Britain’s Busiest Railway Stations No 4

Tuesday 13th August 2024

We’re up to number 4 in this Pick of the Pops style countdown of Britain’s busiest railway stations and after looking at Victoria in fifth place last month with its 45,563,972 passengers, just ahead of it in fourth place is fellow Brighton Line companion, London Bridge, boasting a couple of million more at 47,657,264 passenger journeys in 2022/23 with East Croydon the most popular linked destination taking 3,230,650 of those passengers.

Like Victoria, London Bridge sees both Southern and Southeastern trains but in 2018 when ‘Thameslink 2000′ finally became a reality, and the station having been completely rebuilt so it could handle the greatly expanded cross-London network, more destinations were added including Cambridge, Peterborough, Horsham and Rainham, as well as East Grinstead in the peaks, supplementing the longer standing Bedford and Brighton.

That huge rebuild which began in 2013 for the 2018 Thameslink revolution saw the ratio of through platforms to terminating ones change from 6 through and 9 terminating to 9 through and 6 terminating and the opening up of a new large area underneath the through platforms to create new entrances and exits and a ground level concourse area for passengers. The station is unrecognisable from those pre 2013 days.

I found these photographs taken 10 years ago in 2014 during a visit to the Shard which towers over the station. These show the additional viaduct installed over Borough Market so the tracks to and from Charing Cross, which Thameslink trains had previously shared, could be split off and both lines given exclusivity. Tracks to Cannon Street can be seen diverting off to the top right across the River.

It’s quite incredible to see the engineering feat that was installing the viaduct within inches of existing buildings, and reflecting now, it’s almost unbelievable that at that time Thameslink Brighton/Bedford trains not only had to fit into the gaps between Southeastern’s frequent services between Bermondsey and Metropolitan Junction west of London Bridge, but on the tracks leading towards Blackfriars had to negotiate a section of single line working on a short section of bi-directional track. No wonder Thameslink suffered from unreliability.

The photograph below, looking south towards Bermondsey, shows work underway to reconstruct the terminating platforms. The first three on the far right, then numbered 16, 15 and 14 (now numbered 15, 14 and 13) are already done although new 13 has yet to get its tracks while the next island platform (for 13 and 12 – now numbered 12 and 11) has been completely demolished.

Old numbered platforms 11, 10 and 9 look as though they’re still in use with the old short section of light coloured grey covered roof, and similarly platform 8 (there was no platform numbered 7 at that time) which was sited to the left of the terminating platforms and separated by a large wall, as can be seen below.

You can also see the old footbridge which spanned across the six through platforms offering passengers the opportunity to interchange with the terminating platforms where there were steps down on to the terminating platforms.

On the old through platforms there was a track running alongside the west of platform 6 as can be seen in the photographs above (looking south) and below (north) – you can also see the footbridge in the background in the above photo. This space was partly used to expand the area for the additional through platforms.

One of the huge benefits of the rebuild was giving Thameslink trains their own island platform (new platforms 4 and 5) as well as exclusive tracks for the ten trains an hour (with additions to East Grinstead in the peaks) although a late decision to include Rainham in the network meant the objective of eliminating crossovers between Thameslink and Southeastern tracks wasn’t met as that half hourly service has to make that manoeuvre in both directions.

The 15 platforms are now numbered consecutively from 1 to 15.

Platforms 1, 2 and 3 are used by Southeastern trains to and from Cannon Street with platform 1 for south bound trains to Slade Green and the Dartford loop as well as Orpington with platforms 2 and 3 for trains to Cannon Street.

Platforms 6 and 7 are for southbound trains from Charing Cross to Dartford, Gravesend, Hayes, Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells, Hastings, Maidstone East, Ramsgate and Dover Priory with platforms 8 and 9 for trains to Charing Cross.

On occasions when Charing Cross bound trains are running late they can be terminated at London Bridge and use platform 8 to pause before returning south again.

Those are the through platforms with the six terminating platforms (10-15) used by 11 Southern trains an hour.

There are half hourly services to and from East Croydon via Norbury, Victoria via Crystal Palace, Beckenham Junction via Crystal Palace, Caterham and Epsom and the hourly service to and from Uckfield which unusually brings diesel trains into a London terminus station south of the River (along with Exeter trains into Waterloo).

