Park Royal tube station

Park Royal is a station on the Piccadilly Line of the London Underground. It is between and  and is in Travelcard Zone 3. It is situated on the south side of the east-west Western Avenue (A40), surrounded by residential Ealing and industrial Park Royal. There is a pedestrian subway under the A40 road near the station.

History
The Metropolitan District Railway (MDR, now the District Line) opened the line through Park Royal on its new extension to on 23 June 1903. A station, Park Royal & Twyford Abbey, was opened at that time a short distance to the north of the current station to serve the Royal Agricultural Society's recently opened Park Royal show grounds.

The current station was built for the extension of Piccadilly Line services over the District Line tracks to. It opened on 6 July 1931 and replaced the earlier station which closed on the previous day.

First opened as a temporary timber structure, the current station building was designed by Welch & Lander in an Art Deco/Streamline Moderne style influenced by the Underground's principal architect Charles Holden. The station buildings are formed from a series of simple interconnecting geometric shapes. Plain red brick masses are accented with strong horizontal and vertical glazed elements. A large circular ticket hall with high level windows gives access to the platform stairs. The enclosures for these form cascades of glazed steps down to the platforms. The most prominent feature of the station building is the tall square tower adjacent to the ticket hall. This is adorned with the Underground roundel; and represents a visible locator for the station from some distance. The permanent structure was opened in 1936. Attached to the station building and across the small open space of Hanger Green are two curved three-storey retail and office buildings built in the same style as the station.

On 4 July 1932, the Piccadilly Line was extended to run west of its original terminus at sharing the route with the District Line to. From Ealing Common to South Harrow, the District Line was replaced by the Piccadilly Line.

From 1 March 1936 until 1947 the station name was modified to Park Royal (Hanger Hill). The suffix was then dropped and the station returned to the unmodified version. Hanger Hill referred to a residential estate adjacent to the station.

Central line
Just to the north of the station, the Piccadilly Line crosses over the Central Line tracks heading west towards nearby. In 2004, the multinational Diageo company agreed to build new Central Line platforms for Park Royal station there, as part of its First Central business park, built on the site of the (now demolished) Guinness brewery. As of mid-2009, this had not yet happened. There would be a new footpath between the Central and Piccadilly line platforms, inside the station barriers, and separate from the existing footpath leading north from the A40 subway. It has been reported that the Piccadilly line platforms could not be moved closer to the new platforms, since the Piccadilly line is on a gradient, and on a curve, between the A40 road bridge and the Central line tracks.

West London Orbital
The proposed West London Orbital will call at this station. The underground railway will run between Brent Cross and Surbiton. The railway is still on the proposal stage and is not approved or funded at present.

North & West London Light Railway
The North and West London Light Railway (NWLLR) is a proposed potential railway (possibly a light rail service) that will call at this station. There are no plans at present.

Transport links
London bus routes 95 and 487.