Richmond, also known as Richmond (London), is a
National Rail station in
Richmond,
Greater London on the
Waterloo to Reading and
North London Lines.
South Western Railway services on the
Waterloo to Reading Line are routed through Richmond, which is between and
St Margarets stations, down the line from . For
London Overground and
London Underground services, the next station is .
Architecture
The station building, designed by
James Robb Scott
James Robb Scott (11 February 1882 – 1965) was a Scottish architect who became the Chief Architect of the Southern Railway.
He was born on 11 February 1882 in the Gorbals, Glasgow, the son of Andrew Robb Scott (architect) and Mary Fletcher. H ...
in
Portland stone 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 Unite ...
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 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.
Freyb ...
, 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](_blank)
/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 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, Exete ...
(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) 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 (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 and Barnes.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) briefly (1 June to 31 October 1870) ran a service from to Richmond via the Hammersmith & City Railway (now the Hammersmith & City line) 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 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 (MR, now the Metropolitan line) restarted the former GWR service to Richmond via Grove Road station.
The DR route from Richmond to central London via Hammersmith 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 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 ...
trains on the branch, while the L&SWR, NLR, GWR and MR services continued to be steam hauled.
MR services ceased on 31 December 1906 and those of the GWR on 31 December 1910, leaving operations northwards through Kew Gardens and Gunnersbury to the DR, the NLR and L&SWR. On 3 June 1916, the L&SWR withdrew its service from Richmond to Addison Road through Hammersmith due to competition from the District line, 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 (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
A 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 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 District line 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 ( London Overground)
* 6 to via ( District line)
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