Clapham Junction railway station

[teuchter]

It's kind of a strange place, isn't it?

I don't think there's any other railway station in Britain that's quite like it.

It's really quite enormous (and as the signs say, Britain's busiest station) and yet the scale of much of the architecture is that of a sleepy suburban or even rural halt. I suppose it's because it gradually grew in size. I think it actually used to be two separate stations.

I've always found it to have quite a curious atmosphere, perhaps because hardly anyone actually begins or ends a journey there - it's all about changing trains.

It's the sort of place that I imagine many people don't really pay much attention to, but I took a few photos whilst passing through there this afternoon and I was thinking that, if it was tidied up a bit, it could be quite an attractive place. Hidden behind the awful mess of signage, advertising, temporary buildings and badly done renovations is some quite atmospheric, Victorian railway architecture.

It's really quite unique and I don't think it gets the care it deserves.

(These thoughts partly inspired by this thread in the transport forum...)

 

[teuchter]

 

[teuchter]

 

[teuchter]

 

[jugularvein]

anorak!

 

[Roadkill]

Yes, it is a slightly odd place - has a rather unplanned, chaotic feel about it - and it's pleasantly old-fashioned in some ways.

It's always been a staging post rather than a terminus, I suppose - which is probably why it feels like a wayside country station, albeit on a gigantic scale!

Platform 5 is the place to be, I'm told - the steam charter trains from Victoria and Waterloo are routed through it...

 

[_pH_]

No trains in any of the photos! And not many people! How did that happen??

 

[teuchter]

No trains in any of the photos! And not many people! How did that happen??

No trains so I could post them outside of the transport forum without getting shot down for being an anorak. But mainly because this thread's about the buildings, not the trains. And most of the trains going through there are pretty boring anyway.

Actually, they were doing engineering works yesterday so half of the platforms were closed. That's partly why there aren't many people in a lot of the shots.

 

[laptop]

Nice pictures - and the absolutely need to have no trains and few people, since the entire point is to show the bits that few people look at, since they're looking at or for trains or people!

 

[hipipol]

As anor-arky as it gets

The layout of Clap Junc is actually v. similar to the old Gloucester Eastgate/ Central complex, with the platforms on two divergent lines with a long connecting overbridge running over sidings and carriage shaeds (though Cpalham was once used to stable engines there, I still recall the water tower that once stood there!!)
They probabbly date from around the same time too. Also prior to the construction of the Severn Tunnel all traffic from South Wales ran thru Gloucester with a similar transfer function for people wanting to get to London or Cardiff as Cpal J does for peeps wanting to get to Richmond say from Streatham, ie virtually no one!!!
Claps main purpose seems to have always been as a lonk twixt LBSCR from Victoria (was that theris?) and whichever co ran the trains out of Waterloo (Southern?)

 

[teuchter]

I've just seen this - looks like the planning application has just been submitted:

http://www.theheartofbattersea.co.uk/press-release2.htm

 

[Guineveretoo]

There is a train in the very first picture!

I hate Clapham Junction station, partly because I spend a lot of time there, mostly in the rush hour, changing trains. But I have also been struck by what a strange place it is, and how it seems to be lots of stations joined together. This is partly exacerbated by the way that some of the platforms are "owned" by different train companies. Some of them seem to care more for the platforms than others. You can even seen plants in those photos, but they are not on all the platforms.

 

[Roadkill]

Aye, Clapham Junction can be a bewildering place in the rush hour, if you don't know where you're going....

 

[teuchter]

There is a train in the very first picture!

I hate Clapham Junction station, partly because I spend a lot of time there, mostly in the rush hour, changing trains. But I have also been struck by what a strange place it is, and how it seems to be lots of stations joined together. This is partly exacerbated by the way that some of the platforms are "owned" by different train companies. Some of them seem to care more for the platforms than others. You can even seen plants in those photos, but they are not on all the platforms.

That's very true. It was only really while I was wandering around there yesterday that I noticed how different each of the platforms are, not just in terms of the original buildings but also the amount of care that seems to be given to them. I assume the station is actually "owned" by network rail (not sure about this) but that hasn't stopped the two main operators (SWT and Southerns) sticking their branding on the nameboards etc. The station even seems to be "sponsored" now - "Welcome to Clapham Junction - Home of Somebody and Partners Solicitors".

There reallly is a terrible mess of different signage and advertising all over the shop. You don't see the worst of it in my photos but I had to work quite hard to exclude it from them.

