Brent Cross tube station

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox London station

Brent Cross is a London Underground station, located on Highfield Avenue in the Golders Green area of north-west London. It is a Grade II listed building.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The station is on the Edgware branch of the Northern line, between Hendon Central and Golders Green stations. The Brent Cross shopping centre is equidistant between this station and Hendon Central. It is in London fare zone 3.

History

The station was designed by architect Stanley Heaps and opened as Brent, the name of the nearby river, on 19 November 1923.<ref>London Transport Museum The station just before opening. Note the space for (later) by-pass tracks</ref><ref>London Transport Museum Station building at opening</ref> It was the first station of the extension of what was then known as the Hampstead & Highgate Line, which was built through undeveloped rural areas to Edgware.

The extension had first been planned prior to the First World War when the station had been due to be called "Woodstock". It was renamed from Brent to its current name on the 2 March 1976 opening of the shopping centre.

Two passing loops were built at the station, not long after it opened, to allow fast trains to overtake slower ones here, but these extra tracks were removed in the 1930s. The bridges over Highfield Avenue reflect this extra width, although both north and south of the station the alignment narrows again.

Development

A planning application, registered in March 2008, for the nearby Brent Cross area<ref>Developers' website Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>London Borough of Barnet Template:Webarchive Regeneration proposals</ref> would improve bus services passing the station. A turning circle for buses outside the tube station is proposed, needing the demolition of nearby housing.

In early 2008, the London Group of the Campaign for Better Transport published the North and West London Light Railway Proposal (q.v.)<ref>London Campaign for Better Transport Template:Webarchive North and West London light railway (NWLLR) / Brent Cross Railway (BCR) plan</ref> for a rapid transit scheme through the Brent Cross site, terminating at the tube station.<ref>London Campaign for Better Transport Template:Webarchive Response to planning application</ref>