A look at London Bridge to commemorate Rail 200

Thursday 22nd May 2025

My friend Ray and I enjoyed another of Network Rail’s walking tours of London’s three main line termini serving the south coast last Thursday. This time we were at London Bridge and once again enjoyed the brilliant company of our guide Rachel Kolsky, who as mentioned in the write up on our tour of Victoria last week, brings the tour to life with her enthusiasm and passion for the social history of the railway and her extensive knowledge of the station’s development over the last 189 years.

It’s amazing what you learn on these tours. Despite passing through London Bridge many times a week and thinking I knew most of the station’s features, Rachel was able to get us to look up and around as the tour progressed both inside and on the surrounding streets and see aspects I’d previously passed by, oblivious to their existence.

For example right in front of my eyes, but I’d never noticed, are four panels on the wall along Stainer Street (now pedestrianised and, along with Joiner Street, pass through the station under the tracks) which explain the history of the station. It was opened on 14th December 1836 as the terminus of the London & Greenwich Railway, albeit the ‘station’ was essentially the end of the viaduct which carried the tracks all the way to Greenwich and initially there were no station buildings.

By the 1840s the joint interests of the London & Croydon Railway, the South Eastern Railway and the London & Brighton Railway had extended the footprint of the terminus to the south and a new ‘joint’ station was opened in 1844.

Rather like at Victoria, in those early years, London Bridge essentially was two stations – a ‘shed’ on the southern side of the site where London, Brighton & South Coast Railway trains terminated and the South Eastern Railway’s trains used the northern side with tracks continuing to Charing Cross, and later to Cannon Street too. These were later referred to as the Low Level and High Level stations respectively.

Following the huge transformation between 2013 and 2018 as part of the Thameslink 2000 project (suitably renamed Thameslink Programme when it inevitably ran late) the station was completely remodelled to provide nine through (high level) platforms and six terminating (low level) platforms whereas previously it had been the other way round. The huge benefit of this was Thameslink trains were given exclusive use of platforms 4 and 5 which meant a regular service could be provided throughout the day. Previously, due to capacity constraints, Thameslink’s peak hour trains used the longer route via Herne Hill, Elephant & Castle between East Croydon and Blackfriars, avoiding London Bridge altogether. It’s difficult to imagine that now when you see hundreds of commuters boarding and alighting peak hour Thameslink trains in London Bridge.

It’s difficult to remember how London Bridge looked before these major changes but Rachel helped to jog our memories as we walked around the station complex with the aid of photographs from those pre-transformational days reminding us of the carbuncle of a brown footbridge which linked the high level platforms and led down to platform 8 on the low level side, and which, in turn stood, outside the ‘shed’ opposite its giant northern side wall.

The transformation brought access to all 15 platforms from one new street level concourse, said to be the size of Wembley Stadium as well as fully opening up the western arcade with many retailers lining either side.

And that included one of the “Secrets of London Bridge” that I’d not noticed before how the old extreme western end of the arcade (which used to have access by escalator and stairs from the low level terminating platforms) has different adornments around the pillars so you ‘can see the join’ of the old and new.

Another ‘Secret’ was not previously spotting the ‘umbrella’ like sculptures on the roof of Stainer Street…

…or the giant ‘salt cellar’ like pillars holding up the high level platforms…

…and the way wooden slats adorn underneath the tracks in between the high level platforms which contrast with the grey coloured underneath side of the long escalators which take you up there.

As the western end of the Arcade is Joiner Street where passengers can access the Jubilee and Northern lines in the adjoining Underground station …

… and where at the northern end by the junction with Tooley Street…

… has a blue plaque…

… which commemorates the pioneers of the iron girder bridge erected in 1848 which now has Grade II listing…

… and can be clearly seen when looking upwards.

Heading along Tooley Street Rachel pointed out where a footbridge used to cross the road (previously giving access to an office building, now refurbished) but was taken down so none would notice during the 2021 lockdown…

… as well as where Southeastern once had an office building, now demolished, resulting in a pleasant open space…

… from where we walked under the tracks at the eastern end of the station along Bermondsey Street…

… and Rachel pointed out the London & Brighton South Coast Railway’s initials imprinted in the wall.

Other things to look up at included the now disused London Bridge signal box on the south side of the terminating lines with its brutal 1970s architecture but restricted access only from track side making alternative uses for Network Rail to earn a bob or two from rental income highly impractical.

Obviously looking upwards one can’t but help notice The Shard but, as Rachael pointed out, tall it may be, it’s only the same measurement as London Bridge station is lengthwise which can be appreciated from this photo below taken as we headed back on the south side of the station along St Thomas Street.

As we did so, Rachel took us along a couple of adjoining streets to appreciate the history of the surrounding area, particularly in Bermondsey where as well as the famous Leather Market there was the original social housing project – the Guinness Trust…

… as well as Arthur’s Mission building in Snowfields.

Back at the entrance/exit of the ‘low level’ terminating platforms Rachel pointed out a recent initiative to brighten up the grey street scape with ‘London Bridge in Bloom’.

This has seen Imelda Cox who works as a Customer Service Assistant at the station and has a talent for artistry “take the viewer out of the grey of London into a larger-than-life floral garden”.

Each pillar is adorned with a flower as you walk towards the station culminating in the complete garden.

Opposite this there’s a rather delightful mosaic mural alongside the bus station which presents a contrast with…

… how the area used to look before the transformation.

One other ‘Secret’ Rachel loves and enthusiastically points out on these tours is Network Rail’s system for identifying the location of all its infrastructure through attaching metal plates, which once you know are there, you can’t help but notice. They’re all coded and fascinatingly include the distance in miles and chains from the start of each railway line. So, below we see the very first plate in Stainer Street of ‘LBW’ (for line from London Bridge to Windmill Bridge Junction) and it’s at the start so shows 0 miles and 0 chains.

Apparently it’s expected these will be converted to metric measurements in the coming years so take a look now at this unique aspect of the railway.

I’ve only featured small fragments here of the two hour tour and once again it comes highly recommended but, looking at the Network Rail website, it looks as though future tours are almost all booked out with just a smattering of spaces left (at the time of writing), so be quick if you’re interested.

The third tour in this series is of Waterloo and we’re booked on that in a couple of weeks.

Roger French

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