The area between the buffers and the ticket gates for the terminating platforms is uncharacteristically huge, especially as six platforms for the 11 trains per hour is also quite generous, although these platforms do sometimes get used when engineering works prevent through trains from continuing beyond those platforms.

There’s an equally large concourse area on the other side of the barriers including an information window and six ticket machines…

… with a large display showing the next train to destinations and platform number in alphabetical order.

Network Rail have also been very generous with seating provision in this area…

… epecially by the escalator, stairs and lift down to the concourse below.

Prior to the rebuild passengers could access the Underground (Jubilee and Northern lines) from a narrow staircase and escalator in the corner which led down to the undercroft and a passageway through small retail outlets to the entrance to the Underground station. Here’s another photo taken in 2014 showing the rebuilding work taking place but the escalator down can be seen bottom left.

Passengers arriving on a terminating train wanting a bus from the bus station or the Underground can leave by the main entrance….

… and use the escalator at the bottom of the building straight ahead (called the Shard Quarter) or they can follow the old route signed on the new tracks that were installed…

… which takes you to a rather uninviting staircase under the original tracks…

… and where it’s interesting to reflect once again on the engineering achievement of installing those additional tracks, making for quite a contrast.

Just beyond the stairs down to the Underground, is what used to be a very popular walkway. London Bridge Walk, in the days of having nine busy terminating platforms…

… which enabled passengers to cross Tooley Street on a footbridge and access London Bridge itself.

The passageway is now much more deserted with more trains using the through platforms. Oddly, despite the sign indicating it’s the way to River Boats, another passageway leads to a dead end…

… but it has reminders of where stairs and escalators from the through platforms above once came out.

Back on the route outside this passageway you’ll find London Bridge’s Left Luggage office…

… as well as a throw back to the past – a Thameslink Programme and NRP Site Office which is still occupied (I didn’t ask if they person working at a computer inside the open door realises the rebuilding work is now complete!).

I headed back through the main entrance…

… and took the escalator down to the much busier lower concourse…

… below the through platforms as well as where there’s access to mid way along the terminating platforms on the other side of the seven sets of barriers.

Entrances/exits on the north side of this area to Tooley Street…

… and St Thomas Street on the south side for Guys Hospital.

There’s a public right of way through this area (on its west side) called Stainer Street, but the northern end is currently closed off…

… to allow for the much welcome installation of more toilets…

… with the original set completely inadequate for the numbers of passengers using the station.

The florist is still trading alongside these works…

… as is the organ still available for anyone wanting to give it a play.

The current toilets are located in the undercroft leading to the Underground station, which was carved out and refurbished as part of the rebuild making for a huge improvement on what went before (which was just a short narrow strip at the far end which you joined from the terminating platforms). The retailers along here are an eclectic mix with some coming and going maybe reflecting high rentals?

Back in the concourse area on the outside of the barriers you’ll find the ticket office as well as other retail units and those seven sets of barriers.

Through the barriers there’s a small information point and more retail units…

…as well as departure boards in both alphabetical order…

…and time order.

As befits the fourth busiest railway station in Britain a lot of passengers pass through every hour and the escalators and stairs leading to and from each platform can certainly get busy when a train empties out.

Stand on platforms 8 and 9 and there are 21 off-peak trains an hour to Waterloo East and Charing Cross with 10 off-peak trains an hour from platforms 2 and 3 to Cannon Street. The Thameslink platforms see 16 trains an off-peak hour taking both directions together.

London Bridge uniquely provides direct connections with seven other main line London termini including, in addition to Charing Cross and Canon Street, …. Blackfriars, Kings Cross/St Pancras, Waterloo (via Waterloo East) and Victoria (albeit via Crystal Palace and taking nearly an hour).

At one time, the bus station outside the main exit would also see crowds of passengers qiueuing to continue their journey into the city by bus. Now, that no longer seems to be the case in such numbers with TfL cutting both the number of routes and frequencies of those that remain. Here’s a reminder of what the scene looked like 10 years ago.

Where have all those passengers gone?

And finally a couple more images showing the remarkable feat of engineering to install those extra tracks taken from the adjacent Borough Market.

Quite incredible. how they were slotted into place.

Roger French

Previous blogs in this Britain’s Busiest Railway Stations series: No 10 Euston; No 9 Farringdon; No 8 St Pancras International; No 7 Tottenham Court Road; No 6 Stratford; No 5 Victoria.

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