Richmond, also known as Richmond (London), is a

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 ...

station in

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, Californi ...

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness Greatness is a concept of a state of superiority affecting a person or object in a particular place or area. Greatness can also be attributed to individuals who possess a natural ability to be better than al ...

on the Waterloo to Reading and

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nor ...

Lines. South Western Railway services on the

Waterloo to Reading Line Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat * Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place. Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Antarctica *King George Island (S ...

are routed through Richmond, which is between and St Margarets stations, down the line from . For

London Overground London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a large part of Greater London as w ...

and

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

services, the next station is .

Architecture

The station building, designed by James Robb Scott in

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building ...

and dating from 1937, is in

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

style and its facade includes a square clock. The area in front of the station main entrance was pedestrianised in 2013 and includes a

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

to soldier

Bernard Freyberg Lieutenant-General Bernard Cyril Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg, (21 March 1889 – 4 July 1963) was a British-born New Zealand soldier and Victoria Cross recipient, who served as the 7th Governor-General of New Zealand from 1946 to 1952. Frey ...

, who was born in Richmond.

History

The Richmond and West End Railway (R&WER) opened the first station at Richmond on 27 July 1846,Clive's Underground Line Guides – Hammersmith & City Line
/ref> as the terminus of its line from .
/ref> This station was on a site to the south of the present through platforms, which later became a goods yard and where a

multi-storey car park A multistorey car park ( British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a bui ...

now stands. The Windsor, Staines and South Western Railway (WS&SWR) extended the line westward, resiting the station to the west side of The Quadrant, on the extended tracks and slightly west of the present through platforms. Both the R&WER and WS&SWR were subsidiary companies of the

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

(L&SWR). On 1 January 1869,Clive's Underground Line Guides – District Line
/ref> the L&SWR opened a line to Richmond from north of Addison Road station (now

Kensington (Olympia) station Kensington (Olympia) is a combined rail and tube station in Kensington, on the edge of Central London. Services are provided by London Overground, who manage the station, along with Southern and London Underground. It is in Travelcard Zone 2. O ...

) on the West London Joint Railway. This line ran through

Hammersmith (Grove Road) station Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

, since closed, and and had connection with the

North & South Western Junction Railway The North and South Western Junction Railway (NSWJR) was a short railway in west London, England. It opened in 1853, connecting Willesden on the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) with Brentford on the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) ...

(N&SWJR) near . Most of this line is now part of the London Underground District line; the line south from Gunnersbury was also served by 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 fe ...

(NLR) and is now used also by London Overground. Before this line was built, services north from Richmond ran somewhat circuitously via chords at

Kew Bridge Kew Bridge is a wide-span bridge over the Tideway (upper estuary of the Thames) linking the London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Hounslow. The present bridge, which was opened in 1903 as King Edward VII Bridge by King Edward VII and Quee ...

and Barnes. The

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

(GWR) briefly (1 June to 31 October 1870) ran a service from to Richmond via the Hammersmith & City Railway (now the

Hammersmith & City line The Hammersmith & City line is a London Underground line that runs between Hammersmith in west London and in east London. Printed in pink on the Tube map, it serves 29 stations over . Between and it skirts the City of London, the capital's fi ...

) tracks to Grove Road and then over the L&SWR tracks through

Turnham Green Turnham Green is a public park on Chiswick High Road, Chiswick, London, and the neighbourhood and conservation area around it; historically, it was one of the four medieval villages in the Chiswick area, the others being Old Chiswick, Little S ...

. On 1 June 1877, the

District Railway The Metropolitan District Railway, also known as the District Railway, was a passenger railway that served London from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete an " inner circle" of lines connecting railway termini in London, the first par ...

(DR) linked its then terminus at

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London ...

to the nearby L&SWR tracks east of the present station. The DR began running trains over the L&SWR tracks to Richmond. On 1 October 1877, the

Metropolitan Railway The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...

(MR, now the

Metropolitan line The Metropolitan line, colloquially known as the Met, is a London Underground line between in the City of London and and in Buckinghamshire, with branches to in Hertfordshire and in Hillingdon. Printed in magenta on the tube map, the lin ...

