West London Line

The West London line is an inner-city railway running north–south through Hammersmith and Fulham. It links Willesden Junction in the north with Clapham Junction in the south, crossing the filled-in bed of Counter’s Creek where the District line now runs. The line began as the Birmingham, Bristol and Thames Junction Railway in 1836 and opened in 1844, though early atmospheric trials had been held beside Wormwood Scrubs. After a brief passenger service it closed the same year, earning the nickname Punch’s Railway. A rebuilt route opened in 1863 with a station at Addison Road, later Kensington Olympia, and soon carried the Great Western Railway’s Middle Circle service. The line carried steam trains to the South Coast until wartime bombing in 1940 ended most passenger use. For decades it handled freight and milk tanks, and excursion trains ran to the coast. In 1994 full passenger services returned, followed by electrification and new stations at West Brompton, Shepherd’s Bush and Imperial Wharf. In 2007 Transport for London took over, introducing orange Overground trains and giving the line its present light-blue Mildmay line identity on the Tube map. Today the West London line carries London Overground and Southern services through a mix of industrial yards, canal-side paths and residential streets. Trains pass under the Hammersmith flyover and skirt the edge of Wormwood Scrubs. At Kensington Olympia the line meets the West London line’s original terminus, now a busy interchange with exhibition halls. The route offers views of West London rooftops, the filled-in canal route and the distant spires of central London.