History
Ealing Common station was opened on 1 July 1879 by the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR, now the District line) on its extension from Turnham Green to Ealing Broadway. From 1886 until 1 March 1910 the station was known as Ealing Common and West Acton after which it changed to its current name.
On 23 June 1903 the MDR opened an extension of the tracks from north of Ealing Common. The extension initially reached as far as Park Royal & Twyford Abbey (closed and replaced by Park Royal in 1931), where the Royal Agricultural Society's Park Royal show grounds had been recently opened, before being opened to South Harrow on 28 June 1903.
This new extension was, together with the existing tracks between Ealing Common & Acton Town, the first section of the Underground's surface lines to be electrified and operate electric instead of steam trains. The deep level tube lines open at that time (City & South London Railway, Waterloo & City Railway and Central London Railway) had been electrically powered from the start. Electric trains started running on the section of line between Ealing Common and Ealing Broadway on 1 July 1905.
During 1930 and 1931 a new station building was constructed to replace the 1879 building. The new building, by Charles Holden in a style reminiscent of his designs for the 1926 Morden extension of the City & South London Railway (now part of the Northern Line), was constructed in Portland stone and features a tall heptagonal ticket hall with glazed screens to all sides. The new building opened on 1 March 1931 and is very similar to the reconstructed station at Hounslow West built at the same time, also by Heaps and Holden.
On 4 July 1932 the Piccadilly line was extended to run west of its original terminus at Hammersmith sharing the route with the District line to Ealing Common. From Ealing Common to South Harrow, the District line was replaced by the Piccadilly line and, from this date, District line trains west from Ealing Common ran to Ealing Broadway only.
Read more about this topic: Ealing Common Tube Station
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