Watford Central tube station

Watford Central
44 High Street, Watford, planned as Watford Central station
Watford Central Location of Watford Central in Hertfordshire
Location	Watford, Hertfordshire
Local authority	Watford
Owner	Never Opened
Railway companies
Original company	Metropolitan Railway
Key dates
1927	Building purchased by the MR
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
WGS84	51°39′23″N 0°23′52″W / 51.656444°N 0.39789°W / 51.656444; -0.39789Coordinates: 51°39′23″N 0°23′52″W / 51.656444°N 0.39789°W / 51.656444; -0.39789

Watford Central was a planned station on the London Underground in Watford, Hertfordshire. The station was to be part of a proposed extension of the Metropolitan line from the present-day Watford tube station to Watford's High Street opposite Clarendon Road. Had the line been built, Watford Central would have been the terminus of the branch line. The building which was planned to be the station booking hall has long gone, however the facade was retained and a new building constructed behind it. It is now The Moon Under Water public house.

Building a line to Watford had been an ambition of the Metropolitan Railway Company for several years. Watford was already served by the LNWR main line, but Watford Urban District Council began to lobby the MR to extend their line into the town. By 1911 Watford had grown enough to make a new railway connection seem commercially viable. At this time, the MR shared tracks with the Great Central Railway (GCR) and these companies had formed the Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Railway; together they drew up plans to construct a branch line to Watford town centre, receiving Parliamentary approval in 1912. In the original plans, the Metropolitan line was to terminate at a passenger station located on Hempstead Road, close to the northern end of the High Street, with a goods station a mile further south at Cassiobury Park Avenue. The Urban District Council, despite their earlier enthusiasm for a new railway, now objected to the scheme; the council had recently purchased parts of the Cassiobury Estate from the Earl of Essex to create Cassiobury Park, and were opposed to the MR driving a railway across their beautiful municipal park.

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 hampered the project's development, and it was not until 1922 that construction of the Watford branch commenced. By this stage, the GCR was financially less secure and the MR instead formed a joint committee with the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), the Watford Joint Committee. Opposition from local politicians to the Cassiobury route meant that the terminus had to be sited next to the new goods yard in the Cassiobury area of the town, some distance from the centre. Watford station opened as the terminus of the Metropolitan Railway Watford branch in 1925.