Railway Station Spotting
Posted: 09 Nov 2025, 10:25
One problem OGFB image hosting is it does downsize sizes , and my mobile seems to do more pixels per inch than is really necessary particulary when the lens is dirty or its out of focus
Meanwhile a little thought about what would become the London Terminus of the London and South Western Railway (started as London and Southampton) Nine Elms, a little to the east (walkable from this location going past Lambeth Palace along the Later Albert Embankment by the Thames) was a passenger terminus and later freight yard and locomotive shed and works, Replaced by Vauxhall (near site of the Iron Foundry that became Vauxhall Cars before they moved to Luton) and extended to a small terminus at Waterloo Bridge , eventually giving its name to the Lower and Upper Marsh areas of Lambeth. Arriving on a viaduct the station standing above its surroundings currently has the taxi / carriage road canopy on the left of the photo being refurbished. Not content as the site was east of the city of London . the second tube line in London was built -The Waterloo and City Line arriving a little close to the Bank of England near the Mansion House- the site of Yesterday's Lady Mayor's Show.
Expansion into the city was also achieved clumsily with the red painted bridge taking two lines across the road to the line of the London Chatham and Dover Railway at Waterloo East Station - allowing connections either to south east London and Kent via London Bridge or an upsweep to Cannon Street via what was a Blackfriars Road Station (the route today is little used but I did try it once from Charing Cross when other station routes were closed for engineering but lost the photos I took then). This connection was awkward as time progressed interfearing with the passenger concourse as the station was extended northwards to incorporate the Windsor and Richmond Lines ( and further north would come the Eurostar Terminal now incorporated into more platforms for South Western Railways use -a bit of a walk as the far north exit to Shell Building area is currently demolished for new build) and causing problems to the more frequent Charing Cross Services to London Bridge and Beyond.
A sort of rainy day in London Town rather than a Waterloo Sunset
The street level entrance on the left has the London Transport "Tube Blue" (pedantly shade appears to have changed in more recent years in some locations) Welcome To Waterloo Station (actually its National Rail blue with a white logo top right of the normally orange when on white "national rail" logo. The jutting out lightbox of Underground Roundel atop the BR Station Totem (Arrows of Indecision) and a mix of big belly bins no the pavements and anti vehicle mounting bollards (installed really since the Westminster Bridge incident of a few years ago around London - and elsewhere? I cannot work out what the banners on the lampposts are exhorting , or advertising. There is also a wayfinding map of the local and nearby area of a style all the London Boroughs are suggested to use, I find some have inaccuracies so I wonder what their source information is. Pavements in some places have been built out into former carriage way and our left hand kerb line has the alternating cast concrete kerbstones finished in black, or white for visibility , equal length ones I recall in towns in the 1960s but here the black is a bit shorter.
Should you wish to avail yourself to the Welcome of Waterloo Station the ground floor leads to the joys of such eateries as McDonalds and a couple whose names I forget, and the ticket hall and barriers to the Jubilee Line of the underground that once down via an accessible lift or escalators galore can take you to the north locations of Westminster - for Parliament , to the Metroland of Stanmore, Middlesex or the eastern delights of Southwark , London Bridge , North Greenwich (for the Dome /O2 arena), Canary Wharf or West Ham/Stratford. Alternatively head up a different , but still accessible lift , or escalators to the mainline station concourse of what for many years was the busiest passenger numbers train station in the UK. Covid, changes in working practices and the rise of Canary Wharf as a business district have split the mass migration of desks of banking and financial services from the City to the East End yet the 1645 train to Working will be still full and heaving even with 10 long length carriages and omitting a pick up at Clapham Junction
The "Borismaster" Wright of Northern Ireland built bus carriers one of the booked range of LTZ prefix registration numbers that are allowed to be used elsewhere in the United Kingdom and its Vynal wrap for fashion store DKNY is spoiled , like other wraps, but the London Transport red surrounding the number plate. The modern size London Transport roundel is carried on the bus , but the modern hi intensity LED front light bulbs can be a bit blinding , a bus in normal livery follows behind.
The right hand pavement build out either has no , or a non functioning french drain or similar as the heavy drizzle makes its puddles amidst the chained bicycles claiming their stand space or snuggling to another bollard of convienence. A pair of standard pointy top little bins share normal pavement space with more bike stands a very not BT Telephone Call Kiosk and a late BT Style communications point (I think it has wifi access and maybe a payphone in a semi sheltered space. A beats or similar headphone wearing pedestrian drinks the obligatory Cafe Nero Coffee on foot that seem to sum up London . Despite the lack of footspace given the footfall of the area it still seems to feel a more open area compared even to the mainline terminals of Manchester. The street scene is often criticised for not being "like it was in the past" / stranger in my own city , yet to me this is Urban London with a wild mix of cultures yet there is "integration"- just depends where one goes as yards away at any compass point are such joys as the Old Vic Theatre.
I dont think I commented on the other overbridges are the Grey one - covered as its a pedestrian walkway , for many years painted in a green that was a shade of Army camouflage and the blue iron lattice one behind joins some brick viaducts forming the trackbed of four lines of the South Eastern railway from Waterloo East station to Charing Cross taking the Hungerford Bridge over the Thames - with its pair of side mounted walkways allowing pedestrians to brave an often windy crossing as a short cut to Trafalgar Square .
