A back alley in Harlesden

Image: © Marathon Taken: 4 Dec 2013

The London to Birmingham Railway was opened through Harlesden in 1837. The LNWR opened a large locomotive depot on a site on the south side of the main line to the west of Willesden Junction in 1873. Only then did the area become a focus of local activity. In the 19th century cottages for railway and industrial workers were built. The locomotive depot was enlarged in 1898. The London Midland & Scottish Railway opened an additional roundhouse on the site in 1929. Both buildings were demolished when the depot was closed in 1965 by British Railways and replaced by a Freightliner depot. These railway workers' cottages from the second half of the 19th century are now an attractive little enclave on either side of Old Oak Lane, and between the West Coast Main Line, the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal and the London Overground line between Willesden Junction and Acton Central. Names like Stephenson Street, Stoke Place and Crewe Place hint at their origins. This alley has the backs of houses of Goodhall Street on the left and Old Oak Lane on the right.

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