Buckhurst Hill tube station

Buckhurst Hill station sits on the edge of Epping Forest, a short walk from the suburban town of Buckhurst Hill in Essex. It belongs to the London Underground’s Central line, placed between Woodford and Loughton, in fare zone five. The station building still shows its late Victorian style, designed by W. N. Ashbee for the Great Eastern Railway. A derelict 1856 station house remains south of the present platforms. The main entrance moved to Victoria Road in 1892, giving the station its present layout. The journey is worth making to see a piece of London’s railway past preserved in the suburbs. The 1892 building matches Ashbee’s work at Billericay, both examples of his work for the Great Eastern Railway. When electrification arrived in 1948, the station kept its original character while gaining a pedestrian underpass under Queens Road. The underpass once linked two parts of the road separated by a level crossing. Two extra exits opened in 2018 to help mobility-impaired passengers reach the platforms. Visitors find a quiet station with platforms that still feel Victorian, despite modern services. Trains run every five to ten minutes for much of the day, heading east to Loughton and west to Woodford. The underpass and original shelters remain in use, giving a sense of how the station once handled both steam and electric trains. Lower Queens Road and Queens Road lie just south of the station, reached through the reopened underpass. The surrounding streets lead quickly into Epping Forest, where paths wind through ancient woodland.