Railways first came to the Shepherd's Bush area
in 1844 with the opening of the West London Railway
A line that connected the London
and Birmingham railway and the Kensington canal
The first two ever Shepherd's Bush stations were
both lightly used temporary ones
The first in 1884 lasted just six months
whilst the second built slightly to the north
in 1864 lasted a little longer for five years
but the line was mainly used for freight traffic
And then a new railway company built a line
out of Paddington, what would eventually become
the Hammersmith and City Line was also built through here
at 1864 with its own station at Shepherd's Bush
that then terminated at Hammersmith
When Latimer Road opened in 1868
there was also a curve of track here
that joined the two lines together
that's now abandoned, as we'll see later
It was an 1869 that another railway company
came to the area
The London and South Western railway company opened a line
through here as part of services between Waterloo
and Richmond, and they built their own separate station
to the West of the existing Hammersmith station
called Hammersmith Grove Road along with a small section
of track to link these two lines together
In the same year Uxbridge Road Station
opened on the West London line
This would be closed and completely demolished later
and is close to, but not in the same location
as today's Shepherd's Bush overground station
In 1874 the London and South West Railway
opened their own separate Shepherd's Bush station
in this area to the south of the green
That's completely separate to the one
on the Hammersmith line
Then in 1900 things got more complicated again
with the opening of the Central London Railway
that will become the Central Line
on the underground in later years
and they had their own station called Shepherd's Bush, too
meaning that there were now three stations in this area
all with the same name
In 1908 to The Franco-British Exhibition
and the Olympic Games meant
more new stations to serve this area
The line down to Hammersmith opened
up a station called Wood Lane
as did the Central London Railway, two separate stations.
The line that would become the Central Line
soon after extended out West towards Ealing Broadway
Then in 1914, we have the first of our closures
Shepherd's Bush on the line to Hammersmith closed
with a new Shepherd's Bush opening
to the North and Goldhawk Road opening to the South.
The site of the closed Shepherd's Bush is where
the market is now high up somewhere
along the row of brick arches that are here now
The Wood L ane Exhibition Station also closes
for a couple of years, but re-opened later in 1916
which is the year that the London
and South West closed their line here
along with their Shepherd's Bush station
The site of it today can be seen from the main road looking
down onto this row of garages on Sulgrave Gardens
And just off of Beadon Road in Hammersmith
you can see where the brick viaducts slowly built
up that took the railway to Hammersmith Grove Road
This is now all completely demolished
In 1920 Wood Lane Exhibition Station gets renamed
to Wood Lane, White City
and then also in 1940 Uxbridge Road Station closes
and the curve of track up to Latimer Road goes with it
There's a small remnant of this left a day that you can see
from Freston Road
1947, brought the closure of the Central lines, Wood Lane
and the opening of White City
and Wood Lane White City Station
is also renamed to be just White city
There are now two White City stations
In 1959 the Hammersmith and City White City station closes
due to a fire, but you can find the location
of where was today down Macfarlane Road
by this railway arch
where there are some old signs that still refer
to London Transport
And now we're almost up-to-date to where we are now
with just a few more modern developments.
In 2008 the opening of the current day Wood Lane Station
on the Hammersmith and City line happened.
With its Shepherd's Bush station renamed
to Shepherd's Bush Market
The Central Line Shepherd's Bush station building
was completely rebuilt at this time as well
to have a new entrance so that it was across the street
and facing the new London Overground
Shepherd's Bush station
That was roughly in the same location
that the old Uxbridge Road station had been
There's no remnants of that though
because it was demolished when new roads were built here
and its station building would have been exactly
where this busy roundabout now is
And that is how the complicated stations
in the Shepherd's Bush area have evolved over time