Oakwood tube station

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Oakwood
Location
Place	Oakwood
Local authority	Enfield

Operations
Managed by	London Underground
Platforms in use	2

Transport for London
Zone	5
2006 annual usage	2.353 million †
2007 annual usage	2.612 million †
History
1933	Opened (Piccadilly Line)
Transport for London List of London stations: Underground \| National Rail
† Data from Transport for London [1]
London Transport Portal

Oakwood is a London Underground station on the Piccadilly Line. It is the second most northerly station, between Southgate and Cockfosters stations, and is in Travelcard Zone 5. The station is on the edge of the Oakwood area of Enfield (N14) and is situated at the junction of Bramley Road (A110) and Chase Road. (The other end of Chase Road is close to Southgate tube station.)

1 History
- 1.1 Naming controversy
2 Operations
3 Transport connections
4 External links

[edit] History

The station opened on 13 March 1933 as part of the Cockfosters extension. The station did not appear on the original plans to extend the Piccadilly line beyond Finsbury Park - the original plan only provided for seven additional stations. When the station opened in 1933 a commemorative bronze plate with the inscription "This station is the highest point in Europe in a direct line west of the Ural Mountains" was fixed to the booking hall wall by a Mr H Youden, the youngest apprentice on the site at the time.^{[citation needed]}

The station building is a fine example of the architecture Charles Holden built for the Piccadilly Line extensions, with a large and imposing box-shaped ticket hall surrounded by lower structures containing shops. Mirroring proportions found in classical architecture, albeit in a distinctly 20th century structure, the dimensions of the ticket hall are approximately a "double-cube" (its front elevation is roughly twice its height and width). The station is similar to Holden's slightly earlier designs for Sudbury Town and Acton Town stations at the western end of Piccadilly Line. Oakwood Station is a Grade II listed building.

Like other extensions of the London Underground lines elsewhere, the opening of the Cockfosters extension stimulated the rapid development of new suburbs and much of the open countryside that had existed in 1930 when construction started was quickly covered by new housing developments.

[edit] Naming controversy

Prior to its opening the London Electric Railway Company (forerunner of London Underground) suggested names for the station including "Oakwood", "Merryhills" and "East Barnet" but the station was named Enfield West at opening. This was a source of much local anger and debate, particularly as the station was located in the area of the Municipal Borough of Southgate, not in the Enfield Urban District as the name suggested.

Enfield Council had hoped that the Piccadilly Line extension would bring the Underground to Enfield, so perhaps they brought influence to bear on the choice of name. Southgate Council favoured "Southgate North". After the station opened, it was felt locally that the station was situated too far from Enfield for the original name to accurately reflect its location - a sentiment apparently shared by passengers alighting at "Enfield West" and expecting to be near Enfield. A compromise was reached in 1934 when the station was renamed Enfield West (Oakwood).

In 1946 the London Passenger Transport Board finally gave way and renamed the station to Oakwood on 1 September 1946. Many Piccadilly Line stations still bear the marks on their tiled maps where the original name had to be changed.

[edit] Operations

Currently a few trains in the early morning and late evening enter / leave service at Oakwood, from Cockfosters Depot (which has an entrance point north of Oakwood station). There is additionally a crossover for trains to reverse, and the possibility of an extra platform built using an existing siding has been mooted to provide extra peak-hour reversing capacity.