St Johns railway station is in the

London Borough of Lewisham Lewisham () is a London borough in south-east London; it forms part of Inner London. The principal settlement of the borough is Lewisham. The local authority is Lewisham London Borough Council, based in Catford. The Prime Meridian passes throug ...

. It lies down the

South Eastern Main Line The South Eastern Main Line is a major long-distance railway route in South East England, UK, one of the three main routes crossing the county of Kent, going via Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Ashford and Folkestone to Dover. The other routes are the C ...

from , and is situated between and .

History

Early years (1873–1922)

The South Eastern Railway (SER) opened a two-track railway (the North Kent Railway) through the site of St Johns (although the church that gave the station its name was not built until 1855) in 1849, and two further tracks were added in 1864; the station was opened on 1 June 1873. The SER was at that time engaged in a bitter feud with the

London, Chatham and Dover Railway The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR or LC&DR) was a railway company in south-eastern England created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through London and nor ...

(LCDR), which opened a station (adjacent to the church) named ''Lewisham Road'' as part of the initial section of the

Greenwich Park branch line The Greenwich Park branch line (also known as the Lewisham line) is a short section of railway line in south east London which links the Catford Loop line to the South Eastern Main Line which originally terminated at station. It provides a link ...

in 1871; this, coupled with the development of the area, may have been a factor in the building of the station.Pedantic of Purley (25 April 2013)
Accidents and Islands: A History of St Johns Station – Part 1
''London Reconnections'' St Johns train crash 1898

On 21 March 1898, two trains collided in thick fog, killing three people, when a signaller allowed a train to enter the station while another train was at the platform. In 1899, the South Eastern Railway and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway agreed to work as one railway company, under the name of the

South Eastern and Chatham Railway The South Eastern and Chatham Railway Companies Joint Management Committee (SE&CRCJMC),Awdry (1990), page 199 known as the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR), was a working union of two neighbouring rival railways, the South Easter ...

. In 1906, an additional two lines were added south of St Johns towards Hither Green with a new junction located immediately south of the station. In addition to the existing signal box which was located on the north end of the platform s second box was provided between the North Kent lines and main lines close to the new junction.

Southern Railway (1923–1947)

Following the

Railways Act 1921 The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...

(also known as the Grouping Act), St Johns became a Southern Railway station on 1 January 1923. The main line was electrified, with the (750 V DC third rail) system, in February 1926 for the operation of electric services to Cannon Street or Charing Cross to Orpington. In the following year the bridge carrying the

, which had closed in 1917, was removed in anticipation of the opening of the Nunhead – Lewisham line, which saw a new bridge provided and the line opening in 1929. The two signal boxes at St Johns were closed, and a new box opened just south of the station on the east side of the line.

British Railways (1948–1994)

On 1 January 1948, following nationalisation, the station passed to

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

Southern Region. On 4 December 1957, two trains collided just south-east of the station on the main line bypassing Lewisham, bringing down the Lewisham-Nunhead railway bridge and killing 90 people. Further disaster was averted as a train about to cross the bridge was halted by its driver. In the mid-1970s the station was re-modelled when the fast-line island platform was closed and demolished. This provided space to build a flydown from the Lewisham-Nunhead line to the up fast line. The booking office at street level was destroyed by fire in the late 1970s. Upon sectorisation in 1982, passenger sectors were created: London & South East (renamed

Network SouthEast Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the netwo ...

in 1986) operated commuter services in the London area, including St Johns.

The privatisation era (1994-present day)

Following privatisation of British Rail on 1 April 1994, the infrastructure at St Johns station became the responsibility of

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...

, while a business unit operated the train services. On 13 October 1996, operation of passenger services passed to

Connex South Eastern Connex South Eastern was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Connex that operated the South Eastern franchise from October 1996 until November 2003. History On 13 October 1996 Connex commenced operating the South Eastern ...

, which was originally due to run the franchise until 2011. Following a number of accidents and financial issues, Railtrack plc was sold to

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

on 3 October 2002, which became responsible for the infrastructure. On 27 June 2003, the

Strategic Rail Authority The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom set up under the Transport Act 2000 to provide strategic direction for Rail transport in the United Kingdom, the railway industry. Its motto was 'Brita ...

decided to strip Connex of the franchise citing poor financial management and run the franchise itself. Connex South Eastern continued to operate the franchise until 8 November 2003 with the services transferring to the

South Eastern Trains South Eastern Trains (stylised as Southeastern) was a publicly owned train operating company that operated the South Eastern Passenger Rail Franchise between November 2003, when it took over from Connex South Eastern, and 1 April 2006, when S ...

subsidiary the following day. On 30 November 2005 the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

awarded

Govia Govia is a transport company based in the United Kingdom. It was formed in November 1996 as a joint venture between Go-Ahead Group (65%) and Keolis (35%) to bid for rail franchises during the privatisation of British Rail. History Establis ...

the Integrated Kent franchise. The services operated by South Eastern Trains transferred to

Southeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

on 1 April 2006.

Layout

As built the station had two island platforms and an additional terminating platform on the west side of the line, although it is doubtful this was ever used in regular traffic. , the station was reached by a footbridge from St Johns Vale, there being no direct road access. A single island platform with two platform faces remained located on the slow lines. South of the station, the former

Greenwich Park branch The Greenwich Park branch line (also known as the Lewisham line) is a short section of railway line in south east London which links the Catford Loop line to the South Eastern Main Line which originally terminated at station. It provides a link ...

crossed over before closure in 1917. The line from Nunhead lay dormant until a bridge was provided and the line was connected to Lewisham in 1929. The remains of the embankment can be seen on the eastern side of the line. There was a signal box at the south end of the station; this closed and was demolished when the area was resignalled in the mid-1970s. The flydown was built at this time and commissioned on 3 April 1976. In the early 1990s the original bridge carrying St Johns Vale was replaced. This allowed the platforms to be extended toward to allow longer trains to call. It was proposed to double the flydown line under the

Thameslink Programme The Thameslink Programme, originally Thameslink 2000, was a £6billion project in south-east England to upgrade and expand the Thameslink rail network to provide new and longer trains between a wider range of stations to the north and to the s ...

. Work started in April 2012 and was completed over Easter 2013.

Services

All services at St Johns are operated by

using , , and

EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the g ...

. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 6 tph to

London Cannon Street Cannon Street station, also known as London Cannon Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Travelcard zone 1 located on Cannon Street in the City of London and managed by Network Rail. It is ...

* 2 tph to via * 2 tph to via * 2 tph to via , returning to London Cannon Street via and During the peak hours, the station is also served by trains to and .

References

External links

Accident at Lewisham on 4 December 1957 (Summary) Report On The Collision That Occurred On 4 December 1957 Near Lewisham In The Southern Region British Railways (2.2 Mb)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Johns Railway Station Railway stations in the London Borough of Lewisham DfT Category E stations Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1873 Railway stations served by Southeastern