BLACKFRIARS STATION

'London Blackfriars station' is a London Underground and National Rail station in the City of London. It is located adjacent to Blackfriars Bridge at the junction of New Bridge Street and Queen Victoria Street and is in Travelcard Zone 1.

Contents

National Rail

Services

History

London Underground

History

Trivia

River

References

External links

National Rail

The National Rail station has both through and terminal platforms.

Services

The through platforms are served by First Capital Connect (formerly Thameslink) trains from Bedford and Luton in the north to Brighton in the south via London Bridge, and the south west London suburbs around Sutton via Elephant & Castle.
The terminal platforms are used by Southeastern services to Sevenoaks via Denmark Hill and Swanley and peak-only services via Herne Hill to Beckenham Junction and mainline services via Medway and Maidstone East/Ashford International.
Southeastern also run peak-hour services through Blackfriars to and from City Thameslink.

History

The mainline railway station was opened under the name 'St. Paul's' by the London Chatham and Dover Railway (LC&DR) on 10 May 1886 when the LC&DR opened the St. Pauls Railway Bridge across the River Thames.
The St. Paul's bridge was constructed to supplement the LC&DR's existing Blackfriars railway bridge which had been opened in 1864. This carried trains on the LC&DR's busy City Line from south London into the LC&DR's stations at Ludgate Hill, Holborn Viaduct and, via the Snow Hill tunnel and a connection to the Metropolitan Railway near Farringdon, on to King's Cross and St Pancras stations.
In advance of the opening of St Pauls station, an earlier LC&DR station on the south side of the river known as ''Blackfriars Bridge'' was closed to passenger traffic on 1 October 1885 and became a goods only station.
St. Paul's station was renamed to 'Blackfriars' on 1 February 1937. Gradually, the structure of the original Blackfriars railway bridge deteriorated until it was unsound. The bridge deck was removed in 1985 and only the piers in the river and the orange bridge abutments remain.
The station was rebuilt along with the Underground station in the mid 1970s and was formally reopened on 30 November 1977. A part of the stonework elevation from the 1886 LC&DR station has been preserved at platform level in the mainline station indicating the many destinations in the south-east of England and on the continent. The St Paul's Bridge is now known as the Blackfriars Railway Bridge.

London Underground

The London Underground station is on the Circle and District lines, between Temple and Mansion House. It pre-dates the mainline station by sixteen years.

History

The station was opened on 30 May 1870 by the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR; now the District and Circle lines) as the railway's new eastern terminus when the line was extended from Westminster. The construction of the new section of the MDR was planned in conjunction with the building of the Victoria Embankment and was achieved by the cut and cover method of roofing over a shallow trench.

The MDR connected to the Metropolitan Railway (MR, later the Metropolitan Line) at South Kensington and, although the two companies were rivals, each company operated its trains over the other's tracks in a joint service known as the ''"Inner Circle"''.
On 3 July 1871 the MDR was extended eastwards again to a new terminus at Mansion House.
On 1 February 1872, the MDR opened a northbound branch from its station at Earl's Court to connect to the West London Extension Joint Railway (WLEJR, now the West London Line) which it connected to at Addison Road (now Kensington (Olympia)). From that date the ''"Outer Circle"'' service began running over the MDR's tracks. The service was run by the North London Railway (NLR) from its terminus at 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 MDR to Mansion House.
From 1 August 1872, the ''"Middle Circle"'' service also began operations through the station running from Moorgate along the MR's tracks on the north side of the Inner Circle to Paddington then over the Hammersmith & City Railway (H&CR) track to Latimer Road then, via a now demolished link, to the West London Line to Addison Road and the MDR to Mansion House. The service was operated jointly by the H&CR and the MDR.
On 30 June 1900, the Middle Circle service was withdrawn between Earl's Court and Mansion House and on 31 December 1908, the Outer Circle service was withdrawn from the MDR tracks.
In 1949, the Metropolitan Line operated Inner Circle route was given its own identity on the tube map as the Circle Line.

Trivia

The Waterloo & City Line which runs between Waterloo and Bank stations runs almost directly under Blackfriars station and there have at times been tentative suggestions to construct an additional interchange station for the line at Blackfriars. The Department for Transport considers this to have "no significant transport benefit" Thameslink 2000 Inspector's Report 2006, section 17.2.7
The Cambridge Buskers started here.

River

The station is on the north bank of the River Thames, near Blackfriars Bridge, and is adjacent to London River Services' Blackfriars Pier. The platforms for the Thameslink rail services extend out on to Blackfriars Railway Bridge.

References

External links

★ London's Transport Museum Photographic Archive

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★ Disused stations - Blackfriars station

★ Blackfriars and the City Line