Barons Court

Barons Court lies between West Kensington and Hammersmith on the District line, and between Earl’s Court and Hammersmith on the Piccadilly line.

When the through tracks were laid on 9 September 1874, the area now known as Barons Court was an area of market gardens west of the hamlet of North End and largely owned by Sir William Palliser.

A decade previously, the 1865 Ordnance Survey Plan shows that most of the area remained in agricultural use, although the main arterial thoroughfares of North End Lane (upgraded and renamed Talgarth Road), North End Road and Old Greyhound Road (later renamed Greyhound Road), then existed.

The name of Barons Court is believed to have been devised by Palliser. Th style of the name to attract potential house buyers may have been suggested by nearby Earls Court or possibly in allusion to the Court Baron held by the Lord of the Manor, the Bishop of London.

By the time of the 1894/5 Ordnance Survey, the majority of local residential development had occurred. Significant developments between the two Surveys included the laying out of Hammersmith Cemetery, then known as Margravine Cemetery.

On 9 October 1905, the District Railway opened a station to serve the new developments and in preparation for the 1906 opening of the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (now the Piccadilly line), then under construction. There is now easy cross-platform interchange between the two lines: District and Piccadilly.

The station is now the final surface stop for eastbound trains on the Piccadilly line until emerging back into the open air at Arnos Grove. In the 1990s, the Grade II listed station was carefully restored to its original appearance.



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