Turkey Street

 

The railway line from Bury Street Junction, north of the current Edmonton Green station, to Cheshunt was opened by the Great Eastern Railway on 1 October 1891. It was known as the Churchbury Loop. The district served by the line was still predominantly rural, and the coming of the tram to Waltham Cross in 1904 saw the railway unable to compete. Passenger services ceased on 1 October 1909, but were reinstated for the benefit of munitions workers between 1 March 1915 and 1 July 1919. After that the line was only served by freight trains until the line was electrified as part of a wider scheme, and Turkey Street station reopened to passengers on 21 November 1960. The line is now known as the Southbury Loop. The station was opened as Forty Hill railway station (the area is called Forty Hall after the manor house which, in turn, was named after Forty Hill), and did not gain its current name until 1960. Bulls Cross (or Bullsmoor), the local area, is recorded as Bedelscrosse in 1465. Recorded thus in c.1580 and on the Ordnance Survey map of 1822. The hamlet was also recorded in 1540 as Bullyscrosse meaning 'crossroads associated with the family called Bolle or Bull (who are mentioned in legal documents from the 13th century). In 2009 football club Tottenham Hotspur announced plans for a training centre to be built in the area. Work was due to start in 2009 and was originally planned to be completed by 2010, but this was later revised to 2012. The centre opened in September that year.

 

The current station building was built in the late 1980s. The previous and original station building had a prominent tall chimney stack for the station master's coal fire which brought the top of the chimney above platform level. The station itself is constructed on an incline and the ticket office area of the track is raised on an embankment so the chimney was very prominent. The interior of the original station consisted of a large ticket hall with the station master's office and serving hatch on the left hand side (From the entrance). A tunnel in front of you led to the stairs to the Cheshunt bound platform. This tunnel was used in the rebuild. To the right were the stairs to the Liverpool Street platform. The stairwells were also reused in the rebuild but the concrete steps were replaced with steel ones. When originally built the station was on the other side of the railway bridge and a wide footbridge over the Turkey Brook led directly to the Cheshunt bound platform. This entrance was disused from the early 1970s onwards and the former station building was converted to a newsagent and general store, the footbridge was used for storage for the shop and the entrance to the actual station area had a large iron gate but was bricked up when the station was rebuilt. The platforms were of standard length and had large open fronted waiting areas of concrete walls and felt covered wooden roof with a long single bench along the rear wall. These were demolished when the station was rebuilt. The trains are often used by St Ignatius' College and Lea Valley High School (prev The Bullsmoor School) pupils and is popular with commuters due to the amount of local parking. On 31 May 2015 the station and all services that call here, transferred from Abellio Greater Anglia to London Overground Rail Operations. This change to London Overground will mean that Freedom Pass holders will be able to use their passes at any time, as on the Underground, thus avoiding the need to additionally carry an Oyster card when making journeys prior to 9:30a.m. The station is in Travel Card Zone 6. The station has wi-fi, parking and help points but no toilets.

 

Connections: London Buses route 327 serve the station.

• Next Train