Watford tube station is the terminus of a
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 ...
branch line
A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.
Industrial spur
An industri ...
in the north-western part of the
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 ...
in
Zone 7. The station opened in 1925.
Location and description
![Watford railways](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Watford_railways.png)
The station is in the
Cassiobury
The Cassiobury Estate is a suburban residential area of Watford in Hertfordshire, England. It is bounded to the south by Cassiobury Park, the main public park in the town, to the west by playing fields next to the River Gade, and to the northe ...
area, on Cassiobury Park Avenue at the junction with Metropolitan Station Approach, close to two of the entrances to
Cassiobury Park
Cassiobury Park is the principal public park in Watford, Hertfordshire, in England. It was created in 1909 from the purchase by Watford Borough Council of part of the estate of the Earls of Essex around Cassiobury House which was subsequently ...
. It is approximately from the town centre, which is more immediately served by and stations. The station building was designed by the Metropolitan Railway's architect
Charles Walter Clark
Charles Walter Clark (1885–1972) was an architect who worked for the Metropolitan Railway from 1911 to 1933 and was responsible for designing 25 stations, five of which are listed buildings today.
Career
Born in 1885, he was educated at Emanue ...
in an
Arts and Crafts
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
style. It is in red brick with a clay-tiled
hipped roof
A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
, tall brick
chimney stack
A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typ ...
s, and timber
sash
A sash is a large and usually colorful ribbon or band of material worn around the body, either draping from one shoulder to the opposing hip and back up, or else running around the waist. The sash around the waist may be worn in daily attire, bu ...
and
casement window
A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a cas ...
s. The main entrance is covered by a polygonal metal canopy supported by twin
Doric column
The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...
s, and the interior, mostly unaltered from the original, is decorated with period
tiling
Tiling may refer to:
*The physical act of laying tiles
*Tessellations
Computing
*The compiler optimization of loop tiling
*Tiled rendering, the process of subdividing an image by regular grid
*Tiling window manager
People
*Heinrich Sylvester The ...
and
hardwood panelling. The station building is
Grade II listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
According to data compiled in 2010, it is the 25th-least used station on the London Underground.
History
![Metro-land-map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Metro-land-map.jpg)
In the early 20th century, 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) penetrated
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
and
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 ...
with its suburban railway, enticing Londoners with its "
Metro-Land
Metro-land (or Metroland) is a name given to the suburban areas that were built to the north-west of London in the counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex in the early part of the 20th century that were served by the Metropolita ...
"
advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ideas, beliefs, and conc ...
promoting the new railway as an opportunity to live in a rural location with easy transport to central London.
The MR was also intent on providing a connection from Watford and planned a branch line from via . The MR purchased a swathe of land from
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...
along the planned route, and Parliamentary approval for the branch was granted in 1912. The project was hampered by disagreements with the
Watford Borough Council
Watford Borough Council is the local authority for the Watford non-metropolitan district of England, the United Kingdom. Watford is located in the south-west of Hertfordshire, in the East of England region. The council is based in the Town Hall o ...
and by the outbreak of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in 1914, and construction of the branch did not begin until 1922. The MR experienced difficulties running the line across the
River Gade
The River Gade is a river running almost entirely through Hertfordshire. It rises from a spring in the chalk of the Chiltern Hills at Dagnall, Buckinghamshire and flows through Hemel Hempstead, Kings Langley, then along the west side of Watfo ...
and the
Grand Junction Canal
The Grand Junction Canal is a canal in England from Braunston in Northamptonshire to the River Thames at Brentford, with a number of branches. The mainline was built between 1793 and 1805, to improve the route from the Midlands to London, by-p ...
, and this pushed costs up to £300,000.
Watford MR station opened on 2 November 1925, with
MR electric trains to and
LNER LNER may refer to:
* London and North Eastern Railway, a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1923 until 1947
* London North Eastern Railway, a train operating company in the United Kingdom since 2018
* Liquid neutral earthing resistor, a typ ...
steam trains to for the first few months.
The ''
Watford Observer
The ''Watford Observer'' is a weekly local newspaper, published by Newsquest. It serves the town of Watford in southwest Hertfordshire, as well as the surrounding area. The paper covers local news, politics and sport, including the town's larges ...
'' commented on the opening that the new station was "likely to have a much greater effect on the town than is at present realised. Just as trade follows the flag, so population follows the railway". Posters published by the MR in 1925 promoting the new route "by Metro to Watford" depicted Watford High Street on market day, belying the remote location of the station.
For many years, the MR operated a bus service from the High Street in an effort to gain more passengers,
but contrary to the ''Watford Observers predictions patronage remained low. MR passenger numbers compared unfavourably with services into central London offered by the
LMS and the
UERL 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 ...
from and ,
and after the
General Strike of 1926
The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British governmen ...
the LNER pulled out of the venture with the MR.
Watford tube station in Cassiobury Park Avenue was not originally planned to be the terminus of the Watford branch. The Metropolitan Railway Company's original plans drawn up in 1912 intended the line to continue through Cassiobury Park and beyond to Hempstead Road on an area known locally as 'The Wilderness', where West Herts College would later be built (opened in 1938).
