History
Finchley Central station was built by the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway (EH&LR) and was originally opened as Finchley and Hendon on 22 August 1867 by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) (which had taken over the EH&LR) in what was then rural Middlesex. The station was on a line that ran from Finsbury Park to Edgware via Highgate. A branch line from this station was constructed by the GNR to High Barnet and opened on 1 April 1872. The station was renamed several times: to Finchley on 1 February 1872; Finchley (Church End) on 1 February 1894; and it was given its current name Finchley Central on 1 April 1940.
After the 1921 Railways Act created the Big Four railway companies, the line was, from 1923, part of the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER). The section of the High Barnet branch north of East Finchley was incorporated into the London Underground network through the "Northern Heights" project begun in the late 1930s. The station was first served by electric Northern line trains on 14 April 1940. After a period where the station was serviced by both operators, LNER steam services ended in 1941. Northern line services to Mill Hill East began on 18 May 1941, due to the need to carry passengers to and from the large army barracks nearby.
Charles Holden designed replacement buildings for the station, but the curtailment of the Northern Heights Plan caused by the Second World War, means that this was not implemented and the station still retains much of its original Victorian architectural character today. As one of two EH&LR stations retaining its original buildings, (with Mill Hill East), it is one of the oldest parts of the Underground system, pre-dating the first tunnelled section of the Northern line (the City & South London Railway) by more than twenty years.
Just north of the station, United Dairies had a large creamery and milk bottling plant, which was provided with a siding and access to an unloading dock for milk trains.
Read more about this topic: Finchley Central Tube Station
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