| Summary : Railway station, opened on 1st October 1904 by the Great Western Railway on its line from Old Oak Common to South Ruislip, (the line eventually reached High Wycome as a joint scheme between the GWR and Great Central Railway). When the Central line was extended westwards from North Acton to West Ruislip in the 1940s Greenford was to become an intermediate station on this new line and a new station was erected. The station was built essentially to the pre-war design (1937) by GWR architect Brian Lewis, who employed a curving canopy to give shelter to the entrances whilst following the pavement line. The narrow brick and reinforced concrete tower was built considerably lower than first planned. The ticket hall was laid-out parallel to the railway line, and in order to give access to the escalator apprpoach it was curved around 90 degrees towards the rear, in which direction the floor sloped gently upwards. Between the existing and new viaducts is the lower escalator landing, with a high ceiling rising some feet above rail level. From the landing a subway led to the British Rail steam platforms (blocked-off after the closure of the latter facility in 1963). A single 'up' escalator was installed alongside two fixed stairways - the first escalator at a London Underground station to carry passengers from ground level up to the platform, 35ft above the road. The island platform was given a central bay at its eastern end for use by British Railways trains working over the Castle Bar Park branch to West Ealing. The station opened to trains on the Central line extension on 30th June 1947. |