Clapham Junction railway station () is a major railway station and

transport hub A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports and ferry slips. F ...

near St John's Hill in south-west

Battersea Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park. History Batter ...

in the

London Borough of Wandsworth Wandsworth () is a London boroughs, London borough in southwest London; it forms part of Inner London and has an estimated population of 329,677 inhabitants. Its main named areas are Battersea, Balham, Putney, Tooting and Wandsworth, Wandsworth ...

. It is from and from ; it is on both the

South West Main Line The South West Main Line (SWML) is a 143-mile (230 km) major railway line between Waterloo station in central London and Weymouth on the south coast of England. A predominantly passenger line, it serves many commuter areas including south we ...

and

Brighton Main Line The Brighton Main Line (also known as the South Central Main Line) is a major railway line in the United Kingdom that links Brighton, on the south coast of England, with central London. In London the line has two branches, out of and station ...

as well as numerous other routes and branch lines passing through or diverging from the main lines at this station. Despite its name, Clapham Junction is not located in

Clapham Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Early history T ...

, a district situated approximately to the south-east and is instead sited in

. Routes from London's south and south-west termini, Victoria and Waterloo, funnel through the station, making it the busiest in Europe by number of trains using it: between 100 and 180 per hour except for the five hours after midnight. The station is also the busiest UK station for interchanges between services, and the only railway station in Great Britain with more interchanges than entries or exits.

History

On 21 May 1838 the London and Southampton Railway became the

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

(L&SWR), and opened its line from as far as

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

Clapham Junction Railway Station - Detail of Roof Columns - London - 240404

The second line, initially from Nine Elms to

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

, opened on 27 July 1846. Nine Elms was replaced in 1848 as the terminus by Waterloo Bridge station, now Waterloo. The line to Victoria opened by 1860. Clapham Junction opened on 2 March 1863, a joint venture of the L&SWR, the

London, Brighton and South Coast Railway The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR; known also as the Brighton line, the Brighton Railway or the Brighton) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its ...

(LB&SCR) and the

West London Extension Railway The West London Railway was conceived to link the London and Birmingham Railway and the Great Western Railway with the Kensington Basin of the Kensington Canal, enabling access to and from London docks for the carriage of goods. It opened in 184 ...

(WLER) as an interchange station for their lines. The railway companies, to attract a middle- and upper-class clientele, seized the nonindustrial

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

calculating that being upon the slopes of Clapham's plateau would only reinforce this distinction, leading to a long-lasting misunderstanding that the station is in Clapham. Maintaining the Railway - geograph

Discontinued proposals

A planning application from Metro Shopping Fund was withdrawn before governmental planning committee consideration on 20 May 2009. A '

Heathrow Airtrack Heathrow Airtrack was a proposed railway link in the United Kingdom which would link Heathrow Airport in west London to London Waterloo railway station in Central London. The line, as proposed by BAA, would run from across the suburbs of ...

' to reduce the 95-minute journey by tube and

Gatwick Express Gatwick Express is a high-frequency rail passenger service between , Gatwick Airport, and in South East England. It is the brand name used by the Govia Thameslink Railway train operating company on the Gatwick Express route of the Thameslink, ...

Gatwick Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...

and unite the Great Western Main Line with Heathrow, Gatwick and the South West Main Line was cancelled in 2011 following improvements to the 2005-built

Heathrow Connect Heathrow Connect was a train service in London provided jointly by Heathrow Express and Great Western Railway (GWR), between Paddington station and Heathrow Airport. The service followed the same route as the non-stop Heathrow Express servic ...

track from Hayes and Harlington and practical impediments, such as pressure for continued high-frequency services on the three deemed-'entrenched' semi-fast and slow services between Clapham Junction and Staines. Overground, the change would have been at Clapham Junction.

Incidents and accidents

Clapham rail disaster

On the morning of 12 December 1988, two collisions involving three commuter trains occurred slightly south west of the station due to a defective signal. Thirty-five people died and more than 100 were injured.

Track bombing

On the morning of 16 December 1991, a bomb ripped through tracks on one of the station's platforms, causing major disruption to the rail network. The

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reun ...

(IRA) claimed responsibility.

The Junction

The station is named Clapham Junction because it is at the junction of several rail lines. The name is not given to any rail junction near the station which, without end-on intercompany junctions, are: * Falcon Junction at the south end of the station, where the West London Line (WLL) joins the Brighton Slow Lines * Ludgate Junction at the eastern end of the Windsor Line platforms to the WLL * Latchmere SW Junction connecting the WLL to the Windsor lines at Ludgate Junction. * Latchmere Main Junction connecting the WLL to the Brighton Line at Falcon Junction. * West London Extension Junction and Junction for Waterloo, relaid for Eurostar empty-stock moves from the Windsor Lines to the WLL. * Pouparts Junction where the low-level and high-level approaches to Victoria split.

