Greenwich station is about 400 m south-west of the district centre, in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It is an interchange between

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...

between central London and

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock in ...

(north

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

), and 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 ...

(DLR) between

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in the London Plan as one ...

to the south and Docklands and the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

. It is in Travelcard Zones 2 and 3. It is the nearest National Rail station to the centre of Greenwich, but Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich DLR station is closer to the town centre and its tourist attractions. East of the station the Dartford line goes through a tunnel underneath the grounds of the

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unite ...

, towards

Maze Hill Maze Hill is an area in Greenwich and Blackheath, in south-east London, lying to the east of Greenwich Park, and west of the Westcombe Park area of Blackheath. It is part of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and takes its name from the main thorou ...

. Northwards, the DLR goes into a tunnel through Cutty Sark station and under the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

to the

Isle of Dogs The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England, which includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Ha ...

; in the opposite direction, it rises on a

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...

to follow the

River Ravensbourne The River Ravensbourne is a tributary of the River Thames in south London, England. It flows into the tidal River Thames at Deptford, where its tidal reach is known as Deptford Creek. Geography The Ravensbourne is 11 miles (17 km) ...

upstream to Deptford Bridge and

. On the National Rail network, Greenwich is measured from .

Services

National Rail

National Rail services at Greenwich are operated by

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 sep ...

and

Thameslink Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying ...

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 ...

. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 2 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 o ...

* 2 tph to * 2 tph to , returning to London Cannon Street via and Lewisham * 2 tph to via During the peak hours, the station is served by an additional half-hourly circular service to and from

via and Lewisham in the clockwise direction and direct to anticlockwise.

DLR

The typical DLR service in trains per hour is: * 12 tph to

Bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

* 12 tph to During the peak hours, the station is also served by direct trains to and from .

History

The National Rail line is one of London's oldest – the

London and Greenwich Railway The London and Greenwich Railway (L&GR) was opened in London between 1836 and 1838. It was the first steam railway in the capital, the first to be built specifically for passengers, and the first entirely elevated railway. Origins The idea for t ...

is reputed to be the world's first suburban railway. It was designed by former army engineer

George Landmann Colonel George Thomas Landmann (1779 – 27 August 1854) was an English military and civil engineer. He served with the Royal Engineers in Canada, Gibraltar, Portugal, Spain and Ireland. Following his retirement from the army, he worked as a ...

, and promoted by entrepreneur

George Walter Sir George Herbert Walter, KNH (8 September 1928 – 4 March 2008) was an Antiguan politician of the Progressive Labour Movement and Premier of Antigua and Barbuda from 14 February 1971 to 1 February 1976. Political career Born 1928, Walter ...

. A massive brick

with 878 arches was built to a station in Spa Road (Bermondsey), and later to

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It re ...

. The line opened on 8 February 1836 from

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home ...

, and on 24 December 1838 from a temporary station in Greenwich. Greenwich's handsome station building was designed by George Smith and opened in 1840, making it one of the oldest station buildings in the world. The South Eastern Railway (SER) leased the Greenwich branch from 1 January 1845. The South Eastern and Chatham Railway was formed on 1 January 1899 and as such took over operation of the station. The SER and

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 no ...

formed a "management committee" comprising the directors of both companies and merged the two companies' operations both of which were on the brink of bankruptcy forced by years of bitter competition. Up to this point the four tracks through the station (two of which had platforms, two of which did not) terminated at a sector plate which is a traverser that rotates around a pivot that is not at the centre and therefore cannot rotate through 360˚. This saves space and means locomotives can be transferred from one track to another. The original railway company's board room was located at that end of the station behind the sector plate. Both of these features were removed when the line was extended towards Maze Hill. Difficulties in extending the railway over land owned by the Greenwich Hospital led to the station remaining a terminus until the line was extended eastwards via a

cut-and-cover A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

tunnel towards

, opening on 1 February 1878. The Southern Railway took over operation of the station following the grouping of 1923. Up until 1924 there had been two platform tracks and two tracks between them allowing overtaking moves. This facility was removed (''possibly'' in preparation from the forthcoming electrification) and the empty space between the two platforms remained until the arrival of the Docklands Light Railway at the station in 1999. Two years later following electrification works, a limited service worked by Electric Multiple Units commenced on 10 May 1926 with the full service commencing 19 July. The lines were electrified to the 750v DC system. Following nationalisation, operation of the station passed to the

Southern Region of British Railways The Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948 until 1992 when railways were re-privatised. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s. The region covered south London, southern England and the south ...

on 1 January 1948. The

(DLR) was extended to

via Greenwich on 20 November 1999, the new platforms lying immediately to the south of the main-line station, occupying the space originally used by the up main line platform, which was itself relocated into the space left 75 years earlier by the removal of the through lines. At the eastern end, the DLR heads underground through a tunnel through

Cutty Sark ''Cutty Sark'' is a British clipper ship. Built on the River Leven, Dumbarton, Scotland in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period ...

and under the River Thames.

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 s ...

routes 129, 177, 199, 386, and night route N199 serve the station. The Quietway 1 cycle route terminates at the station.

References

External links

Docklands Light Railway website – Greenwich station page
{{TSGN and SE Stations, Abbey Wood=y, FCC None=y, SN None=y Docklands Light Railway stations in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Railway stations in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1838 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1840 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1840 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1878 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1878 Railway stations served by Southeastern Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway