West Harrow Station.

[mandgc]

I have not seen West Harrow Booking Office for a number of years but a fairly recent picture suggests that it has not altered very much from its original state. This station holds a special place in my heart as I used to pass it on my way to school every day and often 'pinched' the Underground and Bus maps as soon as the Booking Clerks put them in the rack outside. The bus maps were invaluable for cycling ( although they were quite out of scale) and trying to join up the Underground stations in order resulted in some horrible routes that would cause Harry Beck nightmares!

Anyhow , my question is " Is West Harrw the only remaining Underground station remaining in, or as near as possible, its original condition ?

[Harsig]

mandgc said:

I have not seen West Harrow Booking Office for a number of years but a fairly recent picture suggests that it has not altered very much from its original state. This station holds a special place in my heart as I used to pass it on my way to school every day and often 'pinched' the Underground and Bus maps as soon as the Booking Clerks put them in the rack outside. The bus maps were invaluable for cycling ( although they were quite out of scale) and trying to join up the Underground stations in order resulted in some horrible routes that would cause Harry Beck nightmares!

Anyhow , my question is " Is West Harrw the only remaining Underground station remaining in, or as near as possible, its original condition ?

The answer is no in so far as West Harrow is in nothing like it's original state, having been substantially rebuilt about fifteen years ago, although largely on a like for like basis.

[tubeprune]

Perhaps North Ealing is in its original state - as far as is possible these days. The flat above the station was the DI's residence for a while. Later a guard from Northfields lived there.

[mandgc]

"West Harrow Rebuilt"

Sob ! Nothing much left from the 'Old Days' :-( Probably North Ealing is near the top of the list now.

I can remember Rayners Lane before it was rebuilt ( my Mother was a great one for going for a walk after Sunday School !) It had a little Booking office perched above the entrance to the London Platform. West Harrow was near road level as it was the only one with a road underbridge - the others, Eastcote and Ickenham were like Ray.La. Ickenham- I think- lasted until after the War before being rebuilt.

PS- How about North Harrow ? Have the titles "Metropolitan & Great Central Jt. Rys." remained above the station entrances ?

[Deleted]

North Harrow is a superb station and pretty well original as far as a novice could tell at platform level. Quaint narrow platforms and all.

[stanmorek]

The platforms at West Harrow appear to be temporary construction with what looks like mineral felt covering for surfacing.

There will be stabilisation work done to the embankments at North Harrow in near future. The embankments have had a history of shifting probably due to rise and fall in water uptake from vegetation as the seasons change. This was made worse recently when structures supporting Connect equipment were built close to the station.

I'd loved to have seen Rayners Lane rebuilt having looked at the plans of the station. Did you know that future provision for increasing to four tracking there was designed into the rebuild? Apparently LU still have specified rights to build the addtional tracks on the Uxbridge branch of the Met.