Waterloo Station

Waterloo station, also known as London Waterloo, is a major railway terminus in central London, owned and operated by Network Rail. It is located in Lambeth, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth, and in Travelcard Zone 1.

With some 88 million passengers in financial year 2008-09, Waterloo is easily Britain's busiest railway station in terms of passenger throughput. The total number of people passing through the station is considerably greater, as this figure is based on ticket sales for London Waterloo alone and does not include usage data for the Underground and Waterloo East. The Waterloo complex ranks as one of the busiest passenger terminals in Europe, comparable to the Gare Saint-Lazare and second only to the Gare du Nord in Paris. It has more platforms and a greater floor area than any other railway station in the UK. (Clapham Junction, just under four miles down the line, has the largest number of trains.) It is the terminus of a network of railway lines in Surrey, Berkshire, Hampshire, South West England, and the south-western suburbs of London. Its most important long-distance destinations are Portsmouth, Southampton and Bournemouth, all on the south coast.

The London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) opened the station on 11 July 1848 as 'Waterloo Bridge Station' (from the nearby crossing over the Thames) when its main line was extended from Nine Elms. Designed by William Tite, it was raised above marshy ground on a series of arches.The unfulfilled intention was for a through station with services to the City. In 1886 it officially became 'Waterloo Station', reflecting long-standing common usage, even in some L&SWR timetables.

As the station grew, it became increasingly ramshackle. The original 1848 station became known as the 'Central Station' as other platforms were added. The new platform sets were known by nicknames - the two platforms added for suburban services in 1878 were the 'Cyprus Station', whilst the six built in 1885 for use by trains on the Windsor line became the 'Kartoum Station'. Each of these stations-within-a-station had its own booking office, Taxi stand and public entrances from the street, as well as often poorly marked and confusing access to the rest of the station. By 1899 Waterloo had 16 platform roads but only 10 platform numbers due to way platforms in different sections of the station or on different levels sometimes duplicated the number of a platform elsewhere. A little-used railway line even crossed the main concourse on the level and passed through an archway in the station building to connect to the South Eastern Railway's smaller station, now Waterloo East, whose tracks lie perpendicular to those of Waterloo. Passengers were, not surprisingly, confused by the layout and by the two adjacent stations called 'Waterloo'. By 1897 there were also three separate (and separately-owned) Underground stations named 'Waterloo' under or close by the station, as well as the adjacent Necropolis Company station.This complexity and confusion became the butt of jokes by writers and music hall comics for many years in the late 19th century. In Jerome K. Jerome's book Three Men in a Boat no one at Waterloo knows the wanted train's platform, departure time or destination.

In 1899 the L&SWR decided on a total rebuilding. Legal powers were granted that year, and extensive groundwork and slum clearance were carried out until 1904, when construction on the terminus proper began. The new station was opened in stages, the first five new platforms opening in 1910. Construction continued sporadically throughout the First World War, and the new station finally opened in 1922 with 21 platforms and a concourse nearly 800 feet (250 m) long. The new station included a large stained glass window depicting the L&SWR's company crest over the main road entrance, surrounded by a frieze listing the counties1921 Railway Act had been passed which spelt the end of the L&SWR as an independent concern. served by the railway (the latter survives today). These features were retained in the design despite the fact that by the time the station opened the

The main pedestrian entrance, the Victory Arch (known as Exit 5), is a memorial to company staff who were killed during the two world wars. Damage to the station in World War II required considerable repair but entailed no significant changes of layout.

A past curiosity of Waterloo was that a spur led to the adjoining dedicated station of the London Necropolis Company, from which funeral trains, at one time daily, ran to Brookwood Cemetery bearing coffins at 2/6 each. This station was destroyed during World War II.

Ownership of Waterloo underwent a succession, broadly typical of many British stations. Under the 1923 Grouping it passed to the Southern Railway (SR), then in the 1948 nationalisation to British Railways. Following the privatisation of British Rail, ownership and management passed to Railtrack in April 1994 and finally in 2002 to Network Rail.

Platforms 20 and 21 were lost to the Waterloo International railway station site, which from November 1994 to November 2007 was the London terminus of Eurostar international trains to Paris and Brussels. Construction necessitated the removal of decorative masonry forming two arches from that side of the station, bearing the legend "Southern Railway". This was re-erected at the private Fawley Hill Museum of Sir William McAlpine, whose company built Waterloo International. Waterloo International closed when the Eurostar service transferred to the new St Pancras railway station with the opening of the second phase of "HS1", High Speed route 1, also known as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link or CTRL. Ownership of the former Waterloo International terminal then passed to BRB (Residuary) Ltd.