Charing Cross railway station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

London Charing Cross
Location
Place	Charing Cross
Local authority	Westminster
Operations
Managed by	Network Rail
Platforms in use	6
Annual entry/exit	28.822 million
National Rail
Station code	CHX
Transport for London
Zone	1
History
Key dates	Opened 1864
Transport for London List of London stations: Underground | National Rail

Charing Cross railway station is a central London railway terminus. It is unusual among London's railway termini in that its services connect it to two of the others, Waterloo and London Bridge. It is one of 17 stations managed by Network Rail, and trains serving it are operated by Southeastern and Southern.

The station takes its name from the Charing Cross, the 12th Eleanor cross. The front of the station faces The Strand, while at the other end is the northern end of Hungerford Bridge, which all trains serving the station cross.

[edit] History

The original station building was built on the site of the Hungerford Market by the South Eastern Railway and opened on 11 January 1864. The station was designed by Sir John Hawkshaw, with a single span wrought iron roof arching over the six platforms on its relatively cramped site. The curve of the original roof design can still be seen on the interior brickwork. A year later the Charing Cross Hotel, designed by Edward Middleton Barry, opened on 15 May 1865 and gave the station an ornate frontage in the French Renaissance style. At the same time, a replica of the Eleanor Cross was erected in the station forecourt, based on the original 13th century Whitehall Cross that had been demolished in 1647. Distances in London are officially measured from the original site of the cross in Whitehall, now the statue of Charles I, and not from this replica cross.

The elegant original roof structure collapsed on 5 December 1905. By great fortune, only six lives were lost (two workmen on the roof, a bookstall vendor and three passers-by in the street, where most of the girders fell) as the collapse happened outside the rush hour and was sufficiently gradual for the station platforms to be evacuated. An enormous travelling timber gantry had to be constructed to take the remainder of the station roof down safely. The roof was replaced by a utilitarian post and girder structure supporting a ridge and furrow roof.

Following bomb damage in World War II, the elaborate Mansard roof of the upper floors of the hotel was rebuilt in a plain neo-Georgian white brick.

In 1990 most of the area over the platforms was covered by Embankment Place, a post-modern office and shopping complex designed by Terry Farrell and Partners. A majority of this complex is currently occupied by global professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The front entrance of Charing Cross station in a 19th century print. The Charing Cross is in front of the Charing Cross Hotel, now the Thistle Charing Cross.

Trains leaving London Charing Cross go straight over the Thames.

[edit] Services

There are 35 train departures per hour off-peak during the week.

Operated by Southeastern:

• 5 to Orpington
• 2 to Gravesend
• 2 to Gillingham
• 2 to Dartford
• 2 to Hayes
• 5 to Sevenoaks
• 2 to Ashford International
  • 2 split at Ashford International, then:
    • 2 to Ramsgate
    • 1 to Dover Priory
    • 1 to Margate
• 4 to Tonbridge
• 2 to Hastings

Operated by Southern:

• 2 to Purley
• 2 to Tattenham Corner

[edit] Connections

Charing Cross is served by two London Underground stations, one at each end: Charing Cross, and Embankment. Until the mid-1970s Embankment was called Charing Cross, while the present Charing Cross was Trafalgar Square (Bakerloo line) and Strand (Northern line), combining under the new name when connected by the new Jubilee Line station in 1979. The change of name acknowledged that Strand and Trafalgar Square were closer to the station than Embankment.

[edit] See also

There is a DVD of the driver's view of the Hastings line into Charing Cross.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Charing Cross railway station

• Station information on Charing Cross railway station from Network Rail
• Train times for Charing Cross railway station from National Rail
• Map and aerial photo of Charing Cross railway station from Multimap.com
• Other map and aerial photo sources

• Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 51.5075° -0.1231°
  • Satellite image from WikiMapia or Google Map
  • Street map from Multimap or GlobalGuide
  • Aerial image from TerraServer