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Considering it is right at the edge of London, Hounslow has an impressive nine stations on the London Underground .

And it has another nine overground commuter rail stations.

But you might not have known there was another station which was opened for just three years in the town centre.

Hounslow Town was a station on the District Railway, an early Underground predecessor to the Piccadilly and District lines.

The District Railway stretched from Upminster to Hounslow.

Hounslow Town station was opened as the terminus to the line on May 1, 1883 but less than three years later, on March 31, 1886, the station was closed.

The service heading in from Acton Town was supposed to have gone on to Hounslow train station, connecting via a bridge over the high street on to the tracks of the London South West Railway (LSRW).

The LSRW operated a route from Hounslow to Waterloo, which still runs today on the South Western Railway.

At the time, LSRW was concerned that an Underground line which connected their station to others in Central London would cause competition so they blocked the plans.

Instead, in 1884, the District Railway extended to Hounslow Barracks, a station we now know as Hounslow West.

(Image: Paul Doyle)

Since the District Railway could not extend south as they planned, and Hounslow Barracks was proving so popular, the barracks branch of the railway was favoured and the Hounslow Town station was left to suffer.

Only three years after opening, it had to close its doors, as the westwards railway was prospering. Heston and Hounslow station opened the following day on the barracks branch. It would later be renamed Hounslow Central.

But that was not the end of the track for Hounslow Town. The District Railway decided to reopen the station in 1903, just 10 years after the ill-fated opening.

At Osterley and Spring Grove. the precursor to Osterley station, there were two branches, one heading to Hounslow Town and the other to Hounslow Barracks.

At the same time, steam locomotives were being phased out as the Tube was getting electrified. After this was completed in 1905, the two branched were unified in a fiddly loop system.

Trains would head in to Hounslow Town from Osterley and Spring Grove and then reverse back out and on to Hounslow Barracks.

(Image: Paul Doyle)

The single-track loop was tricky due to a sharp turn so trains could only manage a top speed of 8mph safely while reversing.

Although its second-life was around twice as long, District Railways called an end to Hounslow Town on May 1, 1909 and the following day Hounslow East station was opened, closing off the loop and connecting directly with the main branch.

The problematic station was used for a total of nine years, and was eventually demolished in 1912 by the London General Omnibus Company.

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Hounslow Town became Hounslow Bus Garage, the bus station off the eastern end of High Street which still serves the area more than 100 years on.

There are still a few signs of Hounslow Town's past for those looking. The first is a London Underground roundel which hangs in to the high street but reads "Bus Station".

(Image: Google)

It is notably different from the bus roundel you see on bus stops elsewhere in the capital.

And there is also a plaque on the building which recounts the history of Hounslow Town station and the bus station which replaced it.