I'm standing in Brunswick Park
just to the West of Seven Sisters station.
Seven Sisters station used to be much larger
with more platforms.
This park is the site of where the old platforms used to be,
and there was a line that ran off Northwest
to Wood Green, the Palace Gates line.
That's what we're doing in Episode 9
of London's Lost Railways.
(birds chirping)
The Palace Gates line was a branch line that opened in 1878
that came off at Seven Sisters
and had intermediate stations at West Green,
Noel Park and Wood Green
and the terminus at Alexandra Palace.
But it was actually called Palace Gates Wood Green.
It allowed passengers from this area
to travel into the London terminus of Liverpool Street
instead of King's Cross.
After being initially used quite highly,
passenger usage started to fall
and really fell when the Underground opened up
its Piccadilly line through here
with stations at Wood Green and Turnpike Lane in 1932.
The line closure was announced in the 1960s
with passenger services stopping in 1963
and freight only lasting one more year
until that also stopped in 1964.
The first thing you encounter on the way to Wood Green
is a path in the alignment called Brunel Walk.
That's misleading though, as it was the Great Eastern
that built this railway and not the Great Western,
but that can't be a coincidence.
This line though, went under a lot of bridges.
So what's great is that even though the tracks
have been lifted and long gone, you can still spot the route
by simply spotting all the bridges.
There's four in total that we'll see.
And the first one of these is here on Avenue Road.
If you can see behind me,
the road gently slopes up and it gets to here,
there are some bollards, cars go through
and they go through a proper bridge over nothing.
You can peer over the edge to see
Oh, look, yet another allotment,
but you can also come down the side around the grass verge
and get to stand in the place
where the tracks were looking down
through the length of the alignment.
It's yet more allotments.
What I've come to the conclusion is that a lot
of London's lost railways and now just allotments.
In future in London, if I see an allotment
that sort of vaguely in a straight line,
I'm gonna be thinking, old railway.
The second old bridge is on Cornwall Road,
but to see this one up close,
head down the Sturrock Close instead,
walk right to the end and the bridge is bricked up,
but there is this old rusty door to the right-hand side
with something inside.
So the space is obviously being used
by someone for something.
You get to the first disused station next, West Green.
There's nothing left of it to see
as Park View school is clearly on the site
where it used to be.
But, by the bus stop opposite, there is this old wall
which is very definitely a remnant of the old railway.
Head down into Downhills Park, and over on the Western side
you can look through the tangle of the branches of the trees
and behind the tennis courts
you'll see bridge number three, partially boarded up
but this is where the trains used to run.
You cross the bridge itself, go down Ivatt Way,
and then to a lovely little find.
Look at this, a point in the pavement where presumably,
Harringey Council have laid down some old rails
in the exact spot where the line would have been.
There's a mural here painted on the side of the wall
of the substation as well as a plaque on the ground
with details of the old line.
Oh and obviously, as it's a lost railway in London
the next part is now an allotment.
I quickly got to the other end.
This is the allotment at the other end.
And if I do a 180 at this point here,
Ta-Da! bridge number four.
That's the road bridge for Westbury Avenue.
And that means that we're now getting close
to Wood Green Shopping Centre and the location
of Noel Park and Wood Green station.
After it was demolished in the 1960s
a huge new dominating shopping centre
was built at Wood Green obliterating all the old railway
and is now just shops, shops and cars
and buses and people and noise and, hang on, hang on.
The railway used to go over the main road here on a bridge.
And there's still a clue if you look carefully
in this building on the right
where you can see that it's side wall
is at such an angle that it is in keeping
with the alignment of the railway
that would have passed by it.
Heading for the terminus, you get to the junction
of Wolseley Road and Park Avenue, and ah, lovely, look,
bridge abutments still in place
a dead giveaway of the old line.
This then leads to some steps and then a path
where for the first time in this route,
it feels like I can hear birds
rather than the rumble of traffic.
And for the last station, you're heading for Dorset Road
where tucked away down a dead end
there's this innocuous looking grassy area,
but peek over the brick wall
at the back and, railway tracks.
Finally, yes, this was the site of Palace Gates station.
Now all built over by housing
and a little bit of the tracks now lead into this Depot
that's used by Network Rail and Hitachi.
And that brings us to Bounds Green Service Delivery Depot
is where they patch up the Hitachi Azuma trains,
which is why there's one parked in the siding over there.
And the last remaining piece of the Palace Gates line
is this little building there
which is definitely some kind of station building
which would have been attached or associated
to the goods yard that was here.
And that is how you go from Seven Sisters
and follow all the way along the Palace Gates line
and the bridges and everything else that we've seen.
That brings to the end of this episode.
Coming up for the big finale,
you've got Crystal Palace and then the Parkland Walk.
Please press Subscribe, do all that good stuff,
press like, see you in the next video.
Thanks for watching.
(train squealing)