Ealing Broadway is the western terminus of the Central and District Lines.
The original name for the area was Haven Green, a piece of common land which lies at a crossroads where tracks to Anglo-Saxon settlements at Twyford, Greenford, Hillingdon and Northolt joined the road from London to Uxbridge and Oxford.
Uxbridge Road became an important drovers’ road - the route along which sheep and other livestock were driven to market in London. Haven Green was perhaps one of the last stops for these animals on their way to slaughter.
Until the 19th century, Haven Green lay outside the old Ealing Village which grew around St Mary’s church half a mile to the south.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) opened broad gauge tracks through Haven Green between Paddington and Taplow on 6 April 1838, although Ealing Broadway station did not open until 1 December 1838. It was initially named ’Ealing’, but was renamed Ealing Broadway in 1875.
District Railway (now the District Line) services commenced on 1 July 1879, when it opened a branch from Turnham Green on its Richmond line.
The Central London Railway (now the Central Line) extended its service from its terminus at Wood Lane to use the new GWR tracks to Ealing Broadway on 3 August 1920.
Originally separate companies, by 1920 the DR and the CLR were both owned by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL). Despite this, the CLR services operated via the GWR station building, not the Underground one.
The GWR-built station was demolished in 1961 and replaced by a new structure containing shops and a ticket hall, opened in 1965.
Elizabeth Line services included Ealing Broadway on its line out to Reading and Heathrow.
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