The Palace Gates Line was a short railway branch line in north

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 ...

running from the main line at

Seven Sisters station Seven Sisters is a National Rail, London Overground and London Underground Victoria line station in the Seven Sisters area of the London Borough of Haringey, north London. The station has two entrances/exits, one on Tottenham High Road and t ...

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...

to Palace Gates (Wood Green) station in

Wood Green Wood Green is a suburban district in the borough of Haringey in London, England. Its postal district is N22, with parts in N8 or N15. The London Plan identifies it as one of the metropolitan centres in Greater London, and today it forms a maj ...

Opening

The line was constructed by the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

(GER) and opened on 1 January 1878 with a temporary terminus at Noel Park and Wood Green station before being opened to Palace Gates (Wood Green) station on 7 October 1878. The line was opened in competition with the Great Northern Railway (GNR) line from King's Cross station to provide passenger services from the GER's London terminus at

Liverpool Street station 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 ...

to the recently opened

Alexandra Palace Alexandra Palace is a Grade II listed entertainment and sports venue in London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. It is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and the later Tottenham Wood Farm. Origi ...

and the developing suburb of Wood Green.

Extension to Bowes Park

After the 1921 Railways Act amalgamated the GER, GNR and other railway companies into the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

(LNER) in 1923, a connection to

Bowes Park Bowes Park () is situated on the borders of Wood Green, Palmers Green and Bounds Green in London, England. The postcodes for Bowes Park are N13 and N22. The border between the London boroughs of Enfield and Haringey goes through the area. Bowes ...

on the GNR Hertford Loop Line, which runs just north of the site of the terminus station, was made in 1929.

Decline

With the nearby GNR built stations at

and

Hornsey Hornsey is a district of north London, England in the London Borough of Haringey The London Borough of Haringey (pronounced , same as Harringay) is a London borough in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner Lo ...

providing a more direct route to central London, the

catchment area In human geography, a catchment area is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...

s for the line's stations were always fairly small and the opening in 1932 of the first section of the Piccadilly line

extension Extension, extend or extended may refer to: Mathematics Logic or set theory * Axiom of extensionality * Extensible cardinal * Extension (model theory) * Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that satisfy the predicate * E ...

Cockfosters Cockfosters is a suburb of north London to the east of Chipping Barnet, lying partly in the London Borough of Enfield and partly in the London Borough of Barnet. Before 1965, it was in the counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. Origins and ...

with stations at

and Turnpike Lane diminished them further, crucially eroding the line's passenger traffic. In the early 1950s, the line was one of only two branches in the London area still worked by elderly F5, mainly, and F6 2-4-2Ts. The remaining examples of these were called into Stratford Works for withdrawal, in mid-1958. There then being no other suitable locomotives for the Palace Gates line, many of its trains were worked by J68 and J69 0-6-0Ts until sufficient N7 0-6-2Ts became available, following the electrification of suburban services from Liverpool Street station to Chingford and Hertford, in November, 1960. N7 and L1 steam locomotives continued to be used, until September, 1962. In later years, services ran to North Woolwich rather than Liverpool Street, mainly to the benefit of workers in the docks living in the areas served by the line.

Closure

The Palace Gates line was closed to passengers on 7 January 1963. Goods services continued to run until 5 October 1964.

The site today

Tracks were removed and the stations demolished and the route of the line has been almost entirely covered by new construction including

The Mall Wood Green The Mall Wood Green is a large Shopping mall, shopping centre and residential complex in Wood Green, north London. It was originally known as Wood Green Shopping City. The Mall had over 100 retail shops, seven of them Shopping mall#Department s ...

(Shopping City). The only part of the line that remains is a short section of track within Bounds Green Depot where the line formerly connected to the Hertford Loop Line. A small section of the route can be seen from Avenue Road. The latest (2015) proposed route for

Crossrail 2 Crossrail 2 is a proposed hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit route in South East England, running from nine stations in Surrey to three in Hertfordshire, providing a new North–South rail link across Greater London. It would connect the S ...

, sees an option that would closely resemble the Palace Gates Line, running from Seven Sisters/

South Tottenham railway station South Tottenham is a railway station on the east–west Gospel Oak to Barking Line of the London Overground. It is located on the eastern side of the north–south A10 High Road in Tottenham, North London, from (measured via Kentish Town an ...

(double-ended station) through either Turnpike Lane and

stations, or Wood Green Underground station, on its way to

New Southgate railway station New Southgate railway station is on the boundary of the London Borough of Barnet and the London Borough of Enfield in north London, in Travelcard Zone 4. It is down the line from . The station, and all trains serving it, have been operated by ...

References

External links

Abandoned Tube Stations - Palace Gates Line

Subterranea Britannica - Seven Sisters Station
- contains a history of the Palace Gates Branch * The History Files

{{Railway lines in London Transport in the London Borough of Haringey Railway lines opened in 1878 Closed railway lines in London Railway lines closed in 1964 Standard gauge railways in London