Preston Road

[zzyy123]

As a youngster living in Northern Ireland my mum used to bring us to stay for a few weeks in the late 70's and early 80's to stay with my aunt who lived on Grasmere Avenue beside the Met line at Preston Road and those are happy memories indeed. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me about the history of Preston Road station, I believe it was a golf course at one time, in those days I think the station was south of the bridge. I remember standing on my aunt's dustbin at her back fence and waving at the met drivers who eventually got to know me and waved and whistled. There were also the Marylebone trains passing and I think they were 115's, maybe someone can confirm. On Sunday evenings we used to go to church near barn hill, and although as a kid I hated church, I remember standing on a footbridge south of Kingsbury watching the red bakerloo trains passing. Shortly after the Jubilee line came and I was most upset.

 

[SuspectUsual]

I can’t shed a lot of light other than to say my best friend when I was 15/16 lived on Wykeham Hill, and Preston Road was the nearest tube. I’d visit for a week in the school holidays and I remember her dad saying it was first built for the clay pigeon shooting at the London 1908 Olympics, but I never knew whether he was winding me up or not

 

[zzyy123]

I can’t shed a lot of light other than to say my best friend when I was 15/16 lived on Wykeham Hill, and Preston Road was the nearest tube. I’d visit for a week in the school holidays and I remember her dad saying it was first built for the clay pigeon shooting at the London 1908 Olympics, but I never knew whether he was winding me up or not

Now you got me thinking and I believe you are correct. An old neighbour of my aunt said something about clay pigeon shooting and Olympics and I had totally forgotten about it until you mentioned it.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

"Metro-land" newspaper adverts from the late 1920s/early 1930s advertise Preston Road station as being 13 minutes' journey time from Baker Street on the Metropolitan Railway, and having nearby golf links (= Harrow Golf Club?) (on the South side of the station, Club house demolished c. 1928?) and tennis courts adjacent. This was around the time that the line through the (rapidly being built over) area was quadrupled. Believe the station was initially opened in May 1908 as a request stop (halt) just in time for the 1908 Olympic Games (clay bird) shotgun shooting competition at nearby Uxendon Farm, held in the July that year, as others have mentioned. No live pigeons used, unlike was the case at the 1900 Paris Olympics! A subsequent issue with use of the halt was that trains reportedly sometimes sailed through the station without calling if the driver hadn't noticed passengers waiting on the halt's platform. The station was re-sited to its current place in 1931/32.

 

[Poolie]

Preston Road has special memories for me.
I was born in Grasmere Avenue in 1954. My Dad had an allotment that was right next to the Met/GC line. He would take me there while he was planting/digging, doing what allotment Dads do, but I was only there for the trains and can distinctly remember there was no fence/railings or any kind of barrier. Prior to the run down of the GC in 1960, the number of trains was amazing. The sight and sound of V2's roaring past within a few feet was incredible.
But I also liked to see the Metrovic electric locos on the semi fasts on the Met. My next door neighbour was a driver with LT and he used to take me in the cab on runs to Watford (F stock, oval windows) and I can remember at Rickmansworth the change from electric to steam.

Happy days that sparked a lifelong interest in railways.