Today's post is about the first stop out of each of London's rail termini.
For example, the first stop out of London Waterloo is Vauxhall, 1.36 miles away.
But which first stop is the furthest out?
Let's do a 'first stop' chart rundown...
14. Moorgate → Old Street (0.56 miles)
You might not think of Moorgate as one of London's main rail termini, but it's on Network Rail's official list so here it is. It's on the Northern City line, which has a complex history but was basically built as a rail-sized tube line, which maybe helps explain the brief distance to station number one. At barely half a mile (officially zero miles and 45 chains), Moorgate has the shortest distance to its first stop of any London terminus.
13. Cannon Street → London Bridge (0.71 miles) Cannon Street opened to give Kent commuters a direct connection to the City, essentially a convenience to avoid them having to walk across London Bridge. And that's why the first stop out of Cannon Street is always London Bridge, a station which appears on the list of London rail termini in its own right.
12. Charing Cross → Waterloo East (0.76 miles)
Charing Cross was the other London terminus of the South Eastern Railway - more convenient for the West End. Waterloo East opened a few years later, as Waterloo Junction, for interchange with the London and South Western Railway. If Waterloo East hadn't needed to be built, the first stop out of Charing Cross would have been London Bridge, which at 1.86 miles would have been worthy of fifth position in my list.
11. Liverpool Street → Bethnal Green (1.13 miles)
Here's where things start to get a bit more complicated. Not every train out of Liverpool Street stops at Bethnal Green, indeed some head a different way via Stratford and some of those don't stop until they get to Suffolk. But today's post is about the first stop you could get off at, and the closest station to Liverpool Street is Bethnal Green.
10. Blackfriars → Elephant & Castle (1.21 miles)
Trains heading south out of Blackfriars either head via London Bridge or via Elephant and Castle. Of these, the journey to Elephant & Castle is 100 yards shorter (whereas I was expecting it to be the other round). Had I decided to travel north out of Blackfriars instead then the first stop would have been City Thameslink at a piddly 0.18 miles, but south seems the correct direction to go.
9. Victoria → Battersea Park (1.29 miles)
The first BatterseaPark station was just to the south of the railway bridge across the Thames. That closed in 1870, replaced by GrosvenorRoad station on the north side of the river. This Battersea Park station opened as York Road (Battersea) in 1867, and became the first stop on the line when Grosvenor Road closed in 1911.
8. Waterloo → Vauxhall (1.36 miles) Vauxhall has always been the first stop out of Waterloo. It opened in 1848, at the same time that the London and South Western Railway extended from its original terminus at Nine Elms to Waterloo (which was never intended to be the terminus, but the cost of extending to the City proved too great (and eventually a deep level tube railway was built instead)).
7. St Pancras → Kentish Town (1.38 miles)
Catch the right train out of St Pancras today and the first stop could be in Paris. But I'm interested in the first station on any line, and that honour falls to Kentish Town. Like its terminus this station opened in 1868 as part of a new line from the Midlands into central London.
6. London Bridge → South Bermondsey (1.71 miles)
London Bridge is the capital's oldest surviving railway terminus, dating back to 1838. An even earlier terminus was at SpaRoad in Bermondsey, which became a halt on the extended viaduct after London Bridge opened. Spa Road was later relocated to the east to become a more permanent fixture, but was closed during WW1 as a 'temporary' measure and never reopened. Shame, because it would make a more useful first stop out of London Bridge than South Bermondsey for the thousands who live round here (but reopening Spa Road would cause too much disruption on the mainline).
5. Fenchurch Street → Limehouse (1.73 miles)
There were once two extra stations between Fenchurch Street and Limehouse, one at Leman Street and another at Shadwell & St George's East, but both closed in 1941. Today the Docklands Light Railway provides one intermediate stop, a little to the west of the original Shadwell. Limehouse itself was originally called Stepney, then Stepney East, acquiring its current name in the year the DLR opened.
4. Euston → South Hampstead (2.41 miles) South Hampstead is where the 'first stop' countdown breaks the two mile barrier. Before 1915 a slightly closer station existed on the mainline at Primrose Hill. A separate pair of Primrose Hill platforms, on the chord from Camden Road, closed as recently as 1992.
3. King's Cross → Finsbury Park (2.51 miles)
Board a train at King's Cross and the earliest you can alight is two and a half miles away at Finsbury Park. This wasn't always the case. An intermediate station opened on a bridge above Holloway Road in 1852 by the name of Holloway &Caledonian Road. What killed it off was the Piccadilly line, the adjacent tube station at Holloway Road taking away most of its passengers, and it closed for good in 1915. The Piccadilly line continues to serve the intervening area.
2. Paddington → Acton Main Line (4.41 miles)
The first station out of Paddington is a ridiculous four and a half miles away, and even then it only gets two trains an hour. Acton Main Line opened as Acton in 1868, and was renamed in 1949 to help rationalise Acton's slew of rail/tube stations. It's since hit the Crossrail jackpot, and is gaining a footbridge and a new accessible entrance as we speak, but still feels like an irrelevance. The first station out of Paddington was originally West Drayton (13.2 miles), then Ealing Broadway (5.7m), then Acton (4.4m), then Westbourne Park (1.3m), then in 1871 Royal Oak (0.7m) took the crown. Mainline trains continued to stop at Royal Oak until 1934 and Westbourne Park until 1992, after which the Hammersmith & City line was left to deal with local demand. There's never been a station between two and four miles out, so you can see why local boroughs are more than keen for Crossrail/HS2 to touch down at Old Oak Common inbetween.
1. Marylebone → Wembley Stadium (6.53 miles)
To answer my first question, of all London's rail termini it's Marylebone that has the farthest first stop... Wembley Stadium. Whatever train you catch out of Marylebone you cannot alight before zone 4 (or zone 5 if you're heading up the Aylesbury branch). The Metropolitan Railway was well established by the time Marylebone opened in 1899, so there was no need for trains to stop any closer to the terminus. This station opened seven years later as Wembley Hill (there being no stadium at the time). Name change 1 (to Wembley Complex) came in 1978, and 2 (to Wembley Stadium) in 1987. The striking white bridge up top is 15 years old and designed to be crowdproof, whilst simultaneously managing to be highly unwelcoming to the casual passenger. I couldn't find a timetable, and the only way to tell when the next half-hourly train is due is to squint down onto the platforms. When the first stop's six and a half miles out, you'd hope for better.
The 10 furthest first stops
1. Marylebone → Wembley Stadium (6.53 miles) [Z4] 2. Paddington → Acton Main Line (4.41 miles) [Z3] 3. King's Cross → Finsbury Park (2.51 miles) [Z2] 4. Euston → South Hampstead (2.41 miles) [Z2] 5. Fenchurch Street → Limehouse (1.73 miles) [Z2] 6. London Bridge → South Bermondsey (1.71 miles) [Z2] 7. St Pancras → Kentish Town (1.38 miles) [Z2] 8. Waterloo → Vauxhall (1.36 miles) [Z1] 9. Victoria → Battersea Park (1.29 miles) [Z2] 10. Blackfriars → Elephant & Castle (1.21 miles) [Z1]