The station today

Each day more than 2,000 trains, over half of them stopping, pass through the station, more than through any other station in Europe. At peak times up to 200 trains per hour pass through of which 122 stop. It is not the busiest station by number of passengers, most of whom (about 430,000 on a weekday, of which 135,000 are at rush hours) pass through. Interchanges make some 40% of the activity and on that basis too it is the busiest station in the UK. In 2011 the station had three entrances, all with staffed ticket offices, though only the south-east entrance is open 24 hours a day. The most heavily used of the three, this leads from St John's Hill via a small indoor shopping centre into a subway some wide, that connects to the eastern ends of all platforms. The north entrance, which has restricted opening hours, leads from the

Winstanley Estate The Winstanley and York Road Estate comprises two large estates of predominantly public housing apartments in Battersea, London, adjacent to Clapham Junction railway station, although some have since passed into Right to Buy, private ownershi ...

on Grant Road to the same subway. The subway is crowded during rush hours, with the

ticket barriers In rail transport, the paid area is a dedicated "inner" zone in a railway station or metro station, accessible via turnstiles or other barriers, to get into which, visitors or passengers require a valid ticket, checked smartcard or a pass. A sys ...

at the ends being pinch points. The south-west entrance, also known as the Brighton Yard entrance, as the buildings still bear signage for the

, has a more traditional appearance, with a Victorian station building set at the back of a large forecourt. This entrance leads to a very wide covered footbridge, which joins the western ends of all platforms. This entrance includes cycle parking and a taxi rank. It was re-opened in May 2011 as part of a wider programme of access improvements that included installing lifts to the platforms.Route Plans 2007 – Route 3 – South West Main line
published by Network Rail, 2007 – See page 20 There are public and disabled toilets at the south-west entrance. There are refreshment kiosks in the subway, on the footbridge and on some platforms; and a small shopping centre, including a small branch of

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company wa ...

supermarket, in the south-east entrance.

British Transport Police , nativename = , abbreviation = BTP , patch = , patchcaption = , logo = British Transport Police Logo.svg , logocaption = Logo of the British Transport Police , badge = , badgecaption = , f ...

maintain a neighbourhood policing presence, whereas the

Metropolitan Police Service The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

and the part- Transport for London funded Safer Transport Command provides a police presence in the area outside the station. On 9 December 2012 a new platform for the East London Line opened, creating an orbital railway around inner London. Overcrowding is most frequent in the often convenient but narrow cross-platform subway. Using this rather than the wide, elegant flying concourse for interchange, a visitors' eyes assessment of fabric and environment listed Clapham Junction in the most needy 10% of Department for Transport category B stations.

Platforms

Clapham Junction Railway Station - Foot Tunnel at Night - London - 240404

The station has seventeen platforms, numbered 1 to 17. In general, platforms 1 and 2 are used by

London Overground London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a ...

trains, platforms 3–11 by South Western Railway trains, and platforms 12–17 by Southern trains. Non-stop

trains pass through platforms 12 and 13. * Platforms 1 and 2 are northeast-facing bay platforms connected to

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, London Borou ...

and

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: North London ...

Lines, used by

services to and from and . Usually, platform 1 is served by trains on the West London line, while platform 2 is used by services on the

South London line The South London line is a railway line in inner south London, England. The initial passenger service on the route was established by the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway on 1 May 1867 when the central London terminal stations of Victoria ...

, although this usage can be reversed. * Platforms 3 and 4 are through platforms on the

Waterloo–Reading line The Waterloo–Reading line is a National Rail electric railway line between London Waterloo and Reading. The line runs west through a series of South West London suburbs to Reading, in central Berkshire. Its passenger operation is by South We ...

towards . * Platforms 5 and 6 are through platforms on the

towards . * Platform 7 is a through platform located at a siding off the

fast line towards , used by stopping trains. * Platform 8 is a through platform on the

fast line towards , used by non-stop trains passing through this station. * Platform 9 is a through platform on the

fast line towards . * Platform 10 is a through platform on the

slow line towards . * Platform 11 is a through platform on the

slow line towards . * Platform 12 is a through platform on the

fast line towards . * Platform 13 is a through platform on the

fast line towards . * Platform 14 is a through platform on the

slow line towards . * Platform 15 is a through platform on the

slow line towards . * Platforms 16 and 17 are platforms connecting the

slow line and the West London Line, used by Southern services. Platform 16 is the northbound platform (towards ) and platform 17 is the southbound platform (towards ). Platform 17 can also be used by some terminating

services as well. Sidings leading into railway sheds at the west of the station are located between platforms 6 and 7. Because the platform gap is too wide at platform 8, it must not be used for stopping trains unless in an emergency.

