Blackwall was a railway station in Blackwall, London, that served as the eastern terminus of the Commercial Railway (later the London and Blackwall Railway). It was located on the south side of the

East India Docks The East India Docks were a group of docks in Blackwall, east London, north-east of the Isle of Dogs. Today only the entrance basin and listed perimeter wall remain visible. History Early history Following the successful creation of the We ...

, near the shore of 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 ...

, down-line from the western terminus at . The station was designed by architect

William Tite Sir William Tite (7 February 179820 April 1873) was an English architect who twice served as President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was particularly associated with various London buildings, with railway stations and cemetery ...

in an ornate

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

. It opened on 6 July 1840 with services connecting with a ferry service to

Gravesend, Kent Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Rochester, it is t ...

. Between 1870 and 1890 the station was also served by some

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 ...

trains from Broad Street via Hackney and Bow services to connect to the ferry services. The station was renovated at this time. In March 1926 the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

and

Port of London Authority The Port of London Authority (PLA) is a self-funding public trust established on 31 March 1909 in accordance with the Port of London Act 1908 to govern the Port of London. Its responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames and its ...

announced passenger services would be withdrawn on 30 June 1926. However, with the start of the national general strike services were suspended early on 3 May 1926, and never resumed.

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

(1906-1984) in his book First and Last Loves, wrote of a journey on the L&BR "Those frequent and quite empty trains of the Blackwall Railway ran from a special platform at Fenchurch Street. I remember them. Like stagecoaches they rumbled past East End chimney pots, wharves and shipping stopping at empty black stations till they came to a final halt at Blackwall station...When one emerged there, there was nothing to see beyond it but a cobbled quay and a vast stretch of wind whipped water..." The station was demolished in 1946 to make way for Blackwall power station, although the branch continued to carry goods traffic until the demise of the docks in the late 1960s. Today no trace of the two-storey station remains, and the docks have been filled in (although a small basin remains). Its approximate location is now occupied by houses on Jamestown Way. The station site is some distance from the present-day

Blackwall DLR station Blackwall is a Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station in Blackwall area of Poplar in London, England. It is located very close to the northern entrance to the Blackwall road tunnel under the River Thames. The station is on the Beckton branch ...

; the closest existing station is actually

East India DLR station East India is a station on Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in Leamouth, east London. It takes its name from the nearby former East India Docks of the Port of London, where ships trading with the Indian subcontinent used to dock. It is on the Bec ...

, which is slightly to the north-west of the original Blackwall station site.

References

External links

Map of Poplar & Blackwall from 1885Blackwall on Disused-Stations.org
{{coord, 51.50817, 0.00007, type:railwaystation_region:GB_source:subbrit.org.uk-enwiki, display=title Disused railway stations in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1840 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1926 Former London and Blackwall Railway stations Poplar, London