8/22 A Muswell Hill Metro? – Muswell Hill & Fortis Green Association

Muswell Hill Old Train Station

Once upon a time you could by train from Alexandra Palace via Muswell Hill and Cranley Gardens to Finsbury Park. And for a moment it looked like the network could become part of the tube and expanded to the north to Bushey Heath and High Barnet, and to the south to Moorgate. Instead, on the 3^rd of July 1954, after 81 years of service, despite representations by a formidable list of local organisations (the Middlesex County Council; Finchley, Hornsey, Islington and Wood Green Borough Councils; Friern Barnet Urban District Council; the Alexandra Park Trustees; Hornsey Chamber of Commerce; and the Federation of Ratepayers’ and Kindred Associations in Middlesex) the line was closed down.

The rest is history, and today the disused track has become the very much-loved Parkland Walk, the longest linear nature reserve in London. However, since the demise of the Alexandra Palace to Finsbury Park line, the idea of bringing back rail in one form or another has not gone away and a short Youtube documentary by video producer and author Geoff Marshall (a.k.a Jago Hazzard) recounts some of the past schemes, from the London Passenger Transport Board ‘s Northern Heights to a plan to build a six-lane highway along the Parkland Walk.