Spa Road railway station
Spa Road | |
---|---|
Location | Bermondsey |
Local authority | London Borough of Southwark |
Owner | London and Greenwich Railway |
Number of platforms | 2 |
Key dates | |
1836 | Opened |
1838 | Closed |
1842 | Rebuilt & reopened |
1845 | Rebuilt again |
1867 | Relocated |
1877 | Renamed Spa Road & Bermondsey |
1915 | Closed to passengers |
1925 | Closed to railway staff |
Replaced by | None |
Other information | |
Coordinates | 51°29′44″N 0°04′02″W / 51.4956°N 0.0671°W |
London transport portal |
Spa Road railway station in Bermondsey, south-east London, was the original terminus of the capital's first railway, the London and Greenwich Railway (L&GR). It was located on and takes its name from Spa Road.
It was also the first railway terminus in what is now Greater London. First opened in 1836, the station went through several changes of ownership, was rebuilt several times, changed its name and was relocated a couple of hundred yards away from its original site before it closed in 1915 due to cost-saving measures during the
History
First station (1836–1838)
In 1833 an Act of Parliament granted the L&GR the rights to build a 4-mile-long (6.4 km) viaduct from the south end of London Bridge to Greenwich and to run trains along it. However, the line was partially opened to the public well before its full length had been completed in order to maximise revenue income as soon as possible. Other companies were in the process of building their own railway lines and the L&GR wished to gain the commercial advantage of being the first to open for business. Another consideration was the company's stock price, which stood high at the end of 1835 but was at risk of falling if the line was not soon opened.
The board decided to open a 2.5-mile-long (4.0 km) stretch from Spa Road to Deptford, which served the district of Deptford. The first train left Deptford railway station for Spa Road at 8 am on 8 February 1836.[1] Trains ran hourly on the half-hour from Spa Road, from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, with a fare to Deptford costing 6d. There were no services after dark, as there were no signals on the line and it was not illuminated.[2]
Spa Road station was within the
Perhaps not surprisingly given the station's physical limitations, only a month after it was opened there was a fatal accident when passenger Daniel Holmes was run over by a train. The other passengers had been waiting with others on the track when the Deptford train arrived. They climbed up on to the platform but Holmes remained on the track. The engine driver, Thomas Millender, was distracted by Holmes and collided with the waiting southbound train. A number of passengers who had already boarded the southbound train were injured and Holmes was killed instantly when Millender's runaway engine struck him. The duty policeman only just escaped also being struck and was dismissed for failing to warn the passengers in time. The accident was witnessed by George Walker, the L&GR's Resident Director, who subsequently wrote of the difficulties that his staff experienced in keeping people off the tracks.[6]
The L&GR opened the line between London Bridge and Spa Road on 14 December 1836.
Second station (1842–1867)
In 1840, the L&GR applied to Parliament for powers to widen the viaduct, which was so narrow that the carriages only had a clearance of about 20 inches (51 cm) between their sides and the parapet wall, and about 3 feet (0.91 m) clearance in the centre. There was no room for buildings of any description anywhere on the line. The company came under pressure to reopen Spa Road station, as competition from the railway had caused the demise of a horse-drawn coach service from Bermondsey to Deptford. It agreed to construct an improved station when the line was widened. This involved moving the access staircase to the north side of the viaduct, building a waiting and booking office room in the arches and constructing a shed over the line. A local contractor, Thomas Jackson, began work on the new station in June 1842 and it opened in September, with the work costing £450 (£33,000 at 2010 prices). The following February another life was lost at Spa Road when a man named Birmingham suffered a fatal injury in the station.[4]
The station was upgraded in August 1843 when signals were erected there, and in May 1844 the platforms were extended. The
For some years local children exploited the ticket stops at Spa Road. The ticket collections meant that up trains had to stand there for some considerable time, close to the parapet wall and perfectly visible from street level. One regular traveller, Alfred Rosling Bennett, later recalled,
Gangs of children made it a practice, especially on summer evenings, without any apparent hindrance from the police, to attend every train and, standing at the junction of Rouel Road with Frean Street, to shout in chorus with a sort of cadence, "Throw down your mouldy coppers!" ... The chorus was repeated incessantly until the train moved on, unless coppers, mouldy or otherwise, arrived and then there would be a glorious tussle of boys and girls in desperate strife for the prize. Coppers were often thrown; if one passenger started and so afforded others a specimen battle, another was almost certain to follow and he, very likely, would be joined by a third, all perhaps in different carriages. When a train resumed its journey [the children] would play about in the neighbourhood until the next drew up.[10]
Third station (1867–1915)
In 1867 the station was resited further along the viaduct about 200 yards (180 m) to the east, with an entrance accessed via what is now Priter Road. It was renamed as Spa Road & Bermondsey in October 1877[11] (though a photograph of about 1900 shows that it was still advertised as "Spa Road Station"). When the South Eastern and Chatham Railway was formed in 1899 from the South Eastern Railway and its bitter competitor, the London, Chatham and Dover Railway, the station was given another makeover. The current appearance of the station frontage dates from 1900.[12]
On 15 March 1915, the station was closed, along with Southwark Park and Deptford stations, as a wartime economy measure. Only Deptford was subsequently reopened.[13] Spa Road continued to be used by railwaymen until September 1925, when it ceased to be used by the railway.[12]
Closure
By the mid-1980s the old station had fallen into dereliction. It was left empty for many years, and the vacant land around it became a site for fly tipping of waste and rubbish. In 1986, British Rail, the Southwark Environment Trust and the London Borough of Southwark contributed £50,000 to the restoration the station frontage and installing two commemorative plaques. The station arches and the land in front of them were redeveloped into a light industrial estate behind a block of flats, accessed via Priter Road.[14]
Parts of the station still exist; platform remnants are visible from trains travelling between Deptford or
Spa Terminus
Monmouth Coffee Company, Neal's Yard Dairy and the property company Matching Green formed Spa Terminus Limited to take a lease on a stretch of railway arches around Spa Road station in Bermondsey to provide accommodation for food manufacturers and wholesalers.[16] Monmouth Coffee Company and Neal's Yard Dairy moved their headquarters into arches at Spa Terminus in 2018.[17]
References
- ISBN 0-7134-0468-X.
- ^ Thomas 1972, p. 51
- ^ "Spa Road Temporary Terminus, London & Greenwich Railway, 1836". Museum of London. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- ^ a b c Thomas 1972, p. 134
- ^ Thomas 1972, p. 133
- ^ Thomas 1972, pp. 53–54
- ^ Thomas 1972, p. 58
- ^ Thomas 1972, p. 135
- ^ a b Thomas 1972, p. 228
- ISBN 0-85177-046-0.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-905211-43-2.
- ^ ISBN 0-9476991-7-1.
- ^ Thomas 1972, p. 242
- ^ Southwark Environment Trust Newsletter. Southwark Environment Trust. Winter 1988–1989.
- ^ "Maps". binged.it. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
- ISBN 9781351016148.
- ^ Coghlan, Adam. "Pioneering London Coffee Company's Roastery Makes Way for New Restaurants". Eater London. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
External links
- Abandoned Stations - Spa Road Station
- Disused Stations - Spa Road and Bermondsey
- Transport Heritage - Spa Road Station
Preceding station | Historical railways | Following station | ||
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London Bridge
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South Eastern and Chatham Railway Greenwich line |
Southwark Park |