Victoria Park & Bow was a short-lived

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

in Bow, east London. It was located close to the present-day Bow Junction on what is now the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and t ...

between and . Built by the

Eastern Counties Railway The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) was an English railway company incorporated in 1836 intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then extend to Norwich and Yarmouth. Construction began in 1837 on the first nine miles at the Lond ...

(ECR), it opened on 2 April 1849, seemingly for the main purpose of providing an interchange between the

London and Blackwall Extension Railway Originally called the Commercial Railway, the London and Blackwall Railway (L&BR) in east London, England, ran from Minories to Blackwall via Stepney, with a branch line to the Isle of Dogs, connecting central London to many of London's docks. ...

's (LBER) branch and the ECR's main line between and Stratford. The LBER had hoped to run through to Stratford but its relationship with the ECR was poor and a junction allowing connection from the LBER's line to the ECR's was not constructed. It appears Victoria Park & Bow station was little-used, as the ECR stopped few trains there. Study of Bradshaw's Railway Guide for March 1850 reveals the only ECR services out of the Bishopsgate terminus which called at the station were the 6:07 a.m. to on weekdays and the 1:37 p.m. to Norwich on Sundays. In the London-bound direction there were no weekday services whilst just two services called on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. and 9:28 p.m. As a result, LBER services mostly terminated at Bow and Bromley. The Fenchurch Street services on the LBER branch lasted until 26 September 1850. Limited services on the ECR's main line continued to call until 6 January 1851. By 1854 relations between the two companies had improved and the junction connecting the two lines was built and the LBER became part of the initial

London, Tilbury and Southend Railway The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LT&SR), was a British railway company, whose network connected Fenchurch Street railway station, Fenchurch Street station, in central London, with destinations in east London and Essex, including , , , T ...

(LTSR) route to Fenchurch Street (with the more direct route from opening in 1858).The LBER and ECR were partners in the LTSR The nearest station to the site of the former Victoria Park & Bow station today is Bow Church, on the

Docklands Light railway The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated light metro system serving the redeveloped Docklands area of London, England and provides a direct connection between London's two major financial districts, Canary Wharf and the City of Lo ...

, a train from there towards Stratford passes the site of the former station as the DLR line joins the Great Eastern Main Line.

References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Victoria Park and Bow railway station Disused railway stations in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Former Great Eastern Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1849 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1851 Bow, London