Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Cranley Gardens Station, Muswell Hill c 1950

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Albums: Historical Images of Nearby London

Comment by Don on January 24, 2025 at 17:56: Presumably where the Parkland Walk comes in from from Ally Pally and crosses into Highgate Woods? Looks like a building site at present on Streetview. I’m not sure when the railway line actually closed, but assume it was Beeching-ed…

Comment by Richard Woods on January 26, 2025 at 15:45: My first job was in the Charrington's office behind these buildings. I was the order clerk for their boiler service crews - we had both coal/coke and oil boilers in posh houses across north London. Was there about three months in 1960.

Comment by Hugh on January 26, 2025 at 15:55: Don, yes you have the place about right, almost opposite the end of Cranley Gardens. As far as I'm aware, yes it was a victim of Beeching, but also the War which disrupted original plans.

Comment by Don on January 26, 2025 at 16:33: Well, at least the Parkland Walk came out of it, and is a huge asset, which is more than for many other axed railways. In fact, having just looked it up, I see it seems to have demised pre-Beeching (for once) — a victim of WWII disruption, as you say, and post-war austerity that scuppered the upgrade plans.

Comment by Harvey Spillman on Friday: The last passenger train ran on 3rd July 1954, so before Beeching. British Railways run down the line which, in hindsight, was not surprising because the line took a circuitous route to Finsbury Park/Kings Cross/Moorgate. Added to this was Highgate Station just down Muswell Hill Road which by then offered faster electric trains to many more destinations in central London. However, London Transport very nearly completed electrification, and integration into the Northern line, of this branch. Today's Alexandra Palace Station on the Great Northern line was not that far away either offering a more direct route. But for the war ... The last freight train over the route ran on 18th May 1957 after which the line closed completely. What went wrong was the local bus service not being upgraded in and around the Muswell Hill area that left it poorly served perhaps, arguably, even to today.

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