B/W print; Ealing Broadway Underground station exterior, 1907

Ealing Broadway Underground station is on the District Railway. The station opened on 1 July 1879 and included two shops to the left of the entrance, occupied by W H Smith and Christies and Co. W H Smith started as a family business in 1792, becoming the largest newsagents in Britain today. The growth of the W H Smith company has much to do with the deliberate siting of its shops and kiosks conveniently near to railway stations. W H Smith also used the railways to deliver its newspapers. This station was reconstructed in 1911 by Harry W Ford and faced in white Portland stone.