Waterloo station
|
A 1948 poster showing the main concourse. |
Waterloo is a major
railway station and transport interchange complex in the
London Borough of Lambeth.
It is located in the Waterloo district of London and named after the
Battle of Waterloo in which
Napoleon was defeated near
Brussels. Somewhat ironically, it is now London's gateway for train passengers from
France and
Belgium. (In
1998, French politician
Florent Longuepée wrote to
British Prime Minister Tony Blair demanding unsuccessfully that the station be renamed on the grounds that the name is insensitive to French visitors.)
The complex comprises four linked railway stations and a bus station. The whole complex is within
Travelcard Zone 1. Waterloo is one of three rail termini in London not to have either a direct connection, or a connection within easy walking distance, to the
Circle Line (the others are
London Bridge and
Marylebone).
The original mainline
Waterloo Station was opened on
11 July 1848 by the
London and South Western Railway (L&SWR). It was first laid out as a through station with the original (unrealised) intention of running mainline trains to the
City. The station became increasingly ramshackle and cluttered as the
19th century went on, until the decision was taken to tear the whole thing down and begin again. Construction began on the new station in
1900 and continued until
1922, with the new station boasting 21 platforms and a concourse nearly 800 feet (244 m) long. However, it was badly damaged during
World War II and required considerable reconstruction thereafter.
Following the
privatisation of British Rail in the
1990s, ownership and management of Waterloo was transferred to
Railtrack, and subsequently to
Network Rail. Trains run to the south-west of England and are mostly operated by
South West Trains.
The station is linked to the
South Bank by an elevated walkway. It was once possible to walk directly by elevated walkways and footbridges all the way from the concourse of Waterloo to that of
Charing Cross railway station on the north side of the
River Thames, but the demolition of part of the Waterloo walkway and the reconstruction of the
Hungerford Footbridge means that that is no longer possible.
One now-vanished curiosity of Waterloo is that it was originally the terminus for London's daily funeral express to
Brookwood Cemetery. Funerary trains bearing coffins (at
2/6 each - singles, naturally) left from the '
Necropolis Station' just outside the main station. The Necropolis Station was almost completely destroyed during
World War II.
There is a large four faced clock hanging in the middle of the main concourse. Meeting "under the clock at Waterloo station" was a traditional rendezvous for people planning to travel together or arriving from separate locations.
Waterloo International station adjoins Waterloo mainline station and has its own two-level concourse and train shed. It is the current London terminus for
Eurostar trains to
Belgium and
France. The station is managed by
Eurostar.
It was built in the early
1990s at a cost of £130 million[
1] to a design by the architects
Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners. The station was widely praised for its architecture, and won a variety of awards on its opening in
1994. Its most impressive feature is a 400 m-long glass canopy consisting of 37 prismatic, three-pinned bowstring arches of varying spans, designed by Anthony Hunt Associates.
From
2007, when the
Channel Tunnel Rail Link is completed, Eurostar trains will terminate at
St Pancras station thus making Waterloo International redundant. It will then revert to the ownership of the
Department for Transport who will determine how it is to be used in the future.
Options being considered include converting it to offices and a shopping centre or converting it for use by
South West Trains for its long-distance services to Weymouth and other regional routes. This would, however, involve considerable remodelling and reconstruction of the rail approaches to the station, and while South West Trains supports in principle the use of the terminal for its own services after Eurostar has left it, the costs associated with this option are a significant deterrent. However, at the present time, Government proposals do indicate a willingness to convert these platforms.
Waterloo East station is connected to the main station by a footbridge across Waterloo Road. It was opened as
Waterloo Junction in January
1869 by the
South Eastern Railway (later the
Southern Railway) and was renamed
Waterloo Eastern in July
1935; it was given its present name in May
1977. It is a stop on the main line from
Charing Cross through
London Bridge to
Kent. In a departure from normal practice, the platforms at Waterloo East are identified by letters rather than numbers, so that passengers and staff do not confuse them with those of the main station.
There is no longer a ticket office at Waterloo East station. Passengers who are not able to use the ticket machines are required to purchase their tickets from the mainline station ticket office. Waterloo East is managed by franchise holder
Southeastern.
Waterloo East also has a connection to
Southwark station on the
London Underground Jubilee Line, opened in November
1999.
Originally Waterloo East had a rail connection to the main station, which crossed the concourse of that station. This saw little service in real life, although
H.G. Wells's
The War of the Worlds contains a passage describing its use to convey troop trains en-route to the Martian landing site. The rail connection has long since been removed, but the remnants can still be seen from the link footbridge.
Waterloo tube station is a
London Underground station. It is on the
Bakerloo Line between
Lambeth North and
Embankment, the
Jubilee Line between
Westminster and
Southwark, the
Northern Line between
Kennington and
Embankment, and the
Waterloo & City Line leading to
Bank. The
Waterloo & City Line is, however, temporarily closed for major refurbishment; it is expected to reopen in September 2006.
The first underground station at Waterloo was opened on
8 August 1898 by the
Waterloo & City Railway (W&CR) a subsidiary of the
L&SWR. By doing so the W&CR, nicknamed "the Drain", achieved in a limited way the L&SWR's original plan of taking its tracks the short distance north-east into the
City. The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (BS&WR, now the Bakerloo Line) started serving Waterloo on
10 March 1906. On
13 September 1926, the extension of the Hampstead and Highgate Line (as the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line was then known) was opened from Embankment to the existing
City & South London Railway station Kennington with a new station at Waterloo.
The Jubilee Line station opened on
20 November 1999 as part of the
Jubilee Line Extension project. The Jubilee platforms are at the opposite end of the site from those of the Bakerloo and Northern lines, but the two ends are connected by a 140
m (460
ft)
moving walkway link - one of only two on the Underground. (The other is at the
Waterloo & City Line at
Bank.)
Waterloo station and the Waterloo Underground station are the setting for the classic
Kinks song '
Waterloo Sunset'.
|
The Jubilee side of Waterloo Underground Station |
*
Station information for Waterloo station from
Network Rail*
Train times and
station information for Waterloo station from
National Rail (Station code: WAT)
*
Train times and
station information for Waterloo East from
National Rail (Station code: WAE)
*London's Transport Museum Photographic Archive
*
*
*
*
Webcam Broadcasting live images of Waterloo station's trains, 24 hours a day
*
Waterloo Station Central Telephone Enquiry Bureau (CTEB) History
