Alexandra Palace | |
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Alexandra Palace station on a 1920 map
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Location of Alexandra Palace in Greater London
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Location | Alexandra Palace |
Local authority | Haringey |
Number of platforms | 2 |
Railway companies | |
Original company | Muswell Hill Railway Company |
Pre-grouping | Great Northern Railway |
Post-grouping | London and North Eastern Railway |
Key dates | |
1873 | Opened |
1954 | Permanently closed |
Other information | |
Lists of stations | |
WGS84 | 51°35′41″N 0°07′55″W / 51.5948°N 0.1320°WCoordinates: 51°35′41″N 0°07′55″W / 51.5948°N 0.1320°W |
Alexandra Palace is a closed railway station in the grounds of Alexandra Palace in the Muswell Hill area of north London. It is one of a number of stations to have held the name at various times and should not be confused with the current Alexandra Palace station which is on the East Coast Main Line to the east of the closed station.
The former station was the terminus of a short branch line from Highgate. The preceding station on the branch was Muswell Hill. The station was located immediately adjacent to the north side of the Palace buildings. Nothing remains of the tracks or island platform today, which have been removed and covered by a car park, but the small station building remains and is in use as a community centre.
The station was built by the Muswell Hill Railway (MHR) and opened on 24 May 1873 along with the Palace. However, when the Palace burned down only two weeks after opening, the train service was considerably reduced and from 1 August 1873 was stopped for almost two years whilst the Palace was rebuilt. The station reopened on 1 May 1875, but there were several further periods of temporary closure due to insufficient demand, including from August 1882 to March 1885 and September 1885 to May 1889. When it reopened in March 1891 after another closure it was renamed Alexandra Park in reference to the wider area rather than just the Palace in order to stoke higher demand. The increased demand did not materialise, and the original Alexandra Palace name was restored in 1898.
In 1911 the line was taken over by the Great Northern Railway. After the 1921 Railways Act created the "Big Four" railway companies, the line was, from 1923, part of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER).