North London Railway - West Hampstead

The North London Line continues in a south westerly direction from Finchley Road and Frognal Station

Post to the west West Hampstead
Post to the east Swiss Cottage

This posting  covers only the north east corner of this square


Billy Fury Way
In 2010 Camden Council, London, named a small formerly nameless road Billy Fury Way in honour of the 1950s rock and roller. He had recorded at the nearby Decca Studios. The alleyway was decorated with a large mural of his face, which was unveiled and blessed in, 2011.

Blackburn Road.
1869. Named after Mr. Blackburn, the builder and planned by 1885.
3 F. R. Napier, had opened a plating shop behind West Hampstead fire station in 1919, took the site for his Hampstead Plating Works, which was founded in 1940 and survived with four employees in 1986.
Cadbury Bros depot from 1933
14 Builder Depot
Canadian Building- this building, has included a number of Canadian business organisations since the 1930s led by the Canadian government's exhibition commission
Tower Royal Works, engineering company owned by L.Sloper present in the 1950s. This was to the north of Blackburn Lane – which was their address – on what is now Billy Fury Way. They made perforating machinery and some other applications. They were there in from 1871 to 1991, when the works was sold and closed down.
Independent Student Living is purpose built 2012, student accommodation with 39 cluster flats and shared facilities

Broadhurst Gardens
165 English National Opera. Lillian Bayliss house -building has crest of open book at the gable. This building, originally erected as the an engineering company’s ‘Falcon Works’, was converted in 1886 to house the West Hampstead Town Hall by HG Randall.  For most of 20th century the building was used as a recording studio - Decca Studios. From 1929, British Decca's earliest recordings were in Chelsea and later Lower Thames Street and by opening these studios they could compete with HMV. Many famous albums were recorded here,
Broadwell Parade

Dresden Mews
Local authority housing in roads called after famous types of china. On the site of Hampstead Council Yard.


Lithos Road
Lithos Road Estate run by the estate's  consortium of housing associations. It was built 1991 with and high and low rise blocks bordered on each side by railway tracks. Designed by Pollard Thomas and Edwards with curved brick elevations to cut down on railway noise
Lithos Road orchard with 11 fruit trees, including apples, pears, quince and medlar.
Stone Yard power station. Hampstead borough power station for electricity supply. The supply of electricity had been managed initially by the Council's predecessor the Hampstead Vestry through its Electric Lighting Committee.   Hampstead Metropolitan Borough Council Electricity Undertaking was authorised under the Hampstead (London) Electric Lighting Order 1892.  The foundation stone of which was laid in 1892 and a Central Supply Station and Head Offices were built in 1893 at the Vestry's Stoneyard, Supply began in 1894 of single-phase high-tension alternating current. From 1921 the bulk supply of electricity was taken from Saint Marylebone Borough Council, and Lithos Road ceased to generate in 1922.
Transformer Station. The bays on this building date back to the 40s or 50s. A new facade has been added to harmonise with the recent housing development
Hampstead Cleansing Station. Before 1920s this was in the Electricity Department Yard here.
Borough Council Bathing Station closed in 1960

Lymington Road
Low-rise housing for Camden by Sheppard Robson & Partners, 1980, tightly packed pantiled-roofed terraces Apart from the taller pair on a deck above garages, a decided departure from the style of Camden's own grand schemes
Corporation yard 1950s 

Potteries Path
This name dates from 2010 and is the result of a popular poll to find suitable names for a number of unnamed footpaths in the area

Railway
North London Line. Leaving Finchley and Frognal Station at Finchley Road the line runs generally south west. It ran north of the Hampstead Electricity Station and there were sidings into it.  It then crosses the old Midland Main Line on a bridge rebuilt when the line below was electrified. It then runs into West End Lane Station.
The Midland Railway line from St.Pancras is now largely used by Thameslink trains and from here runs westwards. It has sidings to the south on land which now houses superstores and their car parks. It passes under the North London (Hampstead Junction Railway) heading for West Hampstead Thameslink Station
The Metropolitan Line. This is part of London Underground but was initially built as a potentially main line railway and now runs a fast non-stopping service through this section.  It runs generally westward from Finchley Road station going to its west Hampstead station.  There were once interchange lines between it and the Midland lines.  The Jubilee line runs alongside using lines built for stopping trains by the Metropolitan Railway in 1913 and stopping at what were originally Metropolitan Railway stations.  The Jubilee Line took over this service from the Bakerloo Line in 1979; Bakerloo had run it since 1939.

West End Lane.
In 1879 this was still a semi-rural road. This square covers the east side only
86 Acol Bridge Club. Acol is local road named for a village in Kent. The club was founded in the early 1930’s at No.15 Acol Road and involved players who had developed a new bidding system that brought which they called Acol. In the early 1950s the club moved to this address.
The Railway. 19th pub.
West Hampstead Station. Built by the Metropolitan Railway in 1879. It now lies between Kilburn and Finchley Road on the Jubilee Line. Metropolitan District Railway’s St John’s Wood line was opened to here from Swiss Cottage here in 1879 by Watkin as part of his vision for extending the Met.  Great Central trains ran through the station were not allowed to stop here and there was no platform although the two existing platforms became an island so that the down platform could be demolished. The fast lines still go straight through. The station was rebuilt by the London Transport Passenger Board in 1938 and in 1939 it became a station on the Bakerloo Line and in 1979 it became part of the Jubilee Line.


West Hampstead mews
Built in 1886 –includes a building with a shield and the date on the gable.


Sources
Acol Bridge Club. Web site
Day. London Underground
Field, London Place Names,
Hillman. London Under London
London Borough of Camden. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
London Railway Record
National Archives Web site
Pevsner and Cherry.  London North
Robins.  North London Railway
Willesden History Society, Newsletter

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