Date: 31/03/2011

This is the story of a town-planning cock-up known as the Northern Heights, put together by Jay Foreman and Paul Kendler. [From Richard Buckby]

External links

Unfinished London - A Documentary by Jay Foreman (beardyman's brother) and Paul Kendler

Unfinished London

This is the story of a town-planning cock-up known as the Northern Heights Plan which, if completed, would have meant miles of extra houses and tube stations...

Related images

These are the remains (in August 1976) of Brockley Hill tube station, once part of a 1930s venture to extend the London Underground Northern line from Edgware to Elstree and Bushey Heath. One should imagine a series of shallow arches mounted on these brick pillars for the support of elevated platforms, and associated buildings in the respected 1930s architectural style. Unfortunately, the finished station only ever existed on paper. Thanks to World War 2 starting while the extension was under construction, building work at Brockley Hill and on the rest of the line ceased abruptly and was never resumed. The project was finally abandoned in 1950. One consequence was that the village of Bushey Heath remained very rural in character until well into the 1960s.
Location: Brockley Hill
Company: Northern Heights Project (London Underground)
/08/1976 Mark Dufton

Harry Beck's iconic Underground map was first published in 1933, and he spent the rest of his life almost obsessively revising it (or tinkering with it), not just because of changes in the network.  Some of these revisions were even published.  This one was current in 1957. Whereas originally the southern end of the Northern Line was a left-pointing diagonal, as it is today, here it is vertical.  Also the bottle shape of the Circle Line was temporarily abandoned for a rectangle.
Location: London
Company: Maps
//1957 David Panton

1938 Northern Line tube stock at the London Transport Museum Depot -Acton Open Day in March 2009.
Location: London Transport Museum Depot - Acton
Company: Ealing Broadway Branch (Metropolitan District Railway)
08/03/2009 Michael Gibb