Until the coming of the Underground railway, Alperton was a tiny hamlet.
The name Alperton derives from the Old English language and means "farmstead or estate associated with a man named Ealhbeorht." It combines an Anglo-Saxon personal name, "Ealhbeorht," with "tun," which means farmstead or village in Old English.
Alperton station, originally named Perivale Alperton, was opened on 28 June 1903, by the District Railway (now known as the District Line). It was part of a new extension to South Harrow with electrified tracks originating from Park Royal & Twyford Abbey, which had opened just five days earlier. This extension, together with the existing tracks back to Acton Town, marked the first electrification of the Underground’s surface lines, replacing steam trains with electric ones. It’s worth noting that the deep-level tube lines, such as the City & South London Railway, Waterloo & City Railway, and Central London Railway, were electrically powered from their inception.
The station was renamed Alperton on 7 October 1910. On 4 July 1932, the Piccadilly Line was extended to operate west of its original terminus at Hammersmith, sharing the route with the District Line up to Ealing Common. The District Line service from Ealing Common to South Harrow was replaced by the Piccadilly Line at that time.
The original station building, constructed in 1910, was a modest timber-framed structure. It was replaced in 1930 and 1931 by a new station designed by Charles Holden. This modern European-style station featured brick, reinforced concrete, and glass in its design. Like other stations Holden designed, it had a tall, block-like ticket hall rising above a low horizontal structure that housed station offices and shops. The ticket hall’s brick walls featured clerestory windows, and the structure was crowned with a flat concrete slab roof.
Alperton used to share the distinction of having an escalator leading up to the platforms with Greenford station on the Central Line. The escalator served the eastbound platform and had originally been used at the South Bank exhibition of the Festival of Britain. While the escalator is no longer in use, it remains in place behind a wall.
The towpath of the Grand Union Canal in Alperton has been used for various scenes in the BBC TV soap EastEnders. It was first featured in an episode that aired on October 3, 1985, and has since been used on numerous occasions, including a famous scene on February 23, 1989, when the character Den Watts was shot and fell into the canal.
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Until the coming of the Underground railway, Alperton was a tiny hamlet.
