Richmond Station (London) - History

History

The Richmond and West End Railway (R&WER) opened the first station at Richmond on 27 July 1846 as the terminus of its line from Clapham Junction on a site, which later became a goods yard, to the south of the present through platforms and where a multi-storey car park now stands. The Windsor, Staines and South Western Railway (WS&SWR) extended the line westward resiting the station to the west side of The Quadrant, on the extended tracks slightly west of the present through platforms. Both the R&WER and WS&SWR were subsidiary companies of the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR).

On 1 January 1869 the L&SWR opened a line to Richmond from north of Addison Road station (now Kensington (Olympia) station) on the West London Joint Railway. This line ran through Hammersmith (Grove Road) station, since closed, and Turnham Green and had connection with the North & South Western Junction Railway (N&SWJR) near Gunnersbury. Most of this line is now part of the London Underground District line; the line south from Gunnersbury was also served by the North London Railway (NLR) and is now used also by London Overground. Before this line was built services north from Richmond ran somewhat circuitously via chords at Kew Bridge and Barnes.

The Great Western Railway (GWR) briefly (1 June to 31 October 1870) ran a service from Paddington to Richmond via the Hammersmith & City Railway (now the Hammersmith & City Line) tracks to Grove Road then over the L&SWR tracks through Turnham Green.

On 1 June 1877 the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR), later known as the District Railway, linked its then terminus at Hammersmith to the nearby L&SWR tracks east of the present Ravenscourt Park station. The MDR began running trains over the L&SWR tracks to Richmond. On 1 October 1877, the Metropolitan Railway (MR, now the Metropolitan line) restarted the former GWR service to Richmond via Grove Road station.

The MDR route from Richmond to central London via Hammersmith was more direct than those of the NLR via Willesden Junction, of the L&SWR and the MR via Grove Road station and of the L&SWR via Clapham Junction to Waterloo. From 1 January 1894, the GWR began sharing the MR Richmond service, resulting in Gunnersbury having the services of five operators.

After electrifying its tracks north of Acton Town in 1903, the MDR funded the electrification, completed on 1 August 1905, from Gunnersbury to Richmond. The MDR ran electric trains on the branch while the L&SWR, NLR, GWR and MR services continued to be steam hauled.

MR services ceased on 31 December 1906 and those of the GWR on 31 December 1910 leaving operations northwards through Kew Gardens and Gunnersbury to the MDR (by then known as the District Railway), the NLR and L&SWR. On 3 June 1916 the L&SWR withdrew its service from Richmond to Addison Road through Hammersmith due to competition from the District line, leaving the District as the sole operator over that route and the NLR providing mainline services via Willesden Junction.

Under the grouping of 1923 the L&SWR became part of the Southern Railway (SR) and the NLR became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS); both were subsequently nationalised into British Railways. On 1 August 1937 the SR opened its rebuilt station with the station building and the through platforms moved east to be next to the terminal platforms. At around the same time the SR moved the goods yard from the site of the original terminus to a new location north-east of the station.