Grange Hill tube station

Grange Hill
Entrance on Manor Road
Grange Hill Location of Grange Hill in Essex
Location	Chigwell
Local authority	Epping Forest
Managed by	London Underground
Number of platforms	2
Fare zone	4
London Underground annual entry and exit
2011	0.49 million[1]
2012	0.54 million[1]
2013	0.56 million[1]
2014	0.60 million[1]
Key dates
1903	Opened (GER)
1947	Closed (LNER)
1948	Opened (Central line)
4 October 1965	Goods yard closed[2]
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
London Transport portalCoordinates: 51°36′48″N 0°05′32″E / 51.61333°N 0.09222°E

Grange Hill station is a London Underground station on the Central line which lies in Chigwell in the Epping Forest district of Essex immediately to the west of the boundary with Hainault in the London Borough of Redbridge. The station is between Hainault tube station and Chigwell tube station. The station has been in Travelcard Zone 4 since 2 January 2007.

History

The station was opened by the Great Eastern Railway on 1 May 1903 on their Fairlop Loop line between Woodford and Ilford.

As a consequence of the 1921 Railways Act, the GER was merged with other railway companies in 1923 to become part of the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER). As part of the 1935 - 1940 "New Works Programme" of the London Passenger Transport Board the majority of the Woodford to Ilford loop was to be transferred to form the eastern extensions of the Central line. Although work commenced in 1938 it was suspended upon the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and work only recommenced in 1946. In connection with the alterations required for the electrification of the line, the station was closed from 29 November 1947. It reopened and was first served by the Central line from 21 November 1948. The station ticket office was reconstructed as part of this work following destruction of the original building by a German V1 'Doodlebug' in July 1944. The 1903 building was very similar to the next station to the north, Chigwell, which is still largely untouched to this day, and the original building further south at Newbury Park, demolished in 1956 to make way for a road improvement.

View of platforms

From the mid-1960s until the early 1990s the Woodford-Hainault section was largely separately operated from the rest of the Central line, using four car (later three car) trains of 1960 Stock. These trains were adapted for Automatic Train Operation (ATO); the Woodford-Hainault section became the testing ground for ATO on the Victoria line. The separate operation has now been abolished and through trains to Central London via Hainault now operate. At the beginning of the morning and evening peak periods, some trains starting from Hainault depot enter service at Grange Hill and work to central London via Woodford, although in the current timetable, only one train returns to Hainault depot via Grange Hill, the majority doing so instead via Newbury Park and Hainault.

The tunnel between Grange Hill and Chigwell

Since 5 February 2006 this has been one of the small number of stations on the network to have no staffed ticket office. However, staff are available 24 hours a day for customer information and the train service has been extended to midnight to take into account the rising passenger numbers.

Services

Typical off-peak services are:

• 3 trains per hour to Ealing Broadway via Hainault
• 3 trains per hour to Woodford

Connections

London Buses routes 362 and 462 and Local School route 43 Times serve the station.

References

1. "Multi-year station entry-and-exit figures" (XLS). London Underground station passenger usage data. Transport for London. June 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
2. Hardy, Brian, ed. (March 2011). "How it used to be - freight on The Underground 50 years ago". Underground News (London Underground Railway Society) (591): 175–183. ISSN 0306-8617.

External links

• London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
  • Grange Hill station, 1955
  • Booking hall, 1955