Not so simple: Finsbury Park (Part II)

In a previous post I explained the origins of the GNCR route from Finsbury Park to Moorgate. Now we'll see what happened between the formation of London Transport in 1933 and the post-WWII years.

London Transport inherited the line along with the rest of the Met. No time was lost in pruning at the outer reaches of the Met's empire in Buckinghamshire. The GNCR however was a different kettle of fish - it had potential which LT soon planned to exploit.

The New Works Programme of the late 1930s was the most ambitious expansion of the London Underground network. Just before the formation of LT the Piccadilly line was already being extended northwards into historic GNR (now grouped into the LNER) territory, and this would greatly ease the pressure of interchange passengers at Finsbury Park.

Now it was the GNCR that was to be extended. The New Works Programme included extensions west and east to the Central line over mainline tracks. A similar idea applied to the GNCR would see its trains continue northwards over the suburban branches of the LNER to High Barnet, Edgware and Alexandra Palace - known as the 'Northern Heights' because of their elevation over the low-lying London next to the River Thames.

The extensions were a sort of reverse mirror image of the original 1900s GNCR plan. Instead of the GNR services being diverted southwards to Moorgate over the new line, the GNCR shuttle services - operating as the Northern City line - would now be transferred to the Northern line. They would be projected north of Finsbury Park over the newly-electrified branches (and beyond Edgware) to replace the steam suburban services on the three branches. A complicated plan, made even more complicated by the two existing branches of the Northern line also being extended to the same places!

Construction and conversion was well under way when World War II started. The connection between the tube terminus at Archway and the surface lines at East Finchley was made. Due to wartime circumstances the rest of the work ceased however, except for a half-baked projection of tube trains to Mill Hill East - but with trains running via the original Northern line through Archway (Highgate) rather than from the GNCR.

After the war the GNCR extensions were only 12-18 months away from full completion. However the economic effects of the war on Britain and changed thoughts about preserving the countryside around London following 1930s development were looming on the horizon. After some prevarication all the uncompleted extensions were cancelled. The line to Edgware was left with a single track from Finchley Central to a wooden platform at Mill Hill East. Only a few arches and tunnels marked the route of planned extension beyond to Bushey Heath. High Barnet was to be served only by Northern line trains via Archway and Camden Town. The branch to Alexandra Palace was left to moulder away and closed completely in the mid-1950s.

What was the effect of all this on Finsbury Park? Well, if the plans had been implemented then the Northern line trains would have run through new platforms on the east side and level with the mainline platforms at Finsbury Park - where today's fancy new Station Place bus station canopy is. As it was, the half-complete platforms were left as a skeleton of rusting ironmongery, wooden boards and scaffolding marring the street frontage until 1983.

However, we've jumped forward a bit - other plans were made in the 1950s which would change Finsbury Park.

To be continued...