Blake Hall tube station

Blake Hall is a disused station on the London Underground located near the village of Bobbingworth in Essex, approximately 24 mi northeast of Charing Cross. It was latterly on the Central line, between North Weald and Ongar stations, but had originally been served by the Epping Ongar Railway branch line.

It was opened in 1865 and named after Blake Hall, a country house located a mile or so to the northeast and inhabited by a family of substantial local land-owners. The station was closed in 1981.

History
Blake Hall station was opened by the Great Eastern Railway on 1 April 1865, serving principally as a goods yard carrying agricultural produce from the nearby farms into central London. Steam locomotives operated by British Railways for the Underground ran a shuttle service from Epping to Ongar, stopping at Blake Hall, from 1949 until 1957, when the line was electrified and taken over by the Underground's Central line. On 18 April 1966 the goods yard was closed and Blake Hall became a passengers-only station.

Blake Hall became known as the least-used station on the entire Underground network. Fare subsidies provided on the rest of the system were not provided on this part of the line because local government agencies for Essex and London failed to agree on their respective public transport responsibilities, and Blake Hall station was located a considerable distance from any substantial settlement. By the time it was closed on 31 October 1981, the station was reported to have only 17 passengers per day. The Epping to Ongar branch was closed 13 years later, on 30 September 1994.

Blake Hall's station building has since been converted into a private home. The small coal depot at the western end of the station was closed in the early 1960s, soon after the line's electrification, and the passenger platform has been demolished.

The line passing the station site is now privately owned and operated as a heritage railway by the Epping Ongar Railway, and, although the platform has since been reinstated, this is for aesthetic purposes only, and the station remains closed.