Ongar railway station, former London Underground station
Ongar railway station is a Grade II listed railway station in Chipping Ongar, Essex, built in red brick with dark red paintwork typical of the Great Eastern Railway. The site includes a station master's house, a ticket office, and a single surface-level platform.
The station opened in 1865 under the Great Eastern Railway, primarily to move farm goods toward London markets. It was absorbed into the London Underground network in 1949 and closed in 1994 after passenger numbers fell steadily following electrification in 1957.
The station takes its name from Chipping Ongar, the small market town it once served as a gateway to London. Today it is kept running by volunteers who dress in period uniforms and operate the trains on weekends, giving visitors a sense of what rural rail travel once felt like.
The station is a short walk from Chipping Ongar town center and easy to reach on foot along the main road. On site you will find a small cafe and gift shop, and buses stop nearby, though parking in town is limited.
The sand drag at the end of the track once sheltered a small colony of a harmless scorpion species, an unusual find for the English countryside. Scorpions have occasionally been spotted in the area since, making this one of the very few railway stations in England with such a connection.
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