London to in south London, via the West End. Printed in brown on the Tube map, it serves 25 stations, 15 of which are underground, over . It runs partly ...

and

London Overground London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a ...

trains. It is located in College Road,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

NW10 close to the junction with

Harrow Road The Harrow Road is an ancient route in North West London which runs from Paddington in a northwesterly direction towards Harrow. It is also the name given to the immediate surrounding area of Queens Park and Kensal Green, straddling the NW10 ...

. It is about 0.5 mile (750m) route distance from the older

Kensal Rise Kensal Green is an area in north-west London. It lies mainly in the London Borough of Brent, with a small part to the south within Kensington and Chelsea. Kensal Green is located on the Harrow Road, about miles from Charing Cross. To the w ...

station located to the north east on the

North London line The North London line (NLL) is a railway line which passes through the inner suburbs of west, north-west, north, and east London, England between Richmond in the south-west and Stratford in the east, avoiding central London. Its route is a rou ...

, which was itself named ''Kensal Green'' until 1890. The station is in a cutting with a tunnel at the western end.

History

The station opened on 1 October 1916 on the new electrified

Watford DC Line The Watford DC line is a suburban line from London Euston to Watford Junction in Watford, Hertfordshire. Its services are operated by London Overground. The line runs beside the West Coast Main Line (WCML) for most of its length. The London ...

which runs parallel on the north side of the existing

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

(LNWR) tracks from Euston to

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

New and old Kensal Green station just before closure 22-9-80

The original station was replaced in 1980. Bakerloo line services had been running between Queen's Park and Willesden Junction since 10 May 1915. Since November 2007,

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the p ...

services serving Kensal Green have been operated by

London Overground Rail Operations London Overground Rail Operations Limited was a train operating company contracted to operate the London Overground train service on the National Rail network, under the franchise control of Transport for London. The company was a 50/50 joint ...

under contract to Transport for London under the

brand; the station is managed by

. The station was in the news early in 2006, as it was the last station visited by Thomas ap Rhys Pryce before he was murdered in a robbery in Kensal Green. The two main suspects had also visited the station that same night, a short time before the murder, and mugged a man on the platform. A suspect also tried to use Pryce's

Oyster Card The Oyster card is a payment method for public transport in London (and certain areas around it) in England, United Kingdom. A standard Oyster card is a blue credit-card-sized stored-value contactless smart card. It is promoted by Transport ...

a day after the incident at the station, and was picked up on CCTV, aiding the police investigation. This incident sparked a major public discussion on station safety and security, mainly because the station was un-staffed when the passenger was mugged. The only security present was

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...

cameras, and the

ticket barriers In rail transport, the paid area is a dedicated "inner" zone in a railway station or metro station, accessible via turnstiles or other barriers, to get into which, visitors or passengers require a valid ticket, checked smartcard or a pass. A sys ...

were left open allowing the suspects to enter the station freely. Many high-profile politicians spoke on the issue of station safety and called on train companies to provide security or staff the station until the last train had left the station. The

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...

at the time,

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office i ...

, became personally involved in this, and publicly attacked

Silverlink Silverlink was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by National Express that operated the North London Railways franchise from March 1997 until November 2007. At the end of 2007 Silverlink Metro services were taken over by Lond ...

, the then operator of the station, for not providing staffing or security throughout the station's opening hours. He also stated that any company that wanted to bid for the subsidy to run the train line would have commit to staffing the station until the last train had left. Eventually, towards the last quarter of 2006, Silverlink hired a private security firm to patrol the station, and also had speakers installed in the ticket hall to deter gangs of youths from loitering.

Connections

London Buses route 18 London Buses route 18 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between Sudbury and Euston bus station, it is operated by London United. In 2018/19 it was the busiest route in London. History In 1934 there ...

and night route N18 serve the station.

References

External links

London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
** {{Transport in London Bakerloo line stations Tube stations in the London Borough of Brent DfT Category E stations Railway stations in the London Borough of Brent London Underground stations located above ground Former London and North Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1916 Railway stations served by London Overground Kensal Green

History

Connections

See also

References

External links