Kensington (Olympia) Station - History

History

A station was opened by the West London Railway as its southern terminus on 27 May 1844 as "Kensington", located just south of Hammersmith Road; it closed at the end of November 1844 due to the losses made. Although a scant and erratic goods service ran, the line re-opened to passengers with a new station called "Addison Road" on 2 June 1862, located to the north of Hammersmith Road. Metropolitan Railway trains started serving the station in 1864, via a link to Latimer Road, with District Railway trains arriving in 1872. This enabled the so-called "Middle Circle" service to operate via Paddington to the north and South Kensington to the south. From 1869, the L&SWR operated trains from Richmond to London Waterloo via Addison Road, until their branch via Shepherd's Bush closed in 1916.

In 1940, Addison Road, as well as the link to the Metropolitan line at Latimer Road, closed along with the other West London Line stations, but in 1946 it was renamed "Kensington (Olympia)" and became the northern terminus of a peak-hour shuttle service to Clapham Junction, which was mainly for the benefit of the workers of the Post Office Savings Bank (later National Savings Bank), situated in nearby Blythe Road. There was also a District line shuttle to Earl's Court. The current District Line bay platform opened in 1958, but the previous (1872) connection between the District and the main line south of the station was not finally lifted until 1992.

For many years the passenger service was only a few peak-hour main-line trains to and from Clapham Junction, with Underground trains only during exhibition times. The West London Line has always been a main freight route from north of London to the south-east of England.

Between 1979 and 2008 the Clapham Junction service was supplemented by a Cross Country route from Brighton to Birmingham New Street extending to Derby, Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Central, Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Piccadilly. Cross Country services also called at Kensington Olympia on Cross Country services from the north to Eastbourne, Folkestone Central and Ramsgate at various times.

There were 2 bay platforms on the south-eastern side mainly used by services from Clapham Junction. In the early 1990s these were filled in and the southbound platform loop closed with a new shorter platform built over the loop allowing trains using the southbound main line to stop. Longer southbound passenger trains now cross to the northbound loop to stop. The land behind the southbound platform was sold for redevelopment.

There was an Express Dairies creamery and milk bottling plant located close to the station. Served by milk trains from the Great Western Railway, they would enter from Old Oak Common and proceed along the West London Line to a siding adjacent to the station.

In the event of nuclear war seeming imminent, Civil Servants selected to staff the Central Government War Headquarters (Codenamed "Burlington") Kensington (Olympia) station was listed as the designated London muster point for staff in transit to this facility.

In 1994, a full passenger service between Willesden Junction and Clapham Junction was reinstated after a gap of 54 years.

Before Eurostar services transferred in November 2007 to St Pancras International Eurostar trains passed through Kensington Olympia going from Waterloo International station to North Pole depot and the station was a backup terminus for the services should Waterloo International have become unusable and immigration facilities were maintained there.

The planned Regional Eurostar and Nightstar (train) services were also to call at Kensington Olympia's platform 2 to undertake border control procedures before they were cancelled. The services to Plymouth and Swansea were scheduled to change motive power from a class 92 to a class 37/6 here.

The link to the Great Western Main Line at North Pole Junction, three miles to the north, avoiding the western central London terminus of Paddington station, meant that the station was to play an important role in the Cold War should a nuclear exchange have seemed likely. Secret plans entailed use of the station, in the prelude to a nuclear war, to evacuate several thousand civil servants to the Central Government War Headquarters underground bunker in Wiltshire.

The ticket office was refurbished in 2011 with the existing upholstered seating, plants and lighting removed. A new double door entrance directly from the ticket office to the platform was installed and the old adjoining covered entrance was bricked up. People were still able to reach the footbridge by means of the alleyway by the side of the building and then through the metal gate adjacent to it, avoiding a longer walk via the platforms. In 2012 the refurbished ticket office was closed and the entrance to the toilets from there blocked off. A new ticket office resembling a small Portakabin was built on the platform opposite the District line platform and the gate to the footbrige padlocked. The public toilets were made accessible by means of the existing doors to platform 2.

TFL said in the summer of 2012 they want to introduce ticket gates at the station to combat fare dodgers, but which would remove access to the footbridge used by local residents for years as a public right of way. Both the councils within whose boundaries this station falls have stated that they intend to challenge this loss of an established right of way.