The station is the nearest to Kew Gardens, about 500 yards (460 m) to the west, and The National Archives, about 600 yards (550 m) to the north east. Kew Gardens Station Footbridge, also a Grade II-listed structure,[10][11] is next to the station, on the southern side.
Access
The main entrance to the station is at the junction of Station Parade, Station Avenue and Station Approach, about 100 yards (90 m) from Sandycombe Road (B353). There is also an entrance, which is wheelchair-accessible, on North Road, on the other side of the railway line; the two entrances are connected by a pedestrian subway.
On 1 June 1877, the District Railway (DR, now the District line) opened a short extension from its terminus at Hammersmith to connect to the L&SWR tracks east of Ravenscourt Park station.[12] The DR then began running trains over the L&SWR tracks to Richmond. On 1 October 1877, the Metropolitan Railway (MR, now the Metropolitan line) restarted the GWR's former service to Richmond via Grove Road station.[14]
The DR's service between Richmond, Hammersmith and central London was more direct than the NLR's route via Willesden Junction, the L&SWR's or the MR's routes via Grove Road station or the L&SWR's other route from Richmond via Clapham Junction. From 1 January 1894, the GWR began sharing the MR's Richmond service and served Kew Gardens once again,[14] meaning that passengers from Kew Gardens could travel on the services of five operators.
Following the electrification of the DR's own tracks north of Acton Town in 1903, the DR funded the electrification of the tracks on the Richmond branch, including those through Kew Gardens. This was completed on 1 August 1905[12] and DR services on the line were then operated with electric trains. However, the L&SWR, NLR, GWR and MR services continued to be steam-hauled.
MR services were withdrawn on 31 December 1906 and GWR services were withdrawn on 31 December 1910,[14] leaving operations at Kew Gardens and Gunnersbury to the DR (by then known as the District Railway), the NLR and L&SWR. By 1916, the L&SWR's route through Hammersmith was being out-competed by the District to such a degree that the L&SWR withdrew its service between Richmond and Addison Road on 3 June 1916, leaving the District as the sole operator over that route.[15]
The two-storey yellow brick station buildings are unusually fine examples of mid-Victorian railway architecture and are protected as part of the Kew Gardens conservation area. The station is one of the few remaining 19th-century stations on the North London line and had one of the last illuminated banner signals on the London Underground, possibly because of the footbridge. This signal was replaced by an electronic version in 2011.[citation needed]
Kew Gardens is the only station on the London Underground network that has a pub attached to it.[16] The pub has a door (no longer in use) which leads out onto platform 1. Previously known as The Railway, and subsequently as The Pig and Parrot and as The Flower and Firkin, the pub reopened after renovation in 2013 as The Tap on the Line.[16]
The footbridge, from the North Road sideHeritage sign on the footbridgeSouthbound view of the station and footbridge
The footbridge to the south of the station is also noteworthy and is Grade II-listed in its own right.[10][11] The railway line bisected Kew, but it was not until 1912[10] that the bridge was provided to allow residents to cross the tracks safely (previously, a level crossing was used, with the added disadvantage of delaying trains). It is a rare surviving example of a reinforced concrete structure built using a pioneering technique devised by the French engineer François Hennebique.[17] The bridge has a narrow deck and very high walls, originally designed to protect its users' clothing from the smoke of steam trains passing underneath. It also has protrusions on either side of the deck to deflect smoke away from the bridge structure.[18] It was restored in 2004[19] with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, in a project led by The Kew Society.[18] In July 2017, concerns were expressed about the structural safety of the bridge.[20]
Services
Plaque commemorating the station's reopening by Michael Portillo in 1989
There are no lifts. Platform 2 (going towards central London) is at ground level. Platform 1 (going towards Richmond) is reached by a short set of 10 steps; there is also a wheelchair-accessible ramp.
Kew Gardens station appeared in the BBC comedy dramaLove Soup (Series 2, Episode 1 – Smoke and Shadows, 1 March 2008) as the fictional "Hove West" station.[23]
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