The line opened on 21 July 1868 between Tottenham North Junction (on the Great Eastern Railway) and Highgate Road.
Plans to extend the western end of this line via a proposed 'London Main Trunk Railway', underneath Hampstead Road, the Metropolitan Railway (modern Circle line) and Tottenham Court Road, to Charing Cross were rejected by Parliament in 1864.
The line opened in 1868 with the Great Eastern Railway operating a service between Highgate Road and Fenchurch Street via Tottenham.
[4] With a very indirect route into central London at one end and no interchange at all at the other, the service was a commercial failure and the planned link to Gospel Oak was never completed.
7. c. cli) which gave the Great Eastern and Midland railways joint ownership of the line.