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| Burdett Road | |
|---|---|
 Site of the closed Burdett Road station in 1962 | |
  Burdett Road Location of Burdett Road in London Borough of Tower Hamlets | |
| Location | Bow Common |
| Local authority | London Borough of Tower Hamlets |
| Owner | |
| Number of platforms | 2 |
| Key dates | |
| 11 September 1871 (1871-09-11) | Opened |
| 21 April 1941 (1941-04-21) | Closed |
| Replaced by | Mile End |
| Other information | |
| Coordinates | 51°31′06″N0°01′53″W / 51.51823°N 0.03126°W /51.51823; -0.03126 |
 London transport portal | |
Burdett Road is adisused railway station located inBow Common, east London. It was opened in 1871 by theGreat Eastern Railway and closed in 1941.
The station was located onBurdett Road inBow Common area of theMetropolitan Borough of Stepney in theEast End of London, and was opened on 11 September 1871 by theGreat Eastern Railway who had leased theLondon and Blackwall Extension Railway (LBER) from 1866. The line at this point was on a viaduct and with little available space at street-level the entrance to the station was incorporated within the structure of the viaduct.[1]
The buildings on the two platforms were largely of wood construction and the platforms both had lengthy awnings affording shelter from the elements.[2]
Burdett Road was located on theLondon and Blackwall Extension Railway (LBER) which was opened on 2 April 1849 and was an extension of the original London and Blackwall Railway fromStepney toBow & Bromley. It was 2 miles 21 chains (3.6 km) down line fromFenchurch Street. The LBER had wished to extend its trains towardsStratford, but relations with the Eastern Counties Railway were poor and they would not allow a physical junction to be constructed. An exchange platform was provided at a station calledVictoria Park and Bow but few ECR trains called there. The service was withdrawn on 2 May 1850 although a few months later on 26 September the initial section of the East and West India Docks and Birmingham Junction Railway (which changed its name to the North London Railway on 1 January 1853) connected to the LBER at Gas Factory Junction.
The relationship between the ECR and LBER finally improved and in 1854 the junction between the two lines was built and the two companies operated services over the Bow line.
In 1858 theLondon Tilbury and Southend Railway opened its Barking extension joining the LBER at Gas Factory Junction.
By the 1860s the railways in East Anglia were in financial trouble, and most were leased to the ECR; they wished to amalgamate formally, but could not obtain government agreement for this until 1862, when theGreat Eastern Railway (GER) was formed by amalgamation.[3] The LTSR and NLR remained outside the Great Eastern as independent rail companies.
Trains serving Burdett Road ran every 15 minutes to, what was advertised on the GER handbills, as Bow New station which was in reality the NLR Bow station. This service was originally run by the NLR but had been taken over by the GER in 1869. In 1876 the GER re-built and opened the first station atBow Road[4] and started operating trains on that route. Both services continued operation until 1892 when Bromley and Bow station was closed and replaced by the second Bow Road station a short distance to the north which offered a footway link to the NLR station. The GER service from the NLR station to Fenchurch Street was then withdrawn.
From 1 November 1891 LTSR trains started calling at Burdett Road.[5]
The July 1922 Bradshaw's Railway Guide showed services from the Great Eastern Railway to Ilford via Stratford, and to North Woolwich and Custom House via Bow Road and Stratford Market, on Tables 318 and 320. LTSR services to various destinations including Tilbury, Southend and Shoeburyness could be found on Table 650.
The actual relationships between the various companies with regard to Burdett Road were quite complex.
Between 1866 and 1922, Burdett Road was simultaneously owned by the London and Blackwall, leased to the Great Eastern, and had services operated by both the GER and LTSR. It was not a joint line or station, nor were they joint services, because east of Gas Factory Junction the routes and destinations were different. The GER's lease of the line meant that they managed the line and station, and were responsible for all expenses, but still had to hand over a proportion of the receipts to the LTSR (for journeys to its destinations) and to the London and Blackwall, which paid a dividend to its shareholders.
The London and North Eastern Railway took over operation of the station in 1923 following the grouping which was also when the LBER ceased to legally exist. The nearbyMile End station on theLondon Underground, which opened in 1902, proved more popular than Burdett Road. With the demands placed on the railway system by theSecond World War and bomb damage in December 1940 saw the station closed for a week for emergency repairs. Further damage saw the station closed on 21 April 1941.[6][7] The surrounding area was heavily redeveloped after the war to make way forMile End Park, and today little trace remains of Burdett Road station; the westbound platform space survives but is derelict. The LBER line is still open (as of 2014), forming part of the busy main line from Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness.
After closure the entrance to the station was used as a woodworking factory with wood stored on the old stairwells. The station entrance disappeared in 1984 as part of a road widening scheme.[8]
The LTSR introduced a class of 4-4-2T locomotive in 1880 known as the Tilbury Tanks and number 18 (built 1881) of this class was namedBurdett Road.[9]
| Preceding station | Disused railways | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stepney East towards Fenchurch Street | London and Blackwall Extension Railway | Bow Road towards Stratford | ||
| North London Railway | Bow towards Bow | |||
| London, Tilbury and Southend Railway | Bromley towards Barking | |||
| Stations |
|  Minories station | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relationships | ||||||||
Absorbed by theGreat Eastern Railway in 1866► | ||||||||
