Enfield Town Station (ENF)

Address: Southbury Rd, Enfield, Middlesex EN1 1YX
Opened: 1 March 1849
Station Code: ENF
Fare Zone: 5

London Overground Line(s) Served:

Lea Valley Lines (Enfield Town Branch)

Service Pattern(s):

Peak: Four trains per hour
Off-Peak: Two trains per hour to London Liverpool Street

Station History

Enfield station was opened on 1st March 1849 as a terminus by the Eastern Counties Railway on their new branch line from Edmonton station on the former Northern and Eastern Railway line between Stratford and Broxbourne.

Following a period of financial uncertainty, the Eastern Counties Railway was amalgamated with several other East Anglian lines to form the Great Eastern Railway in 1862, with the branch and its stations changing to the new ownership.

After the merger, pressure applied by both the public and politicians for a more direct route to London led to the GER depositing the GER (Metropolitan Station & Railways) Act before Parliament.

This proposed a more direct line routed from Hackney Downs to a junction with the existing line to Enfield just beyond Edmonton Green (Low Level) station.

Due to the aforementioned financial difficulties, the line was not actually started until 1870 and finally opened for public use on 1st August 1872, with all passenger services from Enfield now diverted along it.

In 1872, the original station building at Enfield, said to have once been inhabited by Isaac D’Israeli, father of Benjamin, was demolished and replaced by a new brick-built structure with an attached house for the station master. This was followed in 1886 by the renaming of the station from Enfield to Enfield Town.

Grouping of the railways in 1923 saw the GER merged into the new London & North Eastern Railway before Nationalisation in 1948 saw the LNER become part of the Eastern Region of British Railways.

In 1957, British Railways took the decision to demolish the existing station buildings and replace them with their new standardised design by architect H. H. Powell and this is the station building that survives today. The new station was followed two years later by the closure and removal of the station goods yard in September 1959.

As part of the upgrade of the existing line and its structures, the line would become electrified and this was achieved on 21 November 1960.

Privatisation saw the line and its stations awarded to National Express GGroup, who began operations on 1 April 2004 and operated until Abellio gained the franchise in October 2011. The final change of operator thus far in the station’s history came on 31 May 2015 when the Lea Valley Lines passed to London Overground ownership.