The station was opened on 22 August 1867, on the Great Northern Railway's line between Finsbury Park and Edgware stations. As part of London Underground's only partially completed Northern Heights plan, the station was completely rebuilt with additional tracks in the late 1930s. Northern line trains started serving the station on 3 July 1939 and main line passenger services ended on 2 March 1941.
History
Original station
East Finchley station in 1873 (then named 'East End, Finchley')
At the start of the 1930s, the station had around 54 trains daily from High Barnet and a few through trains from Edgware. Services ran to Finsbury Park and then either King's Cross, Moorgate or Broad Street.[14][n 2]
Northern Heights project
In 1935, the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) announced a proposal, which became known as the Northern Heights project. This was to take over the LNER lines from Finsbury Park to Edgware, High Barnet and Alexandra Palace, and link them to both the Northern line at East Finchley and to the Northern City line at Finsbury Park.[n 3] The construction of the first phase of this project involved extending tube train services from the Northern line's existing terminus at Archway station, through a new section of paired tunnels under the LNER's Highgate station to emerge south-east of East Finchley station, where track connections to the LNER line were made.[16][n 4]
The streamlined design of the platform waiting rooms
For the introduction of London Underground services, the original station was completely demolished and rebuilt. The station was provided with two additional platforms, giving four in total. The platforms comprise two parallel islands with tracks on both sides. This was necessary as the intention of the Northern Heights project was that trains would be able to run south from East Finchley to Highgate via both the surface and the underground routes.[18][n 5] The inner pair of tracks served the surface route, whilst the outer pair serve the tunnel route.[20]
Northern line trains first served the station on 3 July 1939.[21] After completion of the electrification of the line to High Barnet, Underground services were extended northwards on 14 April 1940.[21] The station continued to be served by LNER steam trains from Highgate until 2 March 1941 when that service was discontinued.[22][n 6] The inner platforms are now used only by northbound trains entering service or southbound trains terminating at East Finchley on their way to or from Highgate Wood depot south of the station.[n 7]
Post-war
After the war, plans to complete the Northern Heights project were reviewed but no work was carried out. Maintenance works and reconstruction of war damage on the existing network had the greatest call on London Underground funds. Funds for new works were severely limited and priority was given to the completion of the western and eastern extensions of the Central line to West Ruislip, Epping and Hainault.[24] Despite being shown as under construction on underground maps as late as 1950,[n 8] work never restarted on the unimplemented parts of the Northern Heights project.[29][n 9]
British Railways (the successor to the LNER) freight trains continued to serve the station's goods yard until 1 October 1962, when it was closed.[32][n 10]
Description of the building
View of platforms with glazed stairwells and offices spanning the tracks
The new station was constructed in an Art Deco/Streamline Moderne design by Charles Holden with L H Bucknell.[6] Like Holden's other designs for London Underground in the 1930s, East Finchley station was inspired by European architecture (particularly Dutch) that Holden had seen on trips to the continent during that decade.[34] The track here runs roughly north-west to south-east. The imposing station building, built on rising ground adjacent to the railway bridge over High Road (A1000), has three entrances. The two main entrances to the ticket hall are on the north side of the tracks facing High Road and the third, minor entrance, is on the south side.[n 11] The entrances are linked by a passage under the tracks which provides access up to the platforms.[35]
Aumonier's The Archer statue
A strong feature of the station is the semi-circular glazed stairways leading to the enclosed bridge over the tracks occupied by staff offices. Prominent from the platforms and dominating the main entrance façade is The Archer, a 10-foot-tall (3.0 m) statue by Eric Aumonier of a kneeling archer captured as if having just released an arrow.[36][n 12] The archer is intended to commemorate Finchley's ancient association with hunting in the nearby Royal Forest of Enfield.[38] The station is a Grade II listed building.[6]
Services and connections
Services
The station is in TravelcardZone 3, between Finchley Central and Highgate stations.[39] Train frequencies vary throughout the day, but generally operate every 3–7 minutes between 05:40 and 01:01 northbound and 05:34 and 00:12 southbound (as of 2015).[40][41]
^The original station name reflected the name of the local area. Residents requested the change to avoid confusion with the poor districts of the East End of London.[12]
^At Edgware, the LNER's station was to be closed with the end of the line diverted into the Northern line's own Edgware station with an extension from there taking the line to Bushey Heath.[15]
^At 17.25 miles (27.76 km), the tunnel from East Finchley to Morden was, at the time, the longest railway tunnel in the world when it was opened.[17]
^In 1938, services through East Finchley station were planned to run between Bushey Heath and Kennington (via tunnel to Highgate), High Barnet and Kennington (via tunnel to Highgate), East Finchley and Morden (via tunnel to Highgate) and High Barnet and Moorgate (via surface to Highgate).[19]
^Smoke deflectors are cast into the concrete of the bridge structure over the inner pair of tracks to prevent smoke from the steam engines entering the windows of the offices above.[23] The outer pair of tracks, which were only used by electric tube stock do not have deflectors above them.
^The outer pair of tracks enter tunnels a short distance to the south-east of the station. The inner pair of tracks run to Highgate Wood depot, but originally ran all the way to Highgate. Crossovers immediately north of the station connect between the two pairs of tracks.
^Shown as "under construction", the Northern Heights extensions appeared for the first time on Underground poster maps in 1937 and pocket maps in 1938.[25][26] After the opening of the tube platforms at Highgate and the extensions to High Barnet and Mill Hill East, the uncompleted remainder of the works were removed from the map between 1943 and 1945.[26] The Mill Hill East to Edgware and Edgware to Bushey Heath sections appeared on the map again from 1946 to 1949 and the Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace section appeared from 1946 to 1950.[27][28]
^The section of the extension between Brockley Hill and Bushey Heath was cancelled in October 1950,[30] leaving the section between Edgware and Brockley Hill and the conversion of the line from Mill Hill East to Edgware to be decided. The announcement of its cancellation was finally made in February 1954.[31]
^Freight services continued on the High Barnet branch until 1962 and the Edgware branch until 1964.[33]
^The main glazed screen to the ticket hall on the north side features the Underground roundel. The LNER logo was originally contained in the lenticular pane above.
^The Archer, a local community newspaper, is named after Aumonier's statue and uses it as its masthead image.[37]
Wolmar, Christian (2005) [2004]. The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground Was Built and How It Changed the City Forever. Atlantic Books. ISBN978-1-84354-023-6.
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