IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Mandeville Road, NORTHOLT, UB5 4AA

View SE towards London and Epping/Hainault on London Underground Central Line, West Ruislip extension opened 21/11/48, replacing Northolt (Halt) on the ex-GWR Paddington - Birmingham Direct (Acton - Northolt Loop)- seen here on the left.

View NE on Mandeville Road A312: London Underground Central Line, West Ruislip left, London and Epping right. The Central Line station was opened 21/11/48, replacing Northolt (Halt) on the GWR Paddington - Birmingham direct line.

The line through Northolt was built between 1903 and 1906 from the Great Western Main Line at Old Oak Common to the Chiltern Main Line at South Ruislip. A full history of this line can be seen at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acton-Northolt_Line In no area at a comparable distance from London was development so slow. In the hamlet of West End at Northolt only three houses were built between 1837 and 1935. It was not until the late 1950s that most of the area out to West Ruislip had become built over. The Great Western Railway provided a number of halts in addition to Greenford and West Ruislip and served them by infrequent trains right up to 1947, in spite of the rising tide of suburban development after 1935. They constructed a halt at this location named Northolt Halt in 1907, on their New North Main Line to Birmingham. It was renamed Northolt (for West End) Halt, before gaining station status under its original shorter name. It was closed in 1948. The present station was built for the Central line extension of the 1935-40 New Works Programme of the London Passenger Transport Board which was designed to improve transport in London. An extra pair of tracks were built to the south of the old tracks from Acton to Denham for the exclusive use of Central line trains. The widened lines were opened to Greenford on 30th June 1947 and on to West Ruislip on 21st November 1948. The section to Denham was not proceeded with because of the introduction of the London Green Belt after the Second World War. The former tracks were singled and the remaining track (to the left here) is only served by freight trains and a once-daily passenger service provided by Chiltern Railways, apart from empty stock workings. Northolt opened on 21st November 1948. Here a westbound train for West Ruislip awaits departure.