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Walden Way, ILFORD, IG6 3BH

Construction of the line from Ilford through Hainault and Chigwell to join the Epping and Ongar line at Woodford started in 1900, although powers had been obtained as early as 1846. The stations were built to high standards. Passenger and local freight operations started on 1st May 1903. At first the service worked from either Fenchurch Street or Liverpool Street and then back both ways round the loop. Everything was done to prepare for heavy passenger traffic, misplaced optimism being shown by the stations which all had substantial buildings and long platforms. When the station at Hainault was opened there were hardly half a dozen houses within half a mile but the passenger accommodation was just as lavish as elsewhere on the line. In 1907 someone wrote “.. and now the extraordinary sight may be seen of two palatial stations in Hainault and Fairlop – within a quarter of a mile of each other and yet with scarcely a house in sight, while the daily number of passengers to and from them could often be counted on the fingers.” Patronage remained very low until the building boom of the late 1920s and early 1930s when almost all the land between the eastern bank of the River Roding and the Hainault Loop was filled with small houses up to a point well north of Barkingside. Eventually pressure from commuters in the new houses and the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board led to the proposal to extend the Central London line from its then terminus at Liverpool Street to Stratford and on to Leyton to join the Loughton line. At Leytonstone the new Tube would be made under Eastern Avenue as far as Newbury Park where the Underground would take over services on the Hainault Loop. Work was well underway from October 1936 when they stopped in 1940 because of the War. Plessey used the tunnels during the War for the manufacture of aircraft components, but after the War work began again and the first Tube trains were operated between Leytonstone and Newbury Park from Sunday 14th December 1947. LNER steam ran for the last time on Saturday 29th November 1947. Hainault was reached by Underground trains on 31st May 1948 and Woodford via Chigwell on 21st November. The connection between Newbury Park and the main line east of Ilford was disconnected on 17th March 1956. Much of the old track was filled to ground level to provide allotments. However, much of the uncovered land adjacent to the loop is in the London Green Belt which prevented large-scale building and any chance of increasing passenger numbers.To the east of the Central line there are almost no houses between Newbury Park and Hainault and hence patronage of the line has never been as high as predicted. There has even been talk of closure over the years but the fact that there is the large Central line depot between Hainault and Grange Hill made this operationally impossible. This view looks along the up platform late on a winter's afternoon as a Central line train is about to set off for Ealing Broadway from the adjacent platform. The next station in this direction is Fairlop.

A Central Line train of 1962 stock http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_1962_Stock , awaiting departure for Ealing Broadway via Gant’s Hill, from a snowy Hainault station.

Opened in 1903 as part of the Great Eastern Railway's Fairlop Loop, Central Line tube trains took over in 1948. This involved building Hainault depot, behind the camera, and also the island platform to the right. The third platform face with the train stopped at it facilitated trains terminating here and passing to the depot. Hence the contrast in styles between the near platform built for the opening in 1903, and the post-war more utilitarian essay on the right.

Construction of the line from Ilford through Hainault and Chigwell to join the Epping and Ongar line at Woodford started in 1900, although powers had been obtained as early as 1846. The stations were built to high standards. Passenger and local freight operations started on 1st May 1903. At first the service worked from either Fenchurch Street or Liverpool Street and then back both ways round the loop. Everything was done to prepare for heavy passenger traffic, misplaced optimism being shown by the stations which all had substantial buildings and long platforms. When the station at Hainault was opened there were hardly half a dozen houses within half a mile but the passenger accommodation was just as lavish as elsewhere on the line. In 1907 someone wrote “.. and now the extraordinary sight may be seen of two palatial stations in Hainault and Fairlop – within a quarter of a mile of each other and yet with scarcely a house in sight, while the daily number of passengers to and from them could often be counted on the fingers.” Patronage remained very low until the building boom of the late 1920s and early 1930s when almost all the land between the eastern bank of the River Roding and the Hainault Loop was filled with small houses up to a point well north of Barkingside. Eventually pressure from commuters in the new houses and the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board led to the proposal to extend the Central London line from its then terminus at Liverpool Street to Stratford and on to Leyton to join the Loughton line. At Leytonstone the new Tube would be made under Eastern Avenue as far as Newbury Park where the Underground would take over services on the Hainault Loop. Work was well underway from October 1936 when they stopped in 1940 because of the War. Plessey used the tunnels during the War for the manufacture of aircraft components, but after the War work began again and the first Tube trains were operated between Leytonstone and Newbury Park from Sunday 14th December 1947. LNER steam ran for the last time on Saturday 29th November 1947. Hainault was reached by Underground trains on 31st May 1948 and Woodford via Chigwell on 21st November. The connection between Newbury Park and the main line east of Ilford was disconnected on 17th March 1956. Much of the old track was filled to ground level to provide allotments. However, much of the uncovered land adjacent to the loop is in the London Green Belt which prevented large-scale building and any chance of increasing passenger numbers.To the east of the Central line there are almost no houses between Newbury Park and Hainault and hence patronage of the line has never been as high as predicted. There has even been talk of closure over the years but the fact that there is the large Central line depot between Hainault and Grange Hill made this operationally impossible. This view looks along the up platform late on a winter's afternoon as a Central line train is about to set off for Ealing Broadway. The next station in this direction is Grange Hill but this train will be heading in the other direction towards Fairlop.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainault_tube_station

Opened in 1903 by the Great Eastern Railway on the line from Woodford to Ilford, the station closed in 1908 due to lack of patronage. It was reopened in 1930 by the London & North Eastern Railway and became part of London Transport in 1947 and the line was diverted from Ilford to loop round to Leytonstone and thence towards London. View north west towards Grange Hill and Woodford. The 1930s style island platform to the left is very different to the 1903 canopy on the right. Like 55% of the London Underground network, this part is actually overground.

With red tube train which was operating on the Hainault - Woodford shuttle