Watford Council had recently bought part of the Cassiobury Estate and objected to the proposed railway through the town park and recreation gardens, and so the last section of the route was removed and the line would end abruptly in Cassiobury Park Avenue instead.
An opportunity arose in 1927 for another route to extend the line into the centre of Watford. Through a third party, the Metropolitan was able to purchase an existing building at 44 Watford High Street together with two-and-a-half acres of backlands, with the intention of creating
a terminus in the town centre.
The possibility of a single-track extension in tunnel—either from the existing station or following a diversionary route around the station—was explored, but costs were extremely high and no Parliamentary powers were sought. The High Street building was leased out and was eventually disposed of by London Transport in 1936, and today Watford station remains the terminus of the line, approximately one mile from the town centre.
When
Travelcard
The Travelcard is an inter-modal travel ticket for unlimited use on the London Underground, London Overground, Elizabeth line, Docklands Light Railway, London Trams,_ "type":_...,_London_Buses_and_National_Rail.html" ;"title="London_Buses.html" ...
zones were introduced in 1984 by
London Regional Transport
London Regional Transport (LRT) was the organisation responsible for most of the public transport network in London, England, between 1984 and 2000. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operatio ...
, the station was in Zone B; in 2004 it moved to Zone A, and in 2008 to
Zone 7.
Future
![Grand Union Canal, Metropolitan Line viaduct - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Grand_Union_Canal%2C_Metropolitan_Line_viaduct_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1151019.jpg)
The ambition to extend the Metropolitan line into Watford town centre was revived around 1994 by
London Regional Transport
London Regional Transport (LRT) was the organisation responsible for most of the public transport network in London, England, between 1984 and 2000. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operatio ...
(LRT) when proposals were put forward to run the line to Watford Junction. The projected route was shown on an adapted version of the
Tube map
The Tube map (sometimes called the London Underground map) is a schematic
A schematic, or schematic diagram, is a designed representation of the elements of a system using abstract, graphic symbols rather than realistic pictures. A schematic ...
for internal planning purposes printed in that year.
This project, known as the
Croxley Rail Link
The Croxley Rail Link, or the Metropolitan Line Extension, is a proposed railway engineering project in the Watford and Three Rivers districts of Hertfordshire, England, that would have connected the London Overground and the London Undergrou ...
, involved connecting the Metropolitan line to the disused
Watford and Rickmansworth Railway
The Watford and Rickmansworth Railway (W&RR) ran services between Watford and Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, England. The company was incorporated in 1860; the line opened in 1862. The Rickmansworth branch was closed in 1952, and the remaining ...
line and reinstating the branch to .
The line, opened in 1912, had been closed by
British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
in 1996 owing to low passenger numbers.
Although it ran very close to the Metropolitan line (at its closest point about 200 metres away), the two lines were never linked. The plan was to connect the two lines via a short viaduct. The Croxley Rail Link project would have resulted in the closure of Watford station.
On 14 December 2011 the project was given approval by 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 ...
at an expected cost of £115.9 million with a proposed completion date of January 2016,
later revised to 2020.
The planned closure of Watford station met with some local opposition, and campaigners lobbied for the station to remain open with a reduced shuttle service.
A report compiled in 2012 by the transport watchdog
London TravelWatch
London TravelWatch is a statutory British consumer organisation that campaigns for improvements to transport in London. It deals with all complaints from passengers using any Transport for London modes including some cycling and pedestrian issu ...
concluded that the opening of new stations on the route would mitigate any inconvenience caused by the closure, and that a minority of passengers would experience an increase in journey times of more than 15 minutes. It also recommended that a shuttle train service should be trialled, and that in the event of closure a bus service should be provided from Cassiobury to one of the new stations.
On 25 January 2017, the ''Watford Observer'' newspaper published an update on the Croxley Rail Link confirming work had stopped as there was an ongoing funding issue.
Services
the typical off-peak service was four trains per hour to
Baker Street
Baker Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. It is named after builder William Baker, who laid out the street in the 18th century. The street is most famous for its connection to the fictional detec ...
, with a limited service to
Aldgate
Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate.
The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...
at peak times.
See also
*
Croxley Rail Link
The Croxley Rail Link, or the Metropolitan Line Extension, is a proposed railway engineering project in the Watford and Three Rivers districts of Hertfordshire, England, that would have connected the London Overground and the London Undergrou ...
*
Croxley tube station
Croxley is a London Underground station located on Watford Road ( A412) in Croxley Green, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, on the Watford branch of the Metropolitan line. It is the only intermediate station on the branch between , on the main lin ...
*
Watford Junction
Watford Junction is a railway station that serves Watford, Hertfordshire. The station is on the West Coast Main Line (WCML), 17 miles 34 chains from London Euston and the Abbey Line, a branch line to St Albans. Journeys to London take between 16 ...
*
Watford High Street railway station
Watford High Street is a railway station in Watford, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. It is served by the Watford DC line on the London Overground network. It is the only station on the line's sole deviation from the West Coast Main Line.
Hist ...
References
Bibliography
*
{{Metropolitan line navbox
Metropolitan line stations
Tube stations in Hertfordshire
London Underground stations located above ground
Former Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1925
Charles Walter Clark railway stations
Grade II listed buildings in Hertfordshire