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Roding Valley Underground Station, 13 July 2024.
The station was opened in February 1936 as Roding Valley Halt by the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) on their branch from Ilford to Woodford (on the LNER Stratford – Leytonstone – Epping line), called the Hainault Loop (formerly the Fairlop Loop). It was a very basic station with minimum facilities.
The Fairlop Loop had been speculative, the Great Eastern Railway (GER), which built it in 1903, hoping it would stimulate suburban growth. Unfortunately, so far as Roding Valley was concerned, the development which did occur in the area was better served by nearby Buckhurst Hill and Woodford stations and today Roding Valley is the least used London Underground station.
The London Passenger Transport Board’s New Works Programme of 1935 proposed extending the Central Line from its easternmost terminus at Liverpool Street through new tunnels to Stratford and thence (through further tunnels) over the LNER branch from Leytonstone to Epping (and ultimately Ongar) via Woodford, and (through further tube tunnels) from Leytonstone to the LNER Hainault Loop at Newbury Park, the LPTB taking over all the LNER lines. The outbreak of WWII put those plans on hold but post-war they were revived.
The Central Line service reached Hainault in May 1948 and in November 1948 the Central Line began a Hainault - Woodford service via Roding Valley (when the Halt suffix was dropped). It was decided to rebuild the station for the Central Line and, although opened in November 1948, the new station was not completed until 1949. The LNER had stopped its service in November 1947.
Pictured is the very small ticket hall designed by the LPTB’s Assistant Architect Thomas Bilbow. No original features are apparent.