As of 2026, the site at 375 Uxbridge Road in Hatch End is home to a Tesco Express with flats above it. For generations of people, however, this was The Railway – a large pub that stood close to Hatch End station and was part of the area for around 140 years.
Long before the Moon and Sixpence opened across the road, The Railway was serving locals, commuters and visitors to what was then a much smaller Hatch End.
Its story can be traced back to the Victorian era and the early development of Hatch End itself. It survived changing landlords, major rebuilding work and huge changes to the surrounding area before finally disappearing in 2004.
And its demolition caused enough concern that Harrow Council later used The Railway as part of a call for greater protection for historic local buildings.
The Railway goes back to Victorian Hatch End
The history of The Railway is closely tied to the arrival of the railway in Hatch End.
The London and Birmingham Railway came through the area in 1837, with a station called Pinner opening in 1842. Hatch End as we know it today had yet to develop.
At the time there were only a small number of farms nearby. That began to change during the following years, with the arrival of new homes at Woodridings and some of Pinner’s earliest commuters travelling into London from the station.
The pub appears to have arrived during this early period of growth. Records place a Railway Tavern at Woodridings by at least 1866, meaning the pub was already serving the area more than 150 years ago.
The name later became The Railway Hotel. It wasn’t an unusual name for the time. Railway hotels and pubs sprang up next to stations across Britain during the Victorian period, providing somewhere for passengers to eat, drink and sometimes stay overnight.
But in Hatch End, The Railway would become much more than a stop for travellers.
The people who ran the Railway Hotel
Old census and directory records give a glimpse of the people behind the bar during its early years.
By 1871, William Henry Manley was recorded as a licensed victualler at the pub. Ten years later, the Railway Hotel was being run by William Barnes Fendick. The 1881 census suggests it was a sizeable operation, with members of his family living there alongside a servant, driver and potman.
At the start of the 20th century, Harriet Harris was recorded as the licensed victualler. The household included a barmaid, cook and coachman.
It is easy to forget now, but the word “Hotel” was there for a reason. The Railway was more than just a bar in its earlier days and appears to have catered for people travelling through the area as well as local residents.
Over the decades there would be many different people behind the bar as Hatch End continued to grow around it.
Hatch End changes around the pub
By the early 20th century, the area surrounding The Railway looked very different from the quiet Victorian settlement in which it had first appeared.
Hatch End station had changed names several times and the surrounding streets were filling with houses, shops and businesses.
St Anselm’s Church had opened nearby in the 1890s and the Royal Commercial Travellers’ School – now Harrow Arts Centre – was already a major local landmark. Through all of this, The Railway remained on Uxbridge Road.
The pub also had a long association with Benskins, the famous Watford brewery whose beers were once a familiar sight in pubs across this part of Middlesex.
By the early 1960s, major changes were being planned for the building itself. Harrow Council records from 1962 show Benskin’s Watford Brewery discussing plans to rebuild The Railway Hotel, with the work expected to take around a year.
The brewery even considered putting temporary bars nearby so the pub could continue trading while the work was being carried out.
This means the Railway remembered by people during the 1970s, 80s and 90s was not necessarily the same building internally as the original Victorian hotel.
The railway carriage that nearly came to Hatch End
One of the more unusual stories connected with the pub dates from the 1960s. According to an account published by railway enthusiasts, brewery company Ind Coope once considered placing an actual railway restaurant carriage outside The Railway Hotel.
The carriage was reportedly built in the 1920s and had previously been used on continental rail services. The idea was apparently abandoned because of the planning difficulties surrounding it. The carriage eventually ended up at another pub, rather appropriately called the Denham Express.
It is one of those small details from The Railway’s history which seems almost unbelievable today, a real railway carriage sitting outside a pub on Uxbridge Road would certainly have been difficult to miss!.
The Railway many people remember
For most people who remember the pub today, it is the later years that stick in the mind. The Railway was a big pub compared with many others locally. There were pool tables towards the back, fruit machines and plenty of space inside.
Like many pubs before the smoking ban, it could also become extremely smoky. Former customers have remembered older members of St Anselm’s Youth Club and the Hatch End Young Conservatives heading there for drinks after meetings.
Another published local memory from someone who attended Harrow Technical College in the early 1960s recalls getting off the train at Hatch End after evening classes and stopping at The Railway for a pint of Benskins Best Bitter.
CAMRA records from later years also show Benskins Best Bitter and Ind Coope Burton Ale being served at the pub. Then, in 1991, another major pub arrived almost directly opposite. The Moon and Sixpence opened at 250 Uxbridge Road in a former bank.
For the next decade or so, the two pubs faced each other across Uxbridge Road and weekends could see both busy with people often crossing over from one to another.
The end of The Railway
By the beginning of the 2000s, The Railway’s days were numbered. The pub closed for good in 2004 and was demolished later that year.
But its disappearance was controversial. Contrary to something we have previously reported on Harrow Online, The Railway was not a Grade II listed building. It was locally listed by Harrow Council. That distinction proved important.
Nationally listed buildings have specific legal protection, while locally listed buildings at the time did not have the same safeguards against demolition.
Council records from June 2004 refer to the “recent destruction of part of the Railway Hotel in Hatch End” during a discussion about how locally listed buildings could be better protected.
A few months later, the issue reached a meeting of the full council. In October 2004, councillors unanimously backed a motion specifically referring to the “destruction of the locally listed Railway Hotel, Hatch End“.
The council called for changes to the law to strengthen protection for locally listed buildings. So although The Railway had gone, its demolition ended up becoming part of a much wider argument about how Harrow should protect buildings considered important to the history and character of the borough.
What replaced The Railway?
The redevelopment of the site was not quite as simple as the pub closing and Tesco immediately moving in.
Planning applications were submitted for the former Railway Hotel site, including proposals for retail space, flats and houses. One application was refused in September 2004.
The site was later described in council documents as a vacant cleared site formerly occupied by the locally listed Railway pub.
A revised development eventually went ahead and Tesco Express now occupies the Uxbridge Road frontage, with homes forming part of the redevelopment.
It is hard to imagine when walking past today that a pub had occupied the site since the days when Hatch End itself was still developing around the railway.
Did you drink at The Railway? Do you remember what it was like inside, the landlords or staff who worked there? Let us know your memories in the comments on our socials.
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Chris Mitchell is the founder and editor of Harrow Online, Harrow’s leading local news platform.
He launched Harrow Online in 2010 as a Facebook page sharing local news and information. Since then, it has grown into a trusted source for breaking news, crime, council decisions, planning, transport, business and community stories across the borough.
Harrow Online reaches hundreds of thousands of readers each month and has a social media audience of more than 200,000 followers.
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