London Victoria

The ''London Brighton & South Coast Railway'' (LB&SCR) was formed in 1846 by an amalgamation of two previously independent concerns: the ''London & Brighton Railway'' (L&BR) and the ''London & Croydon Railway'' (L&CR). The L&CR and L&BR had access to London from 1839 and 1841 respectively by the terminus of London Bridge, situated south of the Thames. The LB&SCR's (the resultant of the amalgamation of these two companies in 1846) main goal was to gain rail access north of the Thames to the West End area of London and in its endeavour, absorbed another independent company - the ''West End of London & Crystal Palace Railway'' (WEL&CPR) - which had built a network of lines between Crystal Palace and Battersea, although had not extended them north of the Thames. Despite this, another self-governing concern, the ''Victoria Station & Pimlico Railway Company'', had constructed a line from the West End of London and crossed the Thames to meet the existing network at Battersea. The LB&SCR now had a connection to London's West End with a ready-built terminus station, and services commenced for the company on 1st October 1860.

Another company, the ''East Kent Railway'', was also striving to reach London. The concern had been established on 4th August 1853 by an Act of Parliament which originally outlined the linking of Canterbury with the North Kent Line at Strood, via Faversham, thus giving a through route to London. The East Kent's first operational railway was between Faversham and Chatham, which opened to traffic on 25th January 1858. The town of Faversham was the main driving force behind the East Kent Railway, annoyance and concern having been caused due to the South Eastern Railway's decision not to perpetuate its North Kent Line east of the Medway, with the added fact that the main trunk route to Dover avoided the North East of the county by its Weald of Kent route. By 29th March 1858, the East Kent had successfully extended to Strood, where the company was given running powers into the SER's station. Previously, in 1855, the East Kent was granted Parliamentary permission to modify original plans and extend its line beyond Canterbury, to Dover, this of which the SER mistakenly allowed without opposition, the latter thinking that the East Kent's bankruptcy was inevitable. Subsequently, in 1856, the East Kent applied for running powers over the SER's North Kent Line, which would eventually give access to Victoria (via the aforementioned independent WEL&CPR), but the SER countered this application by stating that the North Kent Line was already running at full capacity. This later proved to be a disadvantage for the SER as the East Kent was granted permission to construct its own route to London, reaching its first milestone of Bromely (then Shortlands) in July 1858. Progress continued and on 3rd December 1860 the London Chatham & Dover Railway, renamed from the East Kent in 1859, reached Victoria by means of joining the WEL&CPR's lines. The latter had been absorbed by the LB&SCR, thus for much of the approach to Victoria the LC&DR was running over foreign metals. Independent access to the West End was deemed a must and some three miles west of Bromley South, where the WEL&CPR's lines began, the LC&DR proposed a much less circuitous route to the terminus, via Herne Hill. This more direct route was fully commissioned for operation on 1st July 1863, which allowed the LC&DR to avoid the track access costs of the LB&SCR, whilst also achieving reduced journey times. This included running into a new terminus built immediately adjacent to the LB&SCR establishment by the Victoria Station & Pimlico Railway Company - it was joint leased by the LC&DR and Great Western Railway for 999 years from opening on 25th August 1862 (the LC&DR had previously been using temporary accommodation on the site). The lease agreement meant that these two companies could avoid paying usage tolls to the builder.

In fact the first GWR trains at Victoria actually appeared on 1st April 1863 by means of the ''West London Extension Railway'' from Southall, connecting with the terminus approach lines at Longhedge Junction in Battersea. These were the much wider Broad Gauge trains of 7 foot ¼ inch, thus mixed gauge track was installed in the ''Chatham'' side platform lines, the project funded by the GWR. This remained the situation for three years, after which the Broad Gauge lines were lifted and the GWR ran Standard Gauge 4 foot 8½ inch trains. In 1915 an internal remodelling of Paddington Station had been completed and a number of new platforms become available for suburban services. Such workings were subsequently transferred from Victoria to Paddington, where space was now available, compounded by the fact that the underground railway system had since expanded. By this year the GWR services from Victoria had extended beyond Southall, ranging from the termini at Windsor and Uxbridge, to as far as Reading and even Birmingham.

Now onto the station architecture. The design of the 1860 LB&SCR station was to the benefit of and in accordance to wealthy local landowners, whom wanted to conceal the railway's presence in the area as much as possible. As a result, a significant area of the approach lines north of Grosvenor bridge, up to and including the platforms, were covered by a basic ridge-and-furrow glazed roof supported on a two-storey high brick wall on the western side of the station, and wrought-iron columns to the east. The trainshed could be likened to that which later appeared at Charing Cross in 1906, although it covered a much larger area - each pitched span was also wider. The façade buildings were nothing special either, being a mixture of low pitched roof wooden structures, augmented only by a four-span canopy used by waiting horses and carriages. However, the ''Brighton'' station did have one redeeming feature: the Grosvenor Hotel. Eight storeys high, two of which constituted the attic, the building was actually inspired by an independent company and opened a year later than the adjacent station, in 1861. The later ''Chatham'' station of 1862, however, was generally a more impressive affair as far as the trainshed was concerned, designed by the Victoria Station & Pimlico Railway's Consultant Engineer, Sir John Fowler. It consisted of two large curved spans, both irregular in length and width: the western span was built with dimensions of 127 foot by 425 foot, but its adjacent counterpart comprised of a greater width at 129 foot, but a shorter length at 355 foot. The façade buildings were not so impressive, being structures which could quite possibly have inspired the rival SER's economical clapboard stations, but at least those parallel with the eastern trainshed span were brick-built and stylish.

Grosvenor Road Approaches

Track layout of the Grosvenor Road approaches to London Victoria in 2004, including carriage shed and berthing sidings.

Click the above for a full size version. Drawn by David Glasspool

We begin our look at Victoria Station from the south entrance lines at Grosvenor Road, during

February 2004, in the midst of the winter morning sunshine. The skyline is dominated by the now

defunct Battersea Power Station, as the ten parallel tracks snake their way up the steep gradient

from the station. To the left of the running lines is the EMU shed, which was originally a standard

carriage shed until its electrification in 1961. The gradient is no problem for today's electric stock,

but did pose a few problems for the toiling steam locomotives. It was not until 1938 that the tracks

of the ''Chatham'' and ''Brighton'' sides were physically connected. David Glasspool

4 Cig No. 1404 is seen being led out of the terminus towards Grosvenor Railway Bridge by a 4 Vep

on 22nd October 2004. The first batch of 4 Big / Cig units built at York were delivered for use on

the main line to Brighton from 1964 onwards, where they replaced pre-nationalisation stock.  

David Glasspool

The entrance lines to the ''Chatham'' side are seen on 22nd October 2004, looking towards the

terminus. The twin-span overall roof can just be picked out above the bridge. The glazed structure

on the left was virtually complete over the platforms between Elizabeth and Ecclestone Bridges by

1991. David Glasspool

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