Uploaded October 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Visiting London's Crouch Hill and Crouch End railway stations
Crouch Hill station is on the London Overground Barking - Gospel Oak line and in addition to London Overground passenger trains is also used by goods (freight / container) trains travelling to / from Tilbury ports and other destinations. The Barking - Gospel Oak route is a radial line that passes through inner-city urban areas but does not serve central London. It is often nicknamed 'Goblin'.
Crouch End station was served by passenger trains on busy urban / suburban services between London's Kings Cross station / Broad Street station / the Metropolitan Widened Line to Moorgate station (all via Finsbury Park) and Edgware / High Barnet / Alexandra Palace (all via Highgate).
The 1935 Northern Heights electrification plan was meant to see the LNER steam trains replaced by London Passenger Transport Board electric tube trains but the project was halted during WW2 with only the route to High Barnet fully completed. However these trains followed a different route (via Camden Town) and only joined the existing railway at East Finchley - which is to the north of Crouch End, so it was not served by the tube trains.
The plans were that the trains which serve Crouch End would still reach their existing northern destinations (albeit High Barnet at rush hours only and at Edgware they would be diverted to the Underground station instead of the LNER station and then be projected further north to Elstree), but to a different London terminus station - this being Moorgate's subterranean Northern City line platforms.
During WW2 Crouch End was only served by trains going to Alexandra Palace, and this service became very run down - and infrequent - with passengers forced to travel by bus instead. Despite this service passing through densely populated inner city areas and it being known that railway electrification attracts many new passengers, after the war the government refused to complete any further portions of the Northern Heights railway electrification project and instead allowed the service to be closed. Much work for this project had already been completed - including rebuilding the platforms at Crouch End station with the London Passenger Transport Board style of non-slip platform edge coping. All this was now wasted.
As an aside, the other railway route to the Alexandra Palace area (Stratford - Palace Gates) was also run down during the war and then also closed.
Note 1: the 1941 reopening of the Edgware route as far as Mill Hill East was only because the trains served a military barracks, and anyway it used electric tube trains that did not travel via Crouch End.
Note 2: the extension north from Edgware is only partly relevant to the fate of Crouch End. Although it was planned that trains on the Moorgate - Highbury & Islington - Finsbury Park -Highgate - Finchley Central - Mill Hill - Edgware - Bushey Heath route would have passed through Crouch End, had the extension been built it could still have been served by Northern line trains that travelled via Golders Green.
Visiting London's Crouch Hill and Crouch End railway stations
Crouch Hill station is on the London Overground Barking - Gospel Oak line and in addition to London Overground passenger trains is also used by goods (freight / container) trains travelling to / from Tilbury ports and other destinations. The Barking - Gospel Oak route is a radial line that passes through inner-city urban areas but does not serve central London. It is often nicknamed 'Goblin'.
Crouch End station was served by passenger trains on busy urban / suburban services between London's Kings Cross station / Broad Street station / the Metropolitan Widened Line to Moorgate station (all via Finsbury Park) and Edgware / High Barnet / Alexandra Palace (all via Highgate).
The 1935 Northern Heights electrification plan was meant to see the LNER steam trains replaced by London Passenger Transport Board electric tube trains but the project was halted during WW2 with only the route to High Barnet fully completed. However these trains followed a different route (via Camden Town) and only joined the existing railway at East Finchley - which is to the north of Crouch End, so it was not served by the tube trains.
The plans were that the trains which serve Crouch End would still reach their existing northern destinations (albeit High Barnet at rush hours only and at Edgware they would be diverted to the Underground station instead of the LNER station and then be projected further north to Elstree), but to a different London terminus station - this being Moorgate's subterranean Northern City line platforms.
During WW2 Crouch End was only served by trains going to Alexandra Palace, and this service became very run down - and infrequent - with passengers forced to travel by bus instead. Despite this service passing through densely populated inner city areas and it being known that railway electrification attracts many new passengers, after the war the government refused to complete any further portions of the Northern Heights railway electrification project and instead allowed the service to be closed. Much work for this project had already been completed - including rebuilding the platforms at Crouch End station with the London Passenger Transport Board style of non-slip platform edge coping. All this was now wasted.
As an aside, the other railway route to the Alexandra Palace area (Stratford - Palace Gates) was also run down during the war and then also closed.
Note 1: the 1941 reopening of the Edgware route as far as Mill Hill East was only because the trains served a military barracks, and anyway it used electric tube trains that did not travel via Crouch End.
Note 2: the extension north from Edgware is only partly relevant to the fate of Crouch End. Although it was planned that trains on the Moorgate - Highbury & Islington - Finsbury Park -Highgate - Finchley Central - Mill Hill - Edgware - Bushey Heath route would have passed through Crouch End, had the extension been built it could still have been served by Northern line trains that travelled via Golders Green.
