Turkey Street is a
London Overground
London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a large part of Greater London as w ...
station on the
Southbury Loop section of the
Lea Valley lines
The Lea Valley lines are two 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 part of the ''Anglia Route'' of Network ...
, located in the
Bullsmoor area to the north of
Enfield
Enfield may refer to:
Places Australia
* Enfield, New South Wales
* Enfield, South Australia
** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb
** Enfield High School (South Australia)
...
in north London. It is 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 ...
and is situated between and .
History
The railway line from Bury Street Junction, north of the current
Edmonton Green station, to was opened by the
Great Eastern Railway on 1 October 1891. It was known as the Churchbury Loop.
The district served by the line was still predominantly rural, and the coming of the
tram
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
to
Waltham Cross in 1904 saw the railway unable to compete. Passenger services ceased on 1 October 1909, but were reinstated for the benefit of munitions workers between 1 March 1915 and 1 July 1919.
After that the line was only served by freight trains until the line was electrified as part of a wider scheme, and Turkey Street station reopened to passengers on 21 November 1960. The line is now known as the Southbury Loop.
The station was opened as Forty Hill and did not gain its current name until 1960. The goods depot at the station closed in 1966.
The current station building was built in the late 1980s. The previous and original station building had a prominent tall chimney stack for the station master's coal fire which brought the top of the chimney above platform level. The station itself is constructed on an incline and the ticket office area of the track is raised on an embankment so the chimney was very prominent. The interior of the original station consisted of a large ticket hall with the station master's office and serving hatch on the left hand side of the entrance. A tunnel opposite the entrance led to the stairs to the
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, ...
-bound platform. This tunnel was used in the rebuild. To the right were the stairs to the Liverpool Street platform. The stairwells were also reused in the rebuild, but the concrete steps were replaced with steel.
When originally built the station was on the other side of the railway bridge and a wide footbridge over the
Turkey Brook
Turkey Brook is a river in the northern outskirts of London. It rises in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, and flows broadly eastwards to merge with the River Lea Navigation near Enfield Lock.
Etymology
The brook is named from the hamlet Turkey S ...
led directly to the Cheshunt-bound platform. This entrance was disused from the early 1970s onwards and the former station building was converted to a
newsagent
A newsagent's shop or simply newsagent's or paper shop (British English), newsagency ( Australian English) or newsstand ( American and Canadian English) is a business that sells newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, snacks and often items of ...
and
general store; the footbridge was used for storage for the shop and the entrance to the actual station area had a large iron gate but was bricked up when the station was rebuilt.
The platforms were of standard length and had large open-fronted waiting areas with concrete walls and felt-covered wooden roofs with a long single bench along the rear wall. These were demolished when the station was rebuilt.
In the 1980s the station was served by
British Rail Class 305
The British Rail Class 305 was an alternating current (AC) electric multiple unit (EMU). Under the pre-1973 British Rail numbering system, the class was known as AM5. When TOPS was introduced, the class became Class 305.
Subclasses
Class 305 ...
EMUs going to and from London Liverpool Street and Cheshunt. Around the same time as the rebuild the 305s were slowly replaced by
British Rail Class 315
The British Rail Class 315 is a fleet of alternating current (AC) electric multiple unit (EMU) trains, built by British Rail Engineering Limited at Holgate Road Carriage Works in York between 1980 and 1981; they replaced the Class 306 units. I ...
. The Cheshunt service was extended to Hertford East in the late 1980s, utilising the existing main line from Cheshunt to
Broxbourne
Broxbourne is a town and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Hoddesdon, in the Broxbourne district, in Hertfordshire, England, north of London, with a population of 15,303 at the 2011 Census.Broxbourne Town population 2011 I ...
and the existing branch to Hertford East. However, in the late 1990s the services again only ran as far as Cheshunt.
The station was rebuilt once again in 2017.
The trains are often used by
St Ignatius' College and
Lea Valley Academy (previously The Bullsmoor School) pupils, and the station is also popular with
commuters
Commuting is periodically recurring travel between one's place of residence and place of work or study, where the traveler, referred to as a commuter, leaves the boundary of their home community. By extension, it can sometimes be any regu ...
due to the availability of local parking.
On 31 May 2015 the station and all services that call here, transferred from
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, the international arm of the state-owned Dutch national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen, and the J ...
to
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 ...
.
Services
The typical off-peak service of trains per hour (tph) is as follows:
Connections
London Buses routes
121,
217,
279,
317
Year 317 ( CCCXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Gallicanus and Bassus (or, less frequently, year 1070 ''Ab urbe c ...
, school routes
617
__NOTOC__
Year 617 ( DCXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 617 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar e ...
,
627 and night route
N279 serve the station.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turkey Street Railway Station
Enfield, London
Railway stations in the London Borough of Enfield
Former Great Eastern Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1891
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1909
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1915
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1919
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1960
Reopened railway stations in Great Britain
Railway stations served by London Overground