Kew Gardens is a Grade II–listed interchange station on the District line of the London Underground and the Mildmay line of the London Overground. Located in Kew in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, it first opened in 1869 and is now managed by London Underground. The station, which is in London fare zone 3 and 4, is situated midway between and stations.

The station is the nearest to Kew Gardens, about to the west, and The National Archives, about to the north east. Kew Gardens Station Footbridge, also a Grade II-listed structure, is next to the station, on the southern side.

Access

The main entrance to the station is at the junction of Station Parade, Station Avenue and Station Approach, about from Sandycombe Road (B353) and gives access to the eastbound service. There is also an entrance, which is wheelchair-accessible, on North Road, on the other side of the railway line with access to the westbound service; the two entrances are connected by a pedestrian subway.

History

The station was opened by the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) on 1 January 1869, in an area of market gardens and orchards. The station was located on a new L&SWR branch line to Richmond built from the West London Joint Railway starting north of Addison Road station (now ). The line ran through Shepherd's Bush and Hammersmith via a now closed curve and Grove Road station (also now closed) in Hammersmith. Via a short connection from the North & South Western Junction Railway (N&SWJR) to Gunnersbury the line was also served by the North London Railway (NLR).

Between 1 June 1870 and 31 October 1870, the Great Western Railway (GWR) briefly ran services from to via Hammersmith & City Railway (now the Hammersmith & City line) tracks to Grove Road then on the L&SWR tracks through Kew Gardens.

On 1 June 1877, the District Railway (DR, now the District line) opened a short extension from its terminus at Hammersmith to connect to the L&SWR tracks east of station.

A brass plaque at the station commemorates its reopening on 7 October 1989 by Michael Portillo MP, Minister of State for Transport, after it had been refurbished.

Present

The two-storey yellow brick station buildings are unusually fine examples of mid-Victorian railway architecture and are protected as part of the Kew Gardens conservation area. The station is one of the few remaining 19th-century stations on the North London line and had one of the last illuminated banner signals on the London Underground, possibly because of the footbridge. This signal was replaced by an electronic version in 2011.

Kew Gardens is the only station on the London Underground network that has a pub attached to it. The pub has a door (no longer in use) which leads out onto platform 1. Previously known as The Railway, and subsequently as The Pig and Parrot and as The Flower and Firkin, the pub reopened after renovation in 2013 as The Tap on the Line. The bridge has a narrow deck and very high walls, originally designed to protect its users' clothing from the smoke of steam trains passing underneath. It also has protrusions on either side of the deck to deflect smoke away from the bridge structure. It was restored in 2004 with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, in a project led by The Kew Society.

Services

thumb|Plaque commemorating the station's reopening by [[Michael Portillo in 1989]]

Kew Gardens currently has the following London Underground (District line) and London Overground (Mildmay line) services, which are operated by the London Underground S7 stock and British Rail Class 378 trains respectively:

London Underground (District line)

  • 6 trains per hour (tph) to Upminster
  • 6 tph to Richmond

London Overground (Mildmay line)

  • 4 tph to Stratford
  • 4 tph to Richmond
  • 4 tph each way on Sundays

Connections

There are no lifts. Platform 2 (going towards central London) is at ground level. Platform 1 (going towards Richmond) is reached by a short set of 10 steps; there is also a wheelchair-accessible ramp.

London Buses route 110 serves the station.

Kew Gardens station appeared in the BBC comedy drama Love Soup (Series 2, Episode 1 – Smoke and Shadows, 1 March 2008) as the fictional "Hove West" station.

See also

  • Kew Bridge railway station
  • North Sheen railway station

Notes and references

  • Transport for London: Kew Gardens Underground station
  • London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
  • from National Rail