hello, i'm on a beautifully bouncy brown Bakerloo line train
heading northbound
to the end of the line, to the top of the Bakerloo
to do Episode 14, at Harrow and Wealdstone
Harrow and Wealdstone is the end of the line for Bakerloo services
it does of course go further
if you're travelling on the London Overground up to Watford
and the station is also situated
on the west coast mainline
with fast trains passing through
and stopping trains also calling here
the station, is also Grade II listed
with an entry on the historic england database
officially listing its ticket office range, platforms
waiting room blocks, canopies
and the linking pedestrian bridge
that spans all the platforms
ah, i was hoping for a nice day, alas
it's a little biz drizzly
little bit cold, the Bakerloo line train has just terminated here
on platform 1?
yeah, platform one and then goes into the siding
and then reverses and comes out
back into service
over there, on platform two
what's interesting is that Harrow & Wealdstone
used to get six trains an hour
one every ten minutes on this part of the line
but since May 2021
that's been reduced down to just FOUR Bakerloo trains per hour
one every fifteen minutes
the majority of tube trains terminate at either Queens Park or Stonebridge Park
and there's also the often forgotten about hourly southern train that calls here
you can go down to East Croydon via Kensington Olympia from Harrow
which always feels like an unusual, but fun route to take
so i'm coming out of the side entrance here which is off of platform one
there is a main entrance we'll get to that in a second
but the reason why i've come here
rather excitingly, ooh daylight
is because there is of course, a ...
car park here, and that's a pertinent phrase!
because from now on and i'll splash it on screen, we are gonna be playing
until the end of the series
which'll probably be around episode twenty
we're gonna play 'End of the line Bingo'
as we did with lost railways, and the "allotment" phrase
i think Car Park is the key phrase in end of the line, so
there's a grid on screen, i'll put a limk in the description
you can download, download the Bingo sheet, and basically
anytime i mention a word
in the video that's in the bingo sheet
you can tick it off, and will there be a video - i hope so
where i say all the words, and you can then
call 'bingo' for the entire sheet
Car Park is one of the words
i think Zone 6 is one of the words, but you can't have that
because Harrow is in Zone 5, not Zone 6
but i'm just aware
that i've said the phrase "Zone 6" twice
three times now!
so you can include that, tick that off
i don't think i'll be saying all the words in this video though
but pay attention
it'll probably happen
let's go and have a look around Harrow
and by 'Harrow' i mean Wealdstone
and the obvious first thing to see outside the station
is the Wealdstone bridge mural
it was created in 2004 by local schools
and it shows scenes, buildings
and businesses that have been here since 1800
and how the railway has been an integral part of that
there's also, this respectful memorial
which remembers the Wealdstone railway crash
which happened here, in 1952
so i've gone for a ten minute walk north of the station
away from Harrow, into Wealdstone
heading north up this way, because
and i'll explain when i get there, did you know
in Wealdstone, there is an actual stone
a weald - space - stone
and you can see it, and you can sit on it
and it's right there
this .. is the wealdstone, that's it!
righ there, outside the Bombay central restaurant which i think used to be a pub
is an old sarcen stone, which if i quote
from an excellent Londonist article
which i will link below, written by Matt Brown hi Matt, he writes
the weald part of the name is an old english word meaning "wooded hill"
or high land, so the wealdstone
is the stone from the wooded hill the rising ground to the north of the stone
is indeed still heavily wooded
so if you want the full history, and the speculation on
and the speculation on where it's from and how it got here, go and read Matt's
Londonist article
i will link it in the description, it is excellent, but yes
Harrow and Wealdstone
weald stone, really does have
a stone that is a wealdstone, that is right, right there
that's it! that's it there!
and then another brilliant fact which you may not know
is that Harrow and Wealdstone, may just be the oldest station
on the network ...
so if you know you're London Underground history
and as a regular viewer to my channel, i hope that you do
i'm sure you'll know that the tube first opened
in January 1863, so ...
you could say that the first ever stations on the tube
were from then, 160 years ago now
1863 ... except!
what about stations, that are now used by the tube
the underground system, which were built
before 1863, and Harrow and Wealdstone
is one of them,
in fact there's a whole list
and i'll give you the top three, because
there has been a nation rail, british rail station at Stratford
since 1839
Ealing Broadway was built in 1838
this Harrow and Wealdstone, there's a plaque on the side there
which gives the date, July
when it first opened by the London and Birmingham railway
the first stop north out of Euston
opened in 1837
that predates the opening of the London Underground
by twenty-six years, so ...
... yes they added new lines to it in about 1917, but
this technically does mean that this officially
this is the oldest
building that is now used
by the Underground, a tube station
and it dates, from 1837
now Harrow and Wealdstone
is also i think the longest
'dead end' that you can make
on the Underground, what i mean by that is that
if you excluded connections with Overground stations
from Paddington, there's thirteen stations
from Paddington ... up to Harrow and Wealdstone
so it doesn't connect with any other Underground line
i think that's the longest chain
of pure Tube underground stations
that you can take, without it connecting
with any other underground stations, if i've got that wrong
i'm sure you're telling me in the comments right now
also when you got to the top, ZOne 5 here at Harrow and Wealdstone
it's got lifts, it's like a rare thing
a Bakerloo line station that has step free access, that's because
it is also a National Rail station, and there's six platforms, there's lifts
to all the platforms and to get to the lifts from the ticket office
you walk down this corridor here
and right past this bit here
which i've mentioned before in my Lost Railways of London
because this is the old ababdoned platform
that used to go to Belmont and Stanmore
so look in the corner, for a link to that video
if you've not watched that Lost Railways of London video
and then come back here and watch all the End of the Line videos
so ... yeah! abandoned platform
one final moment to admire the juxtaposition
of the fast Pendolinos
verses the fifty year old Bakerloo line stock
and i was on my way home
*PA* This train is ready to leave *PA*
and we are leaving Harrow and Wealdstone
that is the end of the End of the Line
here, up in Zone five
top of the Bakerloo
in Harrow, there's playlist
coming up, on the title card
end screen in a minute, which has got all the episodes
previously, and future ones coming back
if you're watching this at a later date, so make sure
you watch the whole, of the end of the line series
thanks for watching
see you again soon, bye!