So many memories haha. I used to walk past that Tudor style building (in your thumbnail to this video) every morning going to work. One very early morning in the late 70s I arrived at the tube station to be confronted by new fangled ticket gates and various workmen and men in suits hanging around expectantly just inside. I put my ticket in the relevant slot and walked through to a round of applause as the very first passenger to venture through the brand new ticket barriers! Ah the celebrity of it all 😊
One other point worth mentioning perhaps is that for the extension to Watford, they'd already built an enormous train maintenance depot just north of Edgware, which was all ready and waiting for trains that would never come, so they figured they ought to make use of it somehow, so it became Aldenham Bus Overhaul Works. Closed in 1986, there's now a business park on the site.
Quite so - in fact I made a comment on another JH video recently (I can't remember why it was relevant) to suggest that Aldenham Works would make an excellent subject for a JH video
The Halifaxes built there, at Aldenham (the pits below the rails, having been filled in) were built under the London Aircraft Production Group (also at DH Leavesden). The aircrew seats were finished in green leatherette, identical to those of LTE 'buses.
Dear Jago. Interesting side note. After WWII my father served in Hong Kong until being invalided out of service due to being shot several times by 'bandits' (that's a separate story). When he returned to the UK he worked in various jobs for a few years before joining a couple of fellows in an enterprise which was based in part of the converted buildings still standing in the 'Goods Yard' at Edgware. What these chaps were doing was buying 'Army Surplus' and selling it on. Mainly it was vehicles - they would buy ex-army 'half-tacks', remove the tracks and replace them with a rear axle, and sell them as utility vehicles. But they also bought crates of 'flat pack' furniture which had originally been destined for use in army barracks (flat packed made it easier to transport and assemble on site). They decided to sell this flat pack furniture with simple instructions for assembly. The vehicle side of things was called 'Mullard Vehicles', whereas the furniture side of things was run as a separate enterprise, 'Mullard Furnishing Industries'. This history is only given a minor reference on it's wikipedia page. I am of course talking about the retailing behemoth which was MFI. Had my father had the perspicacity to stick with the company in the first place (instead of going into the Film and TV vehicle supply side of things.......yadda yadda yadda....another story) I might now be considerably richer than I am. Thank you for covering Edgware - I grew up in the area, and also worked for a friend of my dads on that same site in the 1980s before it got redeveloped. What a dump. LOL Tx
Very interesting, thank you. I grew up in Edgware and can remember the site of the old station being used as a sort of industrial park for a coal merchant (very important in those days), a timber yard and other businesses. The tube station had a large yard at the back where most buses left from. I think it was also one of the last places in London to play host to trolley buses, which stopped running in about 1961.
It sort of was but the trolleybuses for some reason didn't actually go to Edgware station but continued up the main A5 to terminate at a roundabout called Canons Corner (obviously not originally a roundabout) which was as far from Stanmore station as the A5 was from Edgware station. There was a turning point for the 666 trolleybus near to Edgware and the 645 went on to Canons Corner. Well, that's as clear as mud 🙄
@@barrykeen5643 The 666 turned in the A5 (Edgware Road) around a central reservation. Do you remember the old single deck TD buses that ran from the station?
Yes, they were cut back to Edgware from the roundabout further north, at Canons Park (I remember them turning there), where the MET trams also reversed.
@john jephcote. Not Canons Park. That's a completely different place and I don't think they were cut back from Canons Corner before the end on 2nd January 1962. I remember because I travelled on the whole of the remaining North West London trolleybus network (645, 660, 662 and 666) on that very cold snowy day and I'm 99% sure that we went round that terminus roundabout.
That Railway hotel is a gorgeous old Tudor style building. Also nearby the station was the Green Shield stamp headquarters and showrooms. Often went there with my Dad Tupperware would have been a good name for the other station Thanks very much for another fascinating tale Jago.
I used to live in Burnt Oak but worked in Baker St. I cannot tell how many times I fell asleep on the way home and ended up at Edgware Station. That was in the 70s. I remember playing on the old railway line. But the tracks had been removed. Thanks for the memory
That Railway hotel has, as far as I remember growing up in Edgware in the 90s, always been closed. Don Macrkill's music stop used to be opposite the pub, where i got my second hand guitars, and that bus stop was for the good old 186/340 to school. Takes me back
Hi, re the Watford extension - I grew up in the early 1950's in Bushey in Oundle Avenue, off Chiltern Avenue, both still there. Oundle Ave was a dead end, finishing at farmers fields. Turning left at that end where Cotswold Avenue now is was a muddy overgrown track known locally as The Sleeper Track. which consisted of Railway sleepers laid side by side. My mother told me that this was Railway land, and that a space for railway tracks was left in Chiltern Avenue between two houses for the extension to Watford, at a new station on the opposite side of the High Street roughly where Watford High Street station is now.
