London and South Western Railway - London Terminal Stations

London Terminal Stations

The company's first London terminus was at Nine Elms on the edge of the built-up area. The wharf frontage on the river was advantageous to the railway's objective of competing with coastal shipping transits, but the site was inconvenient for passengers, who had to travel on to London either by road or by boat.

The "Metropolitan Extension" to a more central location had been discussed as early as 1836, and an extension northeast was authorised by Act of Parliament on 31 July 1845 with a supplementary Act of 1847 authorising a wider railway and a larger terminus; the capital authorised was £950,000. The line was to have an intermediate station at Vauxhall and two short branches, to Waterloo Bridge Road and to Hungerford Bridge. An unfulfilled intention was for a through station with services nearer to the City and the eventual terminus, named Waterloo Bridge until 1886, was planned to be a through station.

Opening was planned for 30 June 1848, but the Board of Trade Inspector did not approve some of the large-span bridges at the eastern end, however his superior was satisfied by later load tests, and the line opened on 11 July 1848. At first incoming trains stopped outside the station and were pulled in by capstan after the locomotive had been detached.

The Nine Elms site became dedicated to goods traffic and was much extended to fill the triangle of land eastwards to Wandsworth Road. An independent Richmond railway was promoted which would have run north of the L&SWR as far as Nine Elms, then would have crossed the L&SWR line and run to Waterloo. However the L&SWR adopted the Richmond line and so had four tracks from the junction of the routes, just east of the present Clapham Junction station, to Waterloo Bridge.