Victorian Stations: Railway Stations in England and Wales, 1836-1923

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Pause for thought there, on a Friday evening in 1874, someone’s great great great grandparents took the sleeper from London to Scotland. What a trip that must have been, rolling through the heart of Victorian Britain. Bradshaw and the Birth of the Train TimeTable Victoria Station, eastern side (the former London, Chatham and Dover Railway Station frontage), c. 1908-1910 Source 8: Letter to the Commissioner of Police from the Home Office at Whitehall about rewards for certain policemen who worked on the case, 6 th February, 1865 (Catalogue ref: MEPO 3/76) By 1859 Euston could connect trains to Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Perth. This was a limited mail service with a few coaches for passengers. 1873 the first sleeper coach was rolled out and ran from Euston to Glasgow, again on a limited mail train for 3 nights a week. This soon increased to every night by 1874. Sleeper Train 1874

Following the war, memorials were built on both parts of the station. The Southern Railway side marks 626 soldiers killed or missing, while the Chatham side marks 556. [47] A plaque marks the arrival of the body of The Unknown Warrior at Victoria on 10 November 1920. [48] Given that all these services existed in the late Victorian era, why did many of them not survive into the modern era? The reason was increasing competition from other modes of transport. Trams had existed since 1880, but from 1901 they were electrified, which made them easier to use than the train on many urban routes. Tram usage doubled in the decade to 1911. The following lines are either closed to regular passenger services, freight only, part of tourist and heritage railways, or closed and removed. [1] Police close case of rail worker's Covid-19 death after spitting incident". The Guardian. London. 29 May 2020 . Retrieved 5 June 2020. Victoria became well known for its Pullman services during the late 19th century. The LB&SCR introduced the first Pullman first-class service to Brighton on 1 November 1875, followed by the first all-Pullman train in the UK on 1 December 1881. [37] Another all-Pullman service was introduced in 1908 under the name of the Southern Belle, then described as "... the most luxurious train in the world...". [38] The SECR began Pullman continental services on 21 April 1910 and on domestic services to the Kent coast on 16 June 1919. The Golden Arrow, another all-Pullman train began services in 1924, and remained in service until 30 September 1972. [14] The London Chatham and Dover Station as rebuilt by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway.The Harold Pinter short play Victoria Station has the station as the intended destination that the driver never reaches. [152] See also [ edit ] Colonel Landman had the idea of using the space beneath the arches of the grand railway bridges for commercial purposes, such as renting out as workshops or shops. The idea survives today from a Porsche garage to a boxing gym can all be found under the arches towards London Bridge. The Victorians often developed these common sense solutions. Bud Flanagan wrote the well-known song “Underneath the Arches”, a song referring to the railway arches giving shelter to homeless men during the Depression of the 1930s. London and Croydon Railway (L&CR)

Historic England. "Victoria Railway Station – The Former London, Chatham and Dover Railway Station including Train Shed (1266689)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 20 August 2017. Meeks, Carol L. V. The Victorian Railroad Station: An Architectural History. New Haven: Yale UP, 1956. Frequent services operate to Ballarat, with some trains continuing to Ararat. Some services also run to Maryborough as shuttle services from Ballarat. Gang murdered boy during rush hour at Victoria station". BBC News. 24 April 2013 . Retrieved 18 July 2018. The introduction of the train timetable revolutionized travel in the 19th century. For the first time, travelers could plan their journeys in advance, knowing exactly when their train would depart and arrive. This made travel more convenient and reliable and helped to boost the popularity of the railways. In addition, the timetable also allowed railway companies to coordinate their services more efficiently, leading to a more streamlined and cost-effective operation.All of this made Liverpool Street the busiest station in the capital by 1900, a crown it held until 1925. (Today Waterloo is the busiest, followed by Victoria). Incidentally the station originally had its own direct connection to the Metropolitan Line which is why its platforms were built below ground level. This proved a mistake, as the through line was rarely used and was removed in 1907. Meanwhile in steam days trains had big trouble pulling up the gradient to Bethnal Green. V/Line is the operator of regional rail services in the Australian state of Victoria. [1] The stations are located on 13 passenger train lines, which all operate from Southern Cross station in Melbourne. From mid-1993 to 31 August 2004, the Warrnambool service was operated by the now-defunct West Coast Railway.

