The world's first passenger railway first ran on 27th September 1825, which makes today the 200th birthday of the railways. (other anniversaries are available, but irrelevant today)
Celebrations will be underway all weekend on the former Stockton to Darlington Railway, much of which is still in passenger use. But that's a long way to travel, plus reportage from the events will likely clog YouTube for the rest of the week, so I've chosen to answer a more local question.
What's London's oldest station?
You can't have one oldest station, there have to be at least two. So we're looking for London's oldest passenger railway and then seeing which station the first train set off from on Day One. Which means we're off to the London & Greenwich Railway which opened on 8th February 1836.
The L&GR got the green light from an Act of Parliament in 1833, the intention to build a railway line from Tooley Street (near London Bridge) to London Street in Greenwich. Much of the intermediate land was marshes or market gardens, plus streets nearer town it would have been cumbersome to have crossed with level crossings, so the optimum solution was a viaduct to carry trains high above potential awkwardness. It was 3¾ miles long and about 7 metres high, also remarkably straight because it preceded most other development in the area. The viaduct was supported on 878 brick arches, 29 of which doubled up as road bridges, and is still the longest run of arches anywhere in Britain. It was, and is, amazing.
It was also expensive, so the company building it was soon in danger of running out of money. Crossing Deptford Creek proved particularly taxing because the river had to remain navigable, also two arches near Tooley Street collapsed severing access to the intended city terminus. So they opened what they had, which was a two mile section between Spa Road in Bermondsey and Deptford High Street, charging sixpence for a ticket. And because the very first train departed Deptford at 8am this makes Deptford London's oldest station, and now-non-existent Spa Road merely the second.
Deptford station spans the high street although initially this wasn't the case, bridge construction having been delayed by the late delivery of iron from a foundry in Dudley, hence the first terminus was on the west side of the street. Once complete a wooden screen was added on each side of the bridge lest passing steam trains frighten any horses down below. A ticket hall was added in 1845 along with a domed spiral staircase for access to the London-bound platforms. Then in 1904 a partial rebuild saw the platforms lengthened and widened, extending round what's the first curve on the lengthy run from London Bridge. But the biggest change was probably in 2012 when Deptford station went step-free.
A glass structure now shields a modern staircase and lift on the south side, this the cunning solution for adapting a historic listed building with minimal impact. The Greenwich-bound platform is now accessed through one of the lower arches rather than up a manky staircase from the high street, the locked doors to which are still the location of the station's BR double arrows. It's all become a bit piazza-y at street level, with businesses selling coffee, cocktails, craft beer and flowers in the arches where the early railway maintained its rolling stock. There are still no ticket gates, Southeastern relying on the natural honesty of Deptford residents to tap in and out.
But the finest heritage asset at Deptford, now unique in Britain, is the carriage ramp built to haul locomotives and rolling stock up to viaduct level. It's surprisingly long - a necessity to keep the gradient down - and with a potentially awkward 90 degree bend near the bottom. And it was gloriously restored as part of the most recent upgrade, the ramp so broad they were even able to add flower beds. The arches underneath, originally used for railway storage, now house a selection of boutiques and feta salad merchants, as befits a market-adjacent arcade. Look out for the blue plaque commemorating the revamp, and also the three information boards on platform 1 conveniently detailing the complex history of London's oldest station.
Kickstarting the idea that station names should reference the street they cross rather than the locality, here we are amid the backstreets of Bermondsey. Spa Road wasn't the intended terminus, remember, but the closest the L&GR could get to London Bridge at the time. Initially that meant a wooden staircase up to the viaduct and passengers waiting on the tracks, an obvious recipe for injury, indeed the first fatal accident occurred within a month when a man called Daniel Holmes was run over by a train. Spa Road was never well used after London Bridge opened in the December of that year (becoming London's third railway station), but continued to be rebuilt every time the viaduct was widened as yet another new railway fed in.
This is an extraordinary part of Southwark with the viaduct dominating the neighbourhood at ground level and a number of tall brickarches providing atmospheric access underneath. Spa Road is one of the streets threading through, but over the years staircase access has also been via narrow Marine Street and bendy Dockley Road instead. Every wall contains anonymous locked doorways leading to unseen voids, like some kind of Dungeons & Dragons experience, and I entirely lost track of which was supposed to be the original station entrance and which was its 1845 successor. In 1867 Spa Road station was relocated 200m down the line, no longer on its nominal road, but never reopened after WW1 due to lack of previous use. Look out of the window on a passing train and you can still see the tracks bend around the remains of a crumbling overgrown platform.
Today multiple arches hereabouts are occupied by two dozen small food producers under the umbrella name Spa Terminus. They include granola makers, vinegar distillers, walnut foragers and spice importers, as well as providers of cured meats and small batch chutneys. Come on Fridays or Saturdays and you can eschew Borough Market by going straight to the producers. It says a lot that there were no replacement stations nearby until the Jubilee line extension opened in 1999, despite a large local population packed into postwar flats. As it stands all that remains of Spa Road are the words 'Booking Office' above the warehouse of a biodynamic wine importer, because London's second railway station is alas long gone. [full history][old photos]
London's oldest stations 1836: Deptford, Spa Road, London Bridge 1837: Euston, Harrow & Wealdstone 1838: Greenwich; Paddington, Ealing Broadway, Hanwell, West Drayton; Nine Elms, Wandsworth, Wimbledon, Surbiton 1839: New Cross Gate, Forest Hill, Sydenham, Penge West, Anerley, Norwood, West Croydon; Stratford, Ilford, Romford; Southall 1840: Bishopsgate, Tottenham Hale, Northumberland Road, Angel Road, Ponders End, Lea Bridge, Forest Gate; Minories, Shadwell, Limehouse, Poplar, West India Docks, Blackwall
