Watford Stadium Halt railway station was a railway station in

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, and ...

, Hertfordshire,

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

on the branch line from to . It served

Vicarage Road Vicarage Road is a stadium in Watford, England, and is the home stadium of championship club Watford. An all-seater stadium, its current capacity is 22,200. History It has been the home of Watford since 1922, when the club moved from Cas ...

stadium, home of

Watford F.C. Watford Football Club is an English professional football club based in Watford, Hertfordshire. They play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club’s original foundation is 1881, aligned with that of its antecede ...

, and was open only on match days.

History

The

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 ...

opened its line between and station via in 1862. The line was soon to be taken over by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). In 1912, a branch line to was opened, with an intermediate station at . 70 years later, Watford Stadium station was created to serve Vicarage Road football ground for

crowd control Crowd control is a public security practice in which large crowds are managed in order to prevent the outbreak of crowd crushes, affray, fights involving drunk and disorderly people or riots. Crowd crushes in particular can cause many hundre ...

. Prior to this, the nearest stations available to football fans were Watford High Street and Watford Junction. A direct transport connection from the stadium would enable football officials to keep fans of "away" teams separate from

supporters and reduce instances of

football hooliganism Football hooliganism, also known as soccer hooliganism, football rioting or soccer rioting, constitutes violence and other destructive behaviours perpetrated by spectators at association football events. Football hooliganism normally involves ...

in Watford town centre. The station acquired the nickname of "Hooligan Halt". Development of the station was funded jointly by the

Football Trust The Football Trust was a Government funded body to improve the safety of sports stadiums in the United Kingdom. It was set up by the Labour Government in 1975, with the assistance of the pools companies and the English Football League. Its origina ...

, which contributed £50,000,

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 ...

(£80,000), Watford F.C. (£50,000), with the remaining £200,000 paid by British Rail. It was officially opened on 4 December 1982 by the rock musician and chairman of Watford Football Club, Elton John, and chairman of the Football Trust, Lord Aberdare. The inaugural train rolled into the station five minutes late. The station was only open on match days, with the first crowds passing through the station being Manchester United fans on the opening day. The Croxley Green branch was temporarily closed in 1996 when a local road construction scheme severed the line and it was formally closed in 2003. However, Watford Stadium Halt had not been used for some years prior to this, although it is not known exactly when the halt was last used. The halt was not demolished and the station furniture, including the lampposts and signage, was left in situ. Despite nature reclaiming the station, the platforms and station furniture (apart from the station nameboards) were still in place when clearance work in preparation for 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 ...

began. This was a proposal to extend 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 counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

Metropolitan line to . The project would have involve re-opening part of the Watford and Rickmansworth line and running the Metropolitan line along this line, and the construction of two new stations. Watford Stadium Halt would not re-open. One of the new stations, Watford Vicarage Road, to be located on the other side of the Vicarage Road bridge, would serve

Watford General Hospital Watford General Hospital is a 521-bed acute District General Hospital situated on Vicarage Road, Watford, Hertfordshire. Together with Hemel Hempstead Hospital and St Albans City Hospital, it is operated by West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Tru ...

and the football stadium. 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.

References

External links

Watford Stadium Halt in the years after abandonmentPictures of the Halt during construction and when in use in addition to pictures showing the Halt in the years after abandonment
* ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCFduXpE3gA A BBC TV news report on the opening of the station {{Closed stations Hertfordshire Disused railway stations in Watford Croxley Rail Link Railway stations opened by British Rail Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1982 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1996 1982 establishments in England 1996 disestablishments in England