 

[Maggot]

Yes, it is a slightly odd place - has a rather unplanned, chaotic feel about it - and it's pleasantly old-fashioned in some ways.

It's always been a staging post rather than a terminus, I suppose - which is probably why it feels like a wayside country station, albeit on a gigantic scale!

I think because it isn't a terminus, it doesn't have a large concourse area and that gives it a different feel. Most people passing through rather than beginning or ending a journey.

 

[davesgcr]

Apart from a bit of a lick of paint its unchanged since the 1950's - its really 3 stations - the Central (Brighton side) , the South Western main line side and the Windsor / West London side. The 3 bits are pretty well non integrated train wise - operationaly !

When I was young and naive I used to marvel that one Station Manager could have the mental faculty of managing all this - its straightforward enough as long as you treat each bit as self standing - with a good supervisory team and and yard staff.

Its likely to have a bit of a make over in the next few years - though whether it becomes a Berlin Hauptbahnof is unlikely - getting rid of some of the botched repairs in the older bits would be a start !

 

[lang rabbie]

I've just seen this - looks like the planning application has just been submitted:

http://www.theheartofbattersea.co.uk/press-release2.htm

Only in Britain

So the developers give Network Rail a couple of millions for some new escalators to change the circulation and relieve the worst of the congestion in the subway but they get consent for massive new residential towers worth twenty times as much.

When what it actually needs is for about a quarter of the developer's land holdings to be CPO'd to allow platforms 13-17 and the road bridges to the east to be completely rebuilt to remove the kink in the line and allow the new platforms to have safe access without the current treacherous step/gap.

 

[HackneyE9]

I don't even need to read the press release - just seeing the URL is called "theheartofbattersea" you know it's estate agent evil bullshit.

 

[lang rabbie]

I think that the recent lick of paint in a couple of the more architecturally interesting corners of Clapham Junction was the beneficiary of a Heritage Lottery Grant.

Unfortunately, Network Rail then promptly installed the atrociously ugly new lighting, and the even uglier trunking, which looks as though it just about meets the spec for a cattle market.

[This may have been down to budget alone, but I did here idle rumours that there was no emergency power supply for the previous lighting, and it was a rush job post 7 July 2005 on health and safety grounds]

 

[teuchter]

I heard mention on the radio that a planning application had been submitted this week... not sure if it's a revision of the one above or what. Can't find much mention of it on the web.

E2A:

Oh, here is the press release:

http://www.theheartofbattersea.co.uk/press-release4.htm

Integral to the station redevelopment will be a major mixed use scheme which will deliver:

a new two-level pedestrianised shopping street offering 23,000 m2 of space for shops, cafes and bars;

two contemporary, 42-storey residential buildings, housing 556 new homes;

a stunning one-acre roof top garden with restaurant and art house style cinema; new high quality public realm throughout the site.

What is an "art house style cinema"? One that looks like it might show interesting films but actually doesn't?

 

[boohoo]

Next time you are heading into Clapham Junction from Vauxhall, look out for the wooden gypsy caravans in a piece of no mans land between the tracks.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Zero lifts make it a right pain in the arse for me when I am carrying amps. I need CJ to go almost anywhere.

I like the feel of it though. If I am waiting for a train home there is something nice about watching another platform in the distance as commuters squeeze themselves on a train no matter what the cost.

Oddly when I lived in Clapham Junction I never ever used the station.

 

[teuchter]

Next time you are heading into Clapham Junction from Vauxhall, look out for the wooden gypsy caravans in a piece of no mans land between the tracks.

Yes, I think I've noticed those before. I had assumed it was just someone using them for their garden shed.

 

[boohoo]

Yes, I think I've noticed those before. I had assumed it was just someone using them for their garden shed.

They are on Culvert Road, off Eversleigh Road at the bottom of Lavender Hill. Not quite sure how they are used but they are wooden caravans. There is a photo of them in a book by Lord Snowdon.

 

[davesgcr]

The sidings near the signal box - dropping down from Pf 16 towards Latchmere Junction No 2 rejoice in the name "Pigs Hill sidings"

Just thought i would share that useless bit of arcane railway geography...!

 

[wiskey]

I've always had a soft spot for CJ as my main memories of it are as a child standing on the platform at 3am in the cold dark of February watching the coal trains rumble through as we waited for the train to gatwick to go on holiday each year.