Every home has a story, but not all can claim to have once been a London Underground station. One such unique property just beyond the M25 can make this boast.
Blake Hall, now a private residence, was repurposed after it failed to meet the mark as a Tube station.
With an average of just six passengers a day, the former station in Stanford Rivers, south of Bobbingworth in Essex, held the unfortunate title of being the least-used station on the entire London Underground network. That title today is held by the London-Essex border station of Roding Valley on the Hainault Loop section of the Central line.
First opened in 1865, the station initially served to transport local farmers’ goods to London. Between 1949 and 1957, a British Railways shuttle service between Epping and Ongar also made stops at Blake Hall, effectively making it an extension of the Central line.
It officially joined the Central line in 1957 when electrified trains began stopping there. However, by 1966, services to Blake Hall started to decline, with no trains stopping there on Sundays due to low demand.
Given the station’s remote location from any significant settlement, it’s hardly surprising that it wasn’t popular. Even at its peak, only 17 passengers used it daily.
In 1981, it was decided that the station was no longer viable. Services continued to run between Epping and Ongar until 1994, after which that section of the Central line was also closed.
The station was privatised and transformed into a residence, with the platform being demolished. Yet, in 2012, the platform was reconstructed solely for aesthetic purposes.
The Epping-Ongar heritage railway service passes by the station, but it doesn’t make a stop there.
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