Gunnersbury is a

London Overground London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a large part of Greater London as w ...

and

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

station in

Gunnersbury Gunnersbury is an area of West London, England. Toponymy The name "Gunnersbury" means "Manor house of a woman called Gunnhildr", and is from an old Scandinavian personal name + Middle English -''bury'', manor or manor house. Development Gun ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

on the

North London line The North London line (NLL) is a railway line which passes through the inner suburbs of west, north-west, north, and east London, England between Richmond in the south-west and Stratford in the east, avoiding central London. Its route is a ro ...

. The station opened on 1 January 1869 and is served by

District line The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One branch runs to in south-west London and a short branch, with a limited serv ...

trains to and from

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, Californi ...

, and by

Arriva Rail London Arriva Rail London is a train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains that operates the London Overground concession on behalf of Transport for London. History In April 2015, Transport for London placed a notice in the ''Official Journal ...

on the

network. On the District line the station is between and , and on the North London line it is between and Kew Gardens. The station is located off

Chiswick High Road Chiswick High Road is the principal shopping and dining street of Chiswick, a district in the west of London. It was part of the main Roman road running west out of London, and remained the main road until the 1950s when the A4 was built acros ...

( A315) and is in Travelcard Zone 3.

History

The station was opened as Brentford Road on 1 January 1869 by the

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

(L&SWR) on a new branch line to built from the West London Joint Railway starting north of Addison Road station (now ). The line ran through

Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a district of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character ...

and

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London ...

via a now closed curve and

Grove Road The A1205 is a road in east London which runs north to south parallel to the Regent's Canal and connects South Hackney and Victoria Park with the A13 at Limehouse. It is approximately 2 miles (3 km) in length, and runs in a roughly S ...

station in Hammersmith (also now closed). A short connection was also made from the North & South Western Junction Railway (N&SWJR) line to meeting the L&SWR line immediately north of the station. This line was served by the

North London Railway The North London Railway (NLR) company had lines connecting the northern suburbs of London with the East and West India Docks further east. The main east to west route is now part of London Overground's North London Line. Other NLR lines fe ...

(NLR). Brentford Road station originally had four platforms; two on the line to Richmond and two serving a loop (the Chiswick Curve) which connected to the line through

Kew Bridge Kew Bridge is a wide-span bridge over the Tideway (upper estuary of the Thames) linking the London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Hounslow. The present bridge, which was opened in 1903 as King Edward VII Bridge by King Edward VII and Quee ...

station. Between 1 June 1870 and 31 October 1870 the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

(GWR) briefly ran services from to Richmond via Hammersmith & City Railway (now the

Hammersmith & City line The Hammersmith & City line is a London Underground line that runs between Hammersmith in west London and in east London. Printed in pink on the Tube map, it serves 29 stations over . Between and it skirts the City of London, the capital's fi ...

) tracks to Grove Road then on the L&SWR tracks through Gunnersbury. The station was given its current name in 1871. On 1 June 1877, the

District Railway The Metropolitan District Railway, also known as the District Railway, was a passenger railway that served London from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete an " inner circle" of lines connecting railway termini in London, the first par ...

(DR, now the District line) opened a short extension from its terminus at Hammersmith to connect to the L&SWR tracks east of station. The DR then began running trains over the L&SWR tracks to Richmond. On 1 October 1877, the

Metropolitan Railway The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...

(MR, now the Metropolitan line) restarted the GWR's former service to Richmond via Grove Road station. The DR's service between Richmond, Hammersmith and central London was more direct than the NLR's route via , the L&SWR's or the MR's routes via Grove Road station or the L&SWR's other route from Richmond via . From 1 January 1894, the GWR began sharing the MR's Richmond service and served Gunnersbury once again, meaning that passengers from Gunnersbury could travel on the services of five operators. Following the

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histo ...

of the DR's own tracks north of in 1903, the DR funded the electrification of the tracks through Gunnersbury. The tracks on the Richmond branch were electrified on 1 August 1905. Whilst DR services were operated with

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

trains, the L&SWR, NLR, GWR and MR services continued to be

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...

hauled. MR services were withdrawn on 31 December 1906 and GWR services were withdrawn on 31 December 1910 leaving operations at Gunnersbury to the DR (by then known as the District Railway), the NLR and L&SWR. By 1916, the L&SWR's route through Hammersmith was being out-competed by the District to such a degree that the L&SWR withdrew its service between Richmond and Addison Road on 3 June 1916, leaving the District as the sole operator over that route. In 1932, the Chiswick Curve was closed and the tracks were later removed. The site of the curve is now a housing estate known as Chiswick Village. On 8 December 1954 the station was damaged by a

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...

which ripped off the roof and injured six people. In the 1960s the station was redeveloped with just the two platforms it currently possesses. The London Overground and London Underground services share the same tracks.

Services

Gunnersbury currently has the following

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...

(

)

(District Line) services, which are operated by Class 378, and S Stock ;London Underground Off-peak: *6tph to

Upminster Upminster is a suburban town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Havering. Located east-northeast of Charing Cross, it is one of the district centres identified for development in the London Plan. Historically a rural vill ...

*6tph to

;London Overground Off-peak (including Sundays): *4tph to Stratford *4tph to

Arrangement

London Underground is classed as an

open access operator In rail transport in Europe, an open-access operator is a train operating company that takes full commercial risk, running on infrastructure owned by a third party and buying paths on a chosen route and in countries where rail services run under ...

between Richmond and Acton Lane Junction with LU purchasing individual slots on the North London line from Network Rail.

Connections

London Buses London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus s ...

routes 110,

237 Year 237 ( CCXXXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Perpetuus and Felix (or, less frequently, year 990 ''Ab urbe cond ...

, 267,

440 Year 440 (CDXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Valentinianus and Anatolius (or, less frequently, year 1193 ''Ab urbe ...

, H91 and night route N9 serve the station.

References

External links

London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
** ** ** ** {{UK railway stations District line stations Tube stations in the London Borough of Hounslow Railway stations in the London Borough of Hounslow Former London and South Western Railway stations London Underground stations located above ground Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1869 Railway stations served by London Overground Station 1869 establishments in England