) restarted the former GWR service to Richmond via Grove Road station. The DR route from Richmond to central London via

was more direct than those of the NLR via , of the L&SWR and the MR via Grove Road station and of the L&SWR via

Clapham Junction Clapham Junction is an urban locality around Clapham Junction railway station in London, England. Despite its name, it is not located in Clapham, but forms the commercial centre of Battersea. Clapham Junction was a scene of disturbances during ...

to Waterloo. From 1 January 1894, the GWR began sharing the MR Richmond service, resulting in

Gunnersbury Gunnersbury is an area of West London, England. Toponymy The name "Gunnersbury" means "Manor house of a woman called Gunnhildr", and is from an old Scandinavian personal name + Middle English -''bury'', manor or manor house. Development Gun ...

having the services of five operators. After

electrifying Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...

its tracks north of in 1903, the DR funded the electrification, completed on 1 August 1905, from Gunnersbury to Richmond. The DR ran

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

trains on the branch, while the L&SWR, NLR, GWR and MR services continued to be

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...

hauled. MR services ceased on 31 December 1906 and those of the GWR on 31 December 1910, leaving operations northwards through Kew Gardens and

to the DR, the NLR and L&SWR. On 3 June 1916, the L&SWR withdrew its service from Richmond to Addison Road through

due to competition from the

District line The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One branch runs to in south-west London and a short branch, with a limited serv ...

, leaving the District as the sole operator over that route and the NLR providing main line services via

Willesden Junction Willesden Junction is a railway station in Harlesden, north-west London, UK. It is served by both London Overground and London Underground services. History The station developed on three contiguous sites: the West Coast Main Line (WCML) st ...

. Under the grouping of 1923, the L&SWR became part of the Southern Railway (SR) and the NLR became part of the

London, Midland and 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 ...

(LMS); both were subsequently nationalised into

British Rail 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 ra ...

ways. On 1 August 1937, the SR opened its rebuilt station with the station building and the through platforms moved east to be next to the terminal platforms. At around the same time, the SR moved the goods yard from the site of the original terminus to a new location north-east of the station.

Accident

On 18 September 1987, an accident occurred at Richmond when a westbound District line hit the buffers of platform 6 and broke the glass/perspex panels behind. No passengers were seriously injured.

Crossrail

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway l ...

branch to

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...

via Richmond was proposed in 2003, but was dropped in 2004 due to a combination of local opposition, complex choices and engineering at the start of the route, cost, and insufficient return on investment. It could have run either overland or via a tunnel to and on the existing track through to Richmond (which would have lost the

service) and thence to Kingston.

Platforms

The station has seven platforms numbered from south to north: * Platforms 1 and 2 are through platforms for South Western Railway services. * Platforms 3 to 7 are terminating platforms used by: ** London Overground North London line services (normally platforms 3 and 4 but sometimes 5, 6 and 7) ** London Underground District line services (normally platforms 5, 6 and 7. Occasionally 4 but never 3 due to 3's lack of a fourth rail, which the District Line uses for electric power). As of September 2011, work was under way to extend platforms 1 and 2 to accept 10-car trains. The bulk of the lengthening was to be at the west (country) end; extending eastwards was deemed unviable by Network Rail as Church Road Bridge would have needed widening.
As part of these works, the platform canopies were also being refurbished. The wide gap between platforms 3 and 4 originally had a third, run-around track for steam locomotives. Eight retail units are at the station: four eatery-cafés on alternate sides of the barriers (two on the rail side being thin and smaller) similarly two kiosks, the upper one being a hot drinks kiosk through to a M&S Simply Food grocery store. A florist and a

WH Smith WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...

flank the entrance.

Off peak service

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 8 direct to (South Western Railway) ** 2 fast calling at only ** 2 semi fast calling at , Clapham Junction and ** 4 all stations * 8 direct from Waterloo (South Western Railway) ** 2 to ** 2 to ** 2 indirectly returning to Waterloo via Hounslow and Brentford ** 2 indirectly returning to Waterloo via Kingston and Wimbledon * 4 to (

) * 6 to via (

)

Transport links

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 ...

serving nearby are: A taxi rank is near the station entrance on Kew Road. Steps or lifts can be used to reach all platforms. An extensive bike storage facility is east outside the back entrance, Church Road, linked by 27 steps to a set of ticket barriers and the main platform area connecting platforms 2–7.

References

External links

Transport for London Richmond station
* {{LB Richmond Art Deco railway stations District line stations Former London and South Western Railway stations Railway stations in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1846 Railway stations served by London Overground Railway stations served by South Western Railway London Underground stations located above ground Tube stations in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Richmond, London 1846 establishments in England James Robb Scott buildings Art Deco architecture in London