Hiya Michael, that's really interesting. I'm looking at OpenStreetMap and comparing it with a map showing where the Brockley Hill, Elstree South and Bushey Heath stations would have been. Although Jago is talking about the proposed extension to Watford from the now-demolished Edgware GNR station, the routes would probably have been very similar, so your mum's theory seems pretty sound. I wish RU-vid would let me include URLs in comments. If that were allowed without comments evaporating, I could point you towards the map I referred to (not OpenStreetMap; the other one). I also have a photo, source unknown, of a 1938 tube train (located in LT Museum?) with Bushey Heath on the destination indicator, plus a platform indicator (photographed at Golders Green, I think) showing stations to Edgware, with a separate line displaying stations to Bushey Heath and requiring a change at Edgware. Again, URLs would make this clearer and more useful. If you'd like me to send you these images, Google my name (you'll find me instantly) and drop me a note.
Sir. You can ramble for ever. I love the quips and the obvious research that I know doesn't fall off a tree. I'm running out of Bravo's. Bravo anyway. Regards from Loutraki Greece
In the old days railway stations would often have signs saying, "No Spitting." I saw one such at one of the stations on the Bluebell Line. But otherwise they have disappeared, apparently.
I once booked into a hotel-motel here in Australia which would not have been called salubrious, but when I found a laminated sign in my room which read "No skinning of animals or gutting of fish in the room" I realised it was certainly not the Ritz
One of my relatives as a teen arranged to meet another at the Mark and Spencers on Edgware Road to do some shopping. Unfortunately one went to Edgware Road( Marble Arch), another went to Edgware.Around ten miles/hours travel by tube difference in locations.-Two rather unhappy people,this is in the days before mobile phones. I also had a mix up between Bromley and Bromley by Bow being given instruction by an employment agency for a job interview at the Odeon Cinema. - I didn't get the job ! ( Another 10 mile error),and didn't use that agency again.
"Everyone had a bicycle, then they got a car and then back to a bicycle." Is that what is know as everything goes around in cycles? Thank you and good night.
For some odd reason it's always a pleasant surprise when Yerkes pops up in a video. Though not really surprising in these lovely clips, but still a nice bonus.
I lived in Edgware as a child. We rarely took the Northern line, but walked just over A mile to Stanmore, back when it was still the end of the Bakerloo.
Jago, please do produce something about the Northern Heights, if only as it is a subject deserving of your undeniable wit. Plus you KNOW you will unearth something that we will all find interesting. Plus, I would get to see some shots of various abandoned stations and infrastructure I ventured through with my father as a child and therefore find t it had all disappointingly disappeared under to the heavy hammer of progress 🙄😜 Great stuff as ever, cheers 👍🍻🍀😎
Edgeware one of the few places on the underground I feel like I know because I heard it so much on the announcements, but have probably never been there.
As someone who's lived in Barnet for just over 36 years, I regularly see buses heading for Edgware. Even after all those years, I still think it should really be spelled Edgeware !! 😎😱
If it weren't that Bayko wasn't invented till ten years afterwards, you could almost swear Stanley Heaps used it to build his initial model for Edgware Station. Those roofs, those pillars .... so very reminiscent ....
Devious deeds and the aforementioned rogue and favourite villain Charles Yerkies - who could ask for more? Yes indeed, Mr H, you have yet again pulled a stunningly good video out of your bag. Please keep up the excellent work. BTW, I've just finished reading for the umpteenth time 'Leave it to PSmith'. I ponder if you are a reincarnation of the great PGW. Simon T
Yes thank you ! Be interesting if you can find any more about the northern extension, just north of brockley hill Tube station they unearthed Roman artifacts, in fact elstree south had Roman statues planned , I have manuscripts all about the Roman settlement there ,
I did indeed enjoy that as I live in Edgware. Whilst not tube related about 200 yards from the station is a road named Canons Drive, on the West side of A5 Edgware Road, at the far end of this road is a magnificent Avenue of Redwood trees.
Could the Roman Villa look of the tube station have anything to do with Edgware being on the old Roman road of Watling Street and the evidene of Roman settlements in the area?
