New Barnet station building history

[BushHillParker]

Can anyone assist please with the building history of New Barnet station?

I spent many hours there in the 1950s but at that age was more concerned with what was passing through the station than the finer points of station architecture. But I did wonder about the covered walkway that led down the slope from the west end of the footbridge and what its purpose was as it didn’t seem to lead to anything.

Sixty years on and I’ve just discovered that it connected the end of the bridge to a portico which apparently was still there during WWII but had gone by the time of my first visit around 1953.

I know the station opened in 1850 and have seen unconfirmed reports of enlargement in 1867 and 1876. Then followed complete rebuilding in 1896 with a new footbridge (just to the south of the original footbridge) and a new booking office and other offices actually on the new footbridge - these survived until I think 1989 when they were destroyed by a fire.

The 1896 rebuilding is mentioned in several accounts and corresponds with the quadrupling of the line but what I don’t know is if the portico was newly built as part of the 1896 rebuilding or if it was part of the old station, the rest of which was demolished leaving just the portico which was then connected by the covered walkway to the new footbridge. (Also when was the original station building demolished?) I have studied large scale OS maps but these are inconclusive there being a survey in 1895 but the next is not until 1912/3.

Does anyone have any information please?

[PinzaC55]

I would guess that a visit to the Public Record Office at Kew would be productive if you searched their GNR files for New Barnet ?

[BushHillParker]

Possibly - thanks for that