Services

All South Western Railway services from Waterloo pass through the station, as do Southern and

trains from Victoria. The West London line and

services of

have Clapham Junction as one of the termini. The typical off-peak service of more than 120 trains an hour comprises: South Western Railway: *35 tph to *1 tph to *1 tph to (slow) *1 tph to via *1 tph to *1 tph to via *1 tph to (roughly 1tp2h extended to Yeovil Pen Mill) *1 tph to *2 tph to *2 tph to via *2 tph to via *2 tph to via *2 tph to via Surbiton *2 tph to via *2 tph to (slow) *2 tph to London Waterloo by the Kingston Loop via Wimbledon, Kingston and Richmond *2 tph to London Waterloo by the Hounslow Loop via Brentford, Hounslow and Richmond *2 tph to London Waterloo by the Hounslow Loop via Richmond, Hounslow and Brentford *2 tph to London Waterloo by the Kingston Loop via Richmond, Kingston and Wimbledon *2 tph to via *2 tph to via Brentford, Hounslow and *2 tph to Southern: *18 tph to *1 tph to and Portsmouth & Southsea dividing at *1 tph to and Southampton Central, dividing at *2 tph to *2 tph to via *2 tph to Eastbourne, with 1 continung to Ore *2 tph to *2 tph to via and

Epsom Epsom is the principal town of the Borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The ...

, of which one continues to

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

*2 tph to *2 tph to London Bridge via Crystal Palace *2 tph to *1 tph to via *1 tph to via London Overground: *4 tph to via Canada Water *4 tph to via Highbury & Islington During peak hours on weekdays express services on the South West Main Line and outer suburban services to Alton and Basingstoke typically do not stop at the station. Clapham Junction Railway Station - The Footbridge - London - 240404

Clapham Junction Railway Station - The Footbridge - London - 240404

Future proposals

In the 2010s, a Clapham Junction station was proposed as part of the

Crossrail 2 Crossrail 2 is a proposed hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit route in South East England, running from nine stations in Surrey to three in Hertfordshire, providing a new North–South rail link across Greater London. It would connect the ...

project. A large underground station dug underneath the existing station was proposed to serve Crossrail 2 service. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the project was indefinitely postponed in 2020, although the route has been safeguarded. The Northern line extension to Battersea Power Station was criticised for not extending to Clapham Junction. During the public inquiry into the extension in 2014, it was noted that although an extension to Clapham would be desirable, it was unnecessary to meet the needs of the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea regeneration area. Additionally, it was noted that a further extension could overwhelm the extension, due to the high demand. However, provision has been made for a future extension of the line to the station, with a reserved course underneath

Battersea Park Battersea Park is a 200-acre (83-hectare) green space at Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth in London. It is situated on the south bank of the River Thames opposite Chelsea and was opened in 1858. The park occupies marshland reclai ...

. Government and Network Rail funding for in the early 2010s of £50 million of improvements was granted. This comprised an upgrade to the main interchange: new entrances and more retail. In a Network Rail study in 2015, it was proposed that platform 0 could reopen for 8-car operations of the West London Line.

Connections

London Buses London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus se ...

routes 35, 37, 39, 49, 77, 87, 156, 170,

219 __NOTOC__ Year 219 ( CCXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Antonius and Sacerdos (or, less frequently, year 972 '' ...

, 295, 319, 337,

344 Year 344 (Roman numerals, CCCXLIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Leontius and Bonosus (or, less frequently, year 1097 ...

, 345, 639,

670 __NOTOC__ Year 670 (Roman numerals, DCLXX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 670th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 670th year of the 1s ...

, C3 and G1 and night routes N19, N31, N35 and N87 serve the station.

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

Network Rail DetailsShort History of Clapham Junction
prepared by

Wandsworth Council Wandsworth London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Wandsworth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Wandsworth is divided into 20 wards, e ...

, and from which much of the information in the history section of this entry is sourced
1988: 35 dead in Clapham rail collision
BBC News report on the 1988 train collisions
Local news websiteYes, Clapham Junction is that bad. The sun shone, but the roof still leaks
Zoe Williams, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' 18 November 2009 * , description of the station in the 1930s {{Authority control Network Rail managed stations Railway stations in the London Borough of Wandsworth Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1863 Former London and South Western Railway stations Former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway stations Railway stations served by London Overground Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway Railway stations served by South Western Railway Rail junctions in London Battersea