File:Brent Cross Station - geograph.org.uk - 1737992.jpg

English: Brent Cross Station. The station was opened as Brent in 1923 on the extension of the then Hampstead and Highgate line, now the Northern Line, towards Edgware. Despite claims currently made elsewhere on the internet that the station was built in a rural area in anticipation of future housing development, the residential estates surrounding this station, and particularly to the south, were largely completed before the railway arrived.

Stanley Heaps was the Underground's chief architect at the time and was responsible for the design of this and all the other stations on the extension of the line to Edgware, several of which have these stone colonnaded fronts. When the nearby Brent Cross Shopping Centre was opened in 1976 the station was renamed. I hesitate to use the word nearby as the walk from the station takes some time and involves negotiating the labyrinth of bridges and walkways at the A406 North Circular Road and the A41 Hendon Way junction at the Brent Cross Flyover.

A comparison with 404527 from 2007 shows that the familiar small blue station sign has been replaced with a larger sign comprising individual letters more in keeping with the architecture.