Brondesbury

 

Brondesbury station opened on 2 January 1860 as Edgeware [sic] Road (Kilburn) station on the Hampstead Junction Railway. It was renamed several times: Edgware Road on 1 November 1865, Edgware Road and Brondesbury on 1 January 1872, Brondesbury (Edgware Road) on 1 January 1873, and finally Brondesbury on 1 May 1883. A signal box was in use at the station until 5 February 1962. A number of plans were put forward between 1890 and 1926 to build an underground railway along the Edgware Road, and would have seen the construction of a Tube station at Brondesbury. None of the schemes succeeded and no such line was ever built. Kilburn High Road originated as an ancient trackway, part of a Celtic route between the settlements now known as Canterbury and St Albans. Under Roman rule, the route was paved. In Anglo-Saxon times the road became known as Watling Street. A paving stone on Kilburn High Road commemorates the route of Watling Street.

 

Kilburn grew up on the banks of a stream which has been known variously as Cuneburna, Kelebourne and Cyebourne, which flows from Hampstead down through Hyde Park and into the River Thames. It is suggested the name means either Royal River or Cattle River ('Bourne' being an Anglo-Saxon word for 'river'). The river is known today as the River Westbourne. From the 1850s it was piped underground and is now one of London's many underground rivers. Kilburn Priory was a small community of nuns, probably Augustinian canonesses. It was founded in 1134 at the Kilburn river crossing on Watling Street (the modern-day junction of Kilburn High Road and Belsize Road). Kilburn Priory's position on Watling Street meant that it became a popular resting point for pilgrims heading for the shrines at St Albans and Willesden. The Priory was dissolved in 1536-37 by Henry VIII, and nothing remains of it today. The priory lands included a mansion and a hostium (a guesthouse), which may have been the origin of the Red Lion pub, thought to have been founded in 1444. Brondesbury was planned to become a step-free station and the project will be completed in 2017. NOTE. There are two trains per hour which run to Clapham Junction (West London Line). The station has wi-fi, payphones, a bridge and a waiting room, but no toilets.

 

Connections: London Buses routes 16, 32, 189, 316, 332 and 632 and night route N16 serve the station.

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