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Someone here might know the answer to this: Wikipedia says that Brent Cross station was originally going to be named "Woodstock":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Cross_tube_station

Any idea why? Is there any connection to the local area?

Furthermore, when it opened in 1923 it was simply named "Brent". It's near the River Brent, but there's no location called "Brent" that it could have taken its name from - the London Borough of Brent wasn't created until 1965, and in any case it's not in the borough. From 1965 to 1976 (when it was renamed) there was a Brent station that wasn't in Brent.

Woodstock Avenue, perhaps? Maybe early plans for siting the station had it on Woodstock Avenue, and moving the station a bit got it renamed? It was called Brent because of the river.

Thanks. Are there any other railway stations named after rivers?

I'm not at home to check whether it applies in this case, but many of the suburban extensions to the tube were built speculatively, to encourage property development and therefore many of the names had to be made up. I know that for the Picc up to Cockfosters, they had a competition to choose the names.

Roding Valley is named after the valley containing the River Roding.

I know it's not a tube station but Weybridge is exactly what it says. A bridge over the river Wey.

tubeguru wrote:Roding Valley is named after the valley containing the River Roding.

Not quite the question I was asking (ditto "Weybridge"). Are there any stations - not just Underground stations - whose name is simply the name of a river on its own? It was claimed above that the original name of Brent station came from the River Brent, but I don't know of any stations just called "Thames", "Severn" etc., although there are plenty with the name of a river in them.

OK, as you asked a question literally, I will answer it literally.

No.

So I thought. So why was Brent Cross station originally called "Brent" when there was no location called "Brent" to name it after?

In 1923 they took the decision to name it after the river ar it's a better name than "North Circular Road" which was the only other feature of note back in 1923.

Ah, that makes sense.

Go to http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html?txt ... ord=187866 and pick the 1920 map and you will see the "Brent Bridge" roughly where the station is now.

And for stations named after the river you can have Frome.

Taunton is linked to the river Tone - literally "Tone Town".

nozzacook wrote:And for stations named after the river you can have Frome.

Well, not really. The town was named after the river and the station was named after the town... but I suppose you're right in one sense!