The old Aldenham bus works Was earmarked to be the Northern line depot and maintainance facilities for the New extention, but as the northern hieghts project never really got any higher than Edgware the bus works remained as the bus works until its closure in 1986, I done my work experience there in 1984 and got loads of info I never knew about the works.. I wanted to work there but it closed.. I then became a bus conductor in 87 then a driver in 88... Great video by the way 😊👍🏽
I initially thought this would be about the slight oddity that is Edgeware Road... then I saw the stations and realised that it was about the Edgware at the end of the Northern Line - that I don't think I've ever had a need to go to. The tales of competition and tactics are always really interesting, thanks.
So many lines were due to reach Watford.... Makes me disappointed that they mothballed the Croxley Link. would have been ideal for myself travelling from Aylesbury, to get to watch Watford FC home games.
Again Jago very interesting. Got to admit I have never seen a sign asking me not to urinate here. Though in Austria I was asked to move to a designated smoking point two foot from where I was standing on a platform without a cover. Good job I had already gone to the toilet.
Listening to the audiobook of Human Universe (BBC/Cox) I suddenly realised that I was familiar with the name of the observatory where Edwin Hubble did his PhD work, all thanks to Jago. It was the Yerkes Observatory. Apparently the building still has caricature sculptures of the main donors, with the main donor most recognisable due to his moustaches.
Edgware was actually in Middlesex before I think. And its sad to see that the Northern Line extension to Bushey Heath will never seem to happen. And could of extended to Watford Junction.
Yes, Edgware was in Middlesex. My parents and I lived in one of the last houses in London NW9. The houses behind were in Edgeware, Middlesex. My father used to joke that, if he wanted a breath of country air, all he needed to do was to put his head over the back garden fence.
There's another misnamed Railway Tavern in Crouch End, not far from the inner end of the old Edgware, Highgate and London Railway (now the Parkland Walk).
Amazingly, given the size and importance of Edgware in the 70's (and also Burnt Oak) many trains, including most of the off-peak Bank Branch service, used to terminate at Colindale, with only the Charing Cross Branch trains continuing to Edgware. This is, of course, no longer the case; the reversing siding just north of Colindale Station still exists, but is seldom used now except in emergencies.
Would an Edgware to Watford line generate enough traffic, given thar Watford was already connected to London by the Bakerloo line, also by the LNWR electric trains. I do like the overall roof at Edgware.
That's right, and there was also the 25 minute journey to Euston, probably only stopping at Harrow & Wealdston by steam. Also, the Metropolitan was out, rather inconveniently, by the Boys' Grammar School, the other (NW) side of Watford.
Yerkes and the massive combine he built showed the importance of integrated public transport. He wanted it to make more money, but it's hard to imagine a London where the INDIVIDUAL tube lines and bus operators operate as separate and rival organisations
Edgeware does have multiple stations: Edgeware, Burnt Oak, Colindale, Hendon, Queensbury, and Mill Hill Broadway. Also, Watford is on the tube, its just not on the Northern Line, because Watford is not directly north of Edgeware, and it is too far away from that part of London. Edgeware is NOT the area around the station, it is the area around Edgeware road, which is the A5 (old Roman road) heading out of London, connecting the south coast to Anglesea in Wales.
I’ve been to Edgware …or so I thought … oh, dear. I don’t know where I visited now … hopelessly confused. I’ll have to come back after the pandemic and sort it out! LOL
"The Charring Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway was owned by...." Me: It's that man again isn't it? "London Electric Railway...." Me: Oh god here he comes. "Part of the Combine" Me: Moustache incoming! "Charles Yerkes" Me: I knew it!
Another good video I grew up in borehamwood so a short bus ride on a 107 to Edgware or a 292 to burnt oak was our local tube. A northern heights video would be good even if it has been done before if to long how about 2 halves I can remember the remains of the arches at cannon’s corner before they had graffiti on them also remember an old fellow used to go in my local who had worked on the tunnels for new extension told me they came out somewhere around Aldenham bus works
I can't help but try to imagine what service on said northern heights extensions would look like! and that Elstree extension as well. Any idea on track layouts to handle all those trains?
If you can get hold of 'By Tube beyond Edgware' (the correct spelling of Edgware) by Tony Beard (Capital Transport 2002 ISBN 185414 246 1) you will find everything you need, including plans, photos, and specially commissioned colour plates of how the completed stations would have appeared.