On 1 February 1872, the DR opened a northward branch from Earl's Court to the West London Extension Joint Railway (WLEJR, now the West London Line) at Addison Road (now Kensington (Olympia)). [114] From that date the " Outer Circle" service began running over the DR. [115] The service was run by the North London Railway (NLR) from Broad Street (now demolished) in the City of London via the North London Line to Willesden Junction, then the West London Line to Addison Road and the DR to Mansion House, the new eastern terminus of the DR. [116] The merger of the LNWR and L&YR was not without controversy, as there were concerns about the dominance of the LMS in the railway industry and the potential loss of jobs. However, the LMS went on to become a highly successful and profitable company, operating until nationalization in 1948. Today, many of the former LNWR and L&YR stations and buildings are still standing, and the legacy of these pioneering railway companies can be seen throughout the UK. Euston Station The designer of Brunel’s locomotives was Daniel Gooch (1816-89), who is, for many, the greatest locomotive designer of the century. Then there were Brunel’s ships — the SS Great Western (1837), the SS Great Britain (1843) — the first screw propelled ship to cross the Atlantic — and the Great Eastern, it had a length of just over 207 metres and a breadth of just over 25 metres. The Great Eastern could reach a speed of almost 20 miles an hour. Here is Brunel writing to Matthew Digby Wyatt on Paddington — months before the completion of Paxton’s Crystal Palace , which housed the Great Exhibition of 1851. Standard Tube Map (PDF) (Map). Not to scale. Transport for London. November 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 November 2022 . Retrieved 12 November 2022.This was not the only time that the District Line had missed out on a proposed extension. In 1881 it had applied to build a line from Putney Bridge to Guildford via Cobham. This was opposed by the LSWR, which instead agreed to let the District Line run trains to Wimbledon, operating the rest of the Guildford line (which opened in 1885) itself. All in all the Victorians would probably find plenty of familiar features in the railway network in London today, and be pleased to see that trains still play a vital role in moving people around the city. Several developments to the north of London are also worth mentioning. The Great Northern Railway out of Kings Cross slowly added suburban stations on its main line, but also took over a spur that had been built by an independent company from Finsbury Park up to Highgate, Finchley (now Finchley Central) and Edgware. That line opened in 1867, and branches followed from Finchley to High Barnet in 1872 and from Highgate to Alexandra Palace in 1873, the latter to coincide with that building's opening. (This Alexandra Palace station was immediately behind the palace complex and should not be confused with the current station of that name: see below.)

The Ballarat - Ararat section of the line was closed from 1994 until 10 July 2004, when it was reopened for a twice-daily service as part of the Linking Victoria Project. Services now run 5 times per day. Victoria Coach Station is about 300metres south-west of the railway stations. It is the main London coach terminal and serves all parts of the UK and mainland Europe. [10] The London and North-western Railway (LNWR) was one of the largest and most powerful railway companies in Britain, operating from 1846 to 1923. It was formed by the merger of the London and Birmingham Railway, Grand Junction Railway, and Manchester and Birmingham Railway. The LNWR network covered a vast area, connecting London with Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow, and many other major cities. The company was known for its innovation and engineering excellence, building some of the most impressive railway stations and bridges of the Victorian era. In August 1980 the station was closed completely while work commenced in readiness for the introduction of the new Metro system in 1982.

Following growth in passenger numbers in the 2000s, Victoria Underground station became one of the busiest on the Underground, with around 80 million passengers a year. [109] [132] At rush hour, more than 30,000 passengers entered the station between 8 and 9am, and entrances to the station were frequently closed due to dangerous levels of overcrowding at platform level. [109] The other sources included in this lesson relating to the investigation of the first railway murder in 1864 represent the tip of an iceberg. They come from two police folders on the case which contain a vast collection of hand written witness statements made in police stations all over London including Clapham Junction, Kennington and Tottenham for example, letters to the police advising them about their investigation, and how to improve rail safety, newspaper clippings collected by the police commenting on the investigation and court proceedings and so on. The busiest British station. The first London and South Western Railway’s London terminus was at Nine Elms and opened on 21st May 1838. It was a modest neo-classical structure designed by Sir William Tite (1798-1873). It was his first station. He had no inhibitions about style and Gilbert Scott admired some of his bold vernacular stations in the North. Steam riverboats took passengers from Nine Elms to London Bridge and other points on the North bank of the Thames. This arrangement caused fairly considerable inconvenience to passengers. Waterloo Station was opened in 1848 — with two train sheds of 100 feet (30.48 meter) spans. The LSWR’s traffic passenger traffic increased exponentially as Waterloo served Portsmouth — and latterly Devonport (1876) — the great naval bases as well as Aldershot, the principal army base. There was also the huge increase in commuter traffic from Kingston, Surbiton and Richmond. By 1892, Waterloo was handling 50000 passengers a day. The LSWR had, incidentally, extended its services to Exeter in 1860 and, by 1899, Padstow in Cornwall.