South Bromley railway station was a former

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 ...

South Bromley Poplar is a district in East London, England, the administrative centre of the borough of Tower Hamlets. Five miles (8 km) east of Charing Cross, it is part of the East End. It is identified as a major district centre in the London Pla ...

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, on the

North London Railway The North London Railway (NLR) company had lines connecting the northern suburbs of London with the East and West India Docks further east. The main east to west route is now part of London Overground's North London Line. Other NLR lines fell ...

between Bow and Poplar (East India Dock Road). It opened in 1884 but was closed in 1944 after bomb damage in

the Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

cut off the railway east of

Dalston Junction Dalston Junction (pronounced ) is an inter-modal rail and bus transport interchange in Dalston, London. It is located at the crossroads of Dalston Lane, Kingsland Road and Balls Pond Road. The station served by London Overground East London li ...

Description

The station was built on a constrained site and access was via a footbridge and the station building straddled the northbound line platform. The platform was a single island consisting of two faces with the eastern face for Poplar and, between 1870 and 1890, Blackwall. The western face was for services towards Bow and Broad Street. The bridge was extended and a westerly entrance to the footbridge opened. This entrance was literally a "hole in the wall" and was flanked by the premises of the Far Famed Cake Company (which became part of Lyons group). The brick built station building was typical of the other stations on the line, but smaller and the architecture not as grand. It had a flat roof and the entrance was off the footbridge. The south facing side of the building had three windows and the building contained the ticket office, station masters office and there was a single wooden staircase down to the platform. Ticket collection took place in a covered wooden building at the bottom of the stairs and two wooden buildings were sited on the platform with cast iron columns supported an awning covering this area. Beneath the stairs was a porters room. A signal box opened the same time as the station and was located north of the station between the two running lines.

History

Pre grouping (1850-1922)

The East & West India Docks & Birmingham Junction Railway (from 1853 known as the

(NLR)) was incorporated by Act of Parliament on 26 August 1846. It was empowered to construct a railway from the district of Poplar and the docks to

Camden Town Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as o ...

in north London. The railway's headquarters and locomotive works were initially in Bow. Services started running on 26 September 1850 but South Bromley station was not built and the trains (initially from Islington) ran to Bow and then via Gas Factory Junction to Fenchurch Street as the NLR did not have a central London terminus. The line through the South Bromley site opened to goods traffic only on 1 January 1852. That changed in 1865 when the NLR opened Broad Street and constructed a new station at Poplar East India Dock Road. However, it was not until 1 September 1884 that South Bromley opened. By this time some NLR trains had been extended from Poplar to the Great Eastern Railway (GER) station at Blackwall giving connections to the Thames steamers. In 1906 the London County Council erected a footbridge over the south end of the station (although there was no access to the station). The

London & North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

(LNWR) took over the working of the North London Railway under a common management arrangement on 1 February 1909 although the North London Railway continued to exist until 1922. 1913 saw a fire damage part of the station and although this was initially attributed to local suffragettes the case was never proven..

London, Midland and Scottish Railway (1923-1944)

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, operation of the station fell under the control of the

London Midland & Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...

. Sunday services to Poplar were withdrawn on 29 January 1940. Although the fact that bomb damage was responsible for the closure of Poplar East India Road on the line, there is no firm evidence that this was the case at South Bromley. Whilst rail historian H V Borley did state it was damaged and passengers had to be "led across the track by a flagman" as a result of damage to the station building, author J E Connor states there is no pictorial evidence to confirm this. Just to the south Poplar East India Road was badly damaged as were Bow and Old Ford and this all contributed to the decision to withdraw an increasingly unremunerative service. The railway itself did not close completely and remained open to freight but this declined through the following decades.

Since closure

No firm date for the demolition of the station buildings but Connor suggests it was between March 1947 and July 1948. The signal box lasted longer being closed on 25 September 1954. Matching the decline of the London Docks, freight traffic continued to decline through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Closure of the line through the site to all rail traffic occurred on 3 October 1983 with the track being lifted during May 1984. After closure, the remains of the platform was demolished and work started on building 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 Londo ...

. Although no station was provided in the area initially,

Langdon Park DLR station Langdon Park is a Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station in Poplar in Greater London, England. The station is between All Saints and Devons Road stations on the Stratford-Lewisham Line. Construction of the infill station began on 17 November 20 ...

opened in 2007 was built just north of the South Bromley site. Nothing remains of the old station although the 1906 LCC footbridge existed until 1972 when it was replaced.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:South Bromley Railway Station Disused railway stations in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Former North London Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1884 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1944 Poplar, London