Alperton tube station

Alperton is a London Underground station on the Uxbridge branch of the Piccadilly Line. The station is between Sudbury Town and Park Royal. It is located on Ealing Road (A4089 road) a short distance from the junction with Bridgewater Road (A4005) and is close to Alperton Bus Garage and the Paddington branch of the Grand Union Canal. The station is in Travelcard Zone 4

History

Perivale Alperton station was opened on June 28 1903 by the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR, now the District Line) on its new extension to South Harrow from Park Royal & Twyford Abbey.cite book
last=Rose
first=Douglas
title=The London Underground, A Diagrammatic History
year=1999
publisher=Douglas Rose/Capital Transport
isbn=1-85414-219-4] Park Royal & Twyford Abbey had itself opened five days earlier.

This new extension was, together with the existing tracks back to Acton Town, the first section of the Underground's surface lines to be electrified and operate electric instead of steam trains. [http://www.davros.org/rail/culg/district.html#dates Clive's Underground Line Guides, District Line, Dates] ] The Deep level tube lines open at that time (City & South London Railway, Waterloo & City Railway and Central London Railway) had been electrically powered from the start.

The station was subsequently renamed Alperton on October 7 1910.

The original station building was a modest timber framed structure and in 1930 and 1931 this was demolished and replaced by a new station in preparation for the handover of the branch from the District Line to the Piccadilly Line. The new station was designed by Charles Holden in a modern European style using brick, reinforced concrete and glass. Like the stations at Sudbury Town and Sudbury Hill to the north and others that Holden designed elsewhere for the east and west Piccadilly Line extensions such as Acton Town and Oakwood, Alperton station features a tall block-like ticket hall rising above a low horizontal structure that contains station offices and shops. The brick walls of the ticket hall are punctuated with panels of clerestory windows and the structure is capped with a flat concrete slab roof. Alperton shared with Greenford (on the Central Line) the distinction of being one of the only two stations to have an escalator going up to a platform. The escalator served the eastbound platform and had originally been used at the South Bank exhibition of the Festival of Britain. [ [http://www.ltmcollection.org/photos/photo/photo.html?_IXSR_=Ag2iISg74ER&_IXMAXHITS_=1&IXinv=1998/45427&IXsummary=results/results&IXsearch=alperton&_IXFIRST_=21 London Transport Museum, caption to picture of escalator] ] Now out of use, the escalator remains in place behind a wall. [ [http://www.davros.org/rail/culg/vertical.html Clive's Underground Line Guides - Vertical Transport, Escalators] ]

On July 4 1932, the Piccadilly Line was extended to run west of its original terminus at Hammersmith sharing the route with the District Line to Ealing Common. From Ealing Common to South Harrow, the District Line was replaced by the Piccadilly Line.

ervices

The typical off-peak service is a train in each direction every ten minutes. Half of northbound trains terminate at Rayners Lane and the other half continue to the terminus of the line at Uxbridge.

External links

* [http://photos.ltmcollection.org London's Transport Museum Photographic Archive]
**ltmcollection|bh/i00007bh.jpg|Alperton station, 1916
**ltmcollection|99/9861899.jpg|Ticket office, 1927
**ltmcollection|59/997059.jpg|New station, 1933
**ltmcollection|84/997084.jpg|Ticket hall, 1933. Showing structure of reinforced concrete roof
**ltmcollection|p3/i00001p3.jpg|View of platforms and shelter, 1958
**ltmcollection|7z/i000017z.jpg|Alperton Station, 2001. With appearance marred by rooftop safety barriers

References

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