Lea Bridge is a railway station on the line between Stratford and Tottenham Hale on the

Lea Valley Lines The Lea Valley lines are two commuter lines and two branches in north-east London, so named because they run along the Lower Lea Valley of the River Lea. They were part of the Great Eastern Railway, now part of the ''Anglia Route'' of Network ...

, which reopened on the evening of 15 May 2016 with the full service beginning on 16 May 2016, operated by Greater Anglia. The station is located on Argall Way, close to its junction with Lea Bridge Road (A104) and Orient Way, serving the areas of

Lea Bridge Lea Bridge is a district in the London Borough of Hackney and the London Borough of Waltham Forest in London, England. It lies 7 miles (11.3 km) northeast of Charing Cross. The area it takes its name from a bridge built over the River L ...

and

Leyton Leyton () is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the River L ...

in the

London Borough of Waltham Forest The London Borough of Waltham Forest () is a London boroughs, London borough in north-east London, England. Its population is estimated to be 276,983 in 2019. It borders five other London boroughs: London Borough of Enfield, Enfield to the nort ...

, east

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 ...

. The original station operated from 1840 to 1985 and was accessed via the north side of Lea Bridge Road as it crosses the tracks.

History

19th century

The station was opened on 15 September 1840 by the Northern and Eastern Railway as ''Lea Bridge Road'' and is thought to be the earliest example of a station having its building on a road bridge, with staircases down to the platforms. The original station building was an attractive Italianate style structure designed by Sancton Wood (1815-1886) and featured a bell turret on the roof with a bell that was rung when a train was due. The line was initially laid to a gauge of but already this had been identified as non-standard, and between 5 September and 7 October 1844 the whole network was re-laid to . The Northern and Eastern Railway was leased by the

Eastern Counties Railway The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) was an English railway company incorporated in 1836 intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then extend to Norwich and Yarmouth. Construction began in 1837 on the first nine miles at the ...

, which operated the station. The ECR became part of the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern Ra ...

(GER) in 1862. The GER established its signal works (which included a dummy signal box) on the eastern side of the line; the works were demolished in 1939 and replaced by a parcels depot. To the south of the station were the large Temple Mills marshalling yards, and the station would have seen large numbers of goods trains passing. In 1870 a line was opened to Shern Hall Street station (a temporary station located west of the present-day Wood Street station) and a shuttle service operated between Lea Bridge and Shern Hall Street, commencing traffic on 24 April 1870. Prior to this, a horse bus operating between Walthamstow and Lea Bridge had met all trains arriving at the station. The station was renamed ''Lea Bridge'' in 1841.

20th century

In 1923 the GER became part of the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

(LNER). In the 1930s the station was served by trains to Liverpool Street (via Stratford), to

North Woolwich North Woolwich is an area in the London Borough of Newham in East London. It is located on the northern bank of the River Thames, across the river from Woolwich. It is connected to Woolwich by the Woolwich Ferry and Woolwich foot tunnel. De ...

(via Stratford low level platforms), and to Hertford East and Palace Gates. At that time there were Sunday services via the Hall Farm curve to the Chingford branch. On 31 March 1944 the station building was gutted by fire, although the frontage survived. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, in 1948, the railways of the UK were nationalised, and operation of the station passed to

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British ...

Eastern Region. The Hall Farm spur line through to the Chingford branch was rarely used and, despite being electrified in 1960, the line was lifted in 1967.

Closure

The station became an unstaffed halt in 1976 and the station building was demolished at about that time. By then, the only trains serving Lea Bridge were those operating between Tottenham Hale and North Woolwich via Stratford (low level platforms), and the withdrawal of that service led to the closure of the station on 8 July 1985. The simple open-sided shelter, located on the road bridge over the tracks, and which had replaced the original station buildings, was also demolished in 1985. The last train consisted of a two-car Cravens Class 105 DMU.

Re-opening

In December 2005 a new service to and from Stratford reintroduced regular passenger trains passing through the closed station. For many years, plans were under consideration to rebuild and reopen the station and the nearby

Hall Farm Curve The Hall Farm Curve is a disused length of railway line in Walthamstow, east London, that connected Chingford station with Stratford station until the closure of the section of line in September 1968. The track was lifted in 1970. Route Locat ...

junction, as part of wider plans for the redevelopment of the Stratford and

Lower Lea Valley The Lower Lea Valley is the southern end of the Lea Valley which surrounds the River Lea. It is part of the Thames Gateway redevelopment area and was the location of the 2012 Summer Olympics. A 2005 documentary ''What Have You Done Today, Mer ...

area. In January 2013 it was announced that plans had been approved to rebuild and reopen the station. Construction on the £6.5m scheme was planned to start in spring 2014. The station was included in Network Rail's Route Specification for Anglia in 2014 for opening within the next five years. In October 2013, the overgrown platforms were cleared in preparation for construction of the new station building. The new buildings were to be situated on the up side (towards Stratford) rather than on the road bridge over the line, and the platforms were to be linked by a footbridge. Estimates by Transport for London (TfL) show 352,000 entries and exits annually by 2031 with a service of two trains per hour. It was hoped that—after 29 years of closure—the station would reopen in late 2014. The construction date slipped, but work started in July 2015; the station reopened on the evening of Sunday 15 May 2016 with the full service beginning on Monday, 16 May 2016.

Services

All services at Lea Bridge are operated by Greater Anglia using

EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the ...

. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 4 tph to * 2 tph to * 2 tph to During the peak hours, the station is served by additional services to and from . There is also a single early morning service from

London Liverpool Street Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...

. On Sundays, the services to Bishop's Stortford run to Hertford East instead.

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 that serve the station are 55 and 56 and night routes N38 and N55.

References

External links

*
London's Abandoned Stations - Lea Bridge
{{Railway stations served by Abellio Greater Anglia Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1840 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1985 Railway stations in the London Borough of Waltham Forest Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 2016 Reopened railway stations in Great Britain Leyton Greater Anglia franchise railway stations