IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Cranbrook Road, BARNET, EN4 8UP

Looking down the hill from the junction with Cranbrook Road towards Church Hill Road and the valley of Pymmes Brook.

This roundabout at the top of Capel Rd is just in the NE corner of TQ2694. Capel Rd beyond has parts of both TQ2794 and TQ2795 visible in this picture. Shurland Ave. and Alverstone Ave are the other two roads that meet here.

View NE down Capel Rd towards Church Hill Rd. This is just NE of Oakleigh Park railway station.

Shurland Ave and the roundabout in front of it are in the extreme NE corner of the square. Shurland Ave is a dead end that runs alongside the railway between Oakleigh Park and New Barnet stations.

This is the forgotten lamppost north of the station that is referred to in my photo, Image It has no purpose now other than to remind us of what once was a site of industry.

A London bound GNER express approaches Oakleigh Park at speed, having just passed through New Barnet.

A blue Lumo train heads south past the housing estate on Shurland Avenue to its east. Just above the nose of the train one can see an old concrete and steel lamppost just inside the railway fencing which is all that survives of the infrastructure of a railway marshalling yard that until the early 1960's occupied the land. Vauxhall cars in crates were once brought there by train from the Luton factory for onward transit to the London docks and export. Doubtless it was a costly and inefficient enterprise that is as long gone now as the London docks themselves. One can see the lamppost on photos of the time lighting the start of the sidings. It lingers on without purpose.

Looking northwards towards New Barnet, the two middle tracks carry high speed trains, whilst stopping trains use the tracks to the left (mostly hidden by a shrub) and the far right. The Great Northern Railway opened its line between Maiden Lane and Peterborough through what is now Oakleigh Park in 1850. In 1866 the Whetstone Park Company, promoters of the Whetstone Park Estate, reached an agreement with the Great Northern Railway to construct a new station to serve the development. The station, which was to be known as Whetstone, would open once 25 houses were complete, although the GNR built the two station platforms in anticipation straight away. By summer 1871, the development had been renamed the Oakleigh Park Estate, but not until January 1873 was the developer able to inform the GNR that the 25th house was complete. Accordingly, the GNR authorised the station, now to be known as Oakleigh Park, to be completed. It opened to passenger traffic on 1st December 1873. As part of works to increase the number of tracks from two to four, the station was completely rebuilt in 1891/2 with two island platforms, a new footbridge and booking office.

View of the avenue as it passes Oakleigh Park station, the entrance to which is visible on the right. Mixed styles of housing are visible. The central house of the nearest three carries the name 'La Maison Blanche'.