It's All His Fault!
Geoff Marshall, video maker extraordinare, produces one in a series about undergound stations. He is doing a sporadic series on stations which just have a "tick" on the tube map; i.e. they do not offer interchange with any other line.
About a year ago, he visited South Harrow which made fbb realise that he had no idea where it was and whether it offered any interst bar the simple fact that "It Is There".
When mountaineer George Mallory ...
... was asked why he wanted to climb Everest, he replied succinctly, "Because it is there!"
Whilst South Harrow station may not be as arduous an expedition as that to Everest, the idea is much the same.
So where is it?
There are plenty of Harrows. There is Harrow and Wealdstone, the terminus of the Bakerloo Line and a stop on the former Watford Electric Overground Line. At the time of going to bed, your outdated near-octogenarian had already forgotten the new line name.
On the Metropolitan Line we have Harrow on the Hill, North Harrow and West Harrow with our chosen South Harrow on the Picadilly.
The oddities are Sudbury Hill Harrow with Sudbury and Harrow Road: served by Chiltern, but not that often.
Geographically things look a bit different!
Harrow and Weeldsroine is top right; Harrow on the Hill is centre right and South Harruiw is bottom centre. West and North are labelled.
So, South Harriw station is oin the east side of the A312 which is turning to run north to Harrow itself, dubbed on-the-hill.
The station has entrances on both sides of the line, firstly here on the south ...
... and again under the bridge and on the noirth.
Note the roudel on the bridge abutments ...
... which probably dates to the absorbtion of the line into Londoin Transport in 1933. A modern roundel lacks the double line of dashes.
Immedietly to the north of the northern entrance is a small bus station ...
... with a bus way-in on the side road. South Hill Road is also home to a rather grand pub ...
It musr have one of the largest pub name signs in the galaxy!
Much more intriguing is Harrow Market with an entrance opposite the norther station building ...
... and another entrance on the other side of the bridge.
It has been there for a long time - see the cars ...
... and it is now intertwined with the railway arches.
And what was that ventilation thibgey ventilating?
To
It even used to have an entrance just like the Undergound station.
Thanks to Geoff's excellent video, we can experience a splendid station clock ...
... some unusually wide staoitcases ...
... and half way down the stairs an alcover with a bench; here modelled by Geoff himself.
But why would you have a "next train" indicator when there are only two platforms with no choice of route?
A mystery which might be solved by history.
And, where or what is Roxeth? Certainly not an undergound station.
So, pleanty to entertain us in Friday's blog!
Tomorrow we nip across the pond again.
Next LA Oddity blog : Thur 20th Feb
Roxeth is the original name for the area, and survives in road names and the names of some local societies and clubs. The District Railway 'invented' the new name of South Harrow for its original station, opened in 1904 a short distance from the current 1930s station, as it wanted the new suburb it was hoping would develop to be associated with Harrow-on-the-Hill.
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