IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
St. James Road, BRENTWOOD, CM14 4LH

Offices on the corner of Wharf Road and Kings Road, seen during the evening rush hour.

The Parade leads up from Brentwood station towards the town centre.

The road is Warley Hill, nearing the end of its not very steep descent.

An office block on Warley Hill, in Brentwood. Although this location isn't in the town centre, it is very close to the railway station.

Viewed from railway line.

The unusual sign announces this bus stop as a "Public transport timing point". This means that a bus cannot leave early. (Not a problem in this case, as the 21 has arrived late on its afternoon journey from Ongar.) Rather harshly, the sign also forbids the driver of an early bus from nipping off to use the station facilities.

Brentwood station displays Transport for London's (TfL) Elizabeth Line roundel and services now operate right though the central section to Paddington. Brentwood is outside Greater London but transport networks do not neatly fit with political boundaries (and of course never have). The Elizabeth Line has taken TfL's rail operations into new areas, although in this case suburban services have been operated under the TfL Rail brand for some years. It is not entirely a new thing at Brentwood; at one time London Transport ran a Green Line bus service from central London out here.

The ramp outside Brentwood station, beside Kings Road. Office workers and school children start the walk up the hill on a damp September morning. The cabbies were doing a brisk trade, though I prefer to walk.

Brentwood station was opened on 1st July 1840 as a temporary terminus by the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) on what was to become the Great Eastern Main Line, until 1843, when the line was extended towards Colchester. The Great Eastern Railway (GER) took over in 1862 and renamed the station as Brentwood & Warley for Billericay in 1882, and shortened to Brentwood & Warley in 1889. Two additional tracks which are normally used by fast services were provided in 1934 by the London & North Eastern Railway. Services are now operated by TFL Rail prior to the Elizabeth Line taking over in 2018. A TfL Rail train is about to set off back to Liverpool Street.