Vauxhall  | |
|---|---|
 Station entrance to National Rail Vauxhall station, July 2024 | |
  Vauxhall Location of Vauxhall in Greater London | |
| Location | Vauxhall |
| Local authority | London Borough of Lambeth |
| Managed by | South Western Railway |
| Station code(s) | VXH |
| DfT category | B |
| Number of platforms | 8National Rail 2London Underground |
| Accessible | Yes[1] |
| Fare zone | 1 and2 |
| London Underground annual entry and exit | |
| 2019 |  32.30 million[2] |
| 2020 |  15.46 million[3] |
| 2021 | 13.62 million[4] |
| 2022 | 20.88 million[5] |
| 2023 | 20.77 million[6] |
| National Rail annual entry and exit | |
| 2019–20 | 19.997 million[7] |
| 2020–21 | 4.987 million[7] |
| 2021–22 | 11.651 million[7] |
| 2022–23 | 13.012 million[7] |
| 2023–24 | 13.932 million[7] |
| Key dates | |
| 11 July 1848 | Opened (LSWR) |
| 23 July 1971 | Opened (London Underground) |
| Other information | |
| External links | |
| Coordinates | 51°29′07″N0°07′22″W / 51.4854°N 0.1229°W /51.4854; -0.1229 |
 London transport portal | |
Vauxhall (/ˈvɒksɔːl/,VOK-sawl) is aNational Rail,London Underground andLondon Buses interchange station incentral London. It is at theVauxhall Cross road junction opposite the southern approach toVauxhall Bridge over theRiver Thames in the district ofVauxhall. The mainline station is run by theSouth Western Railway and is the first stop on theSouth West Main Line fromLondon Waterloo towardsClapham Junction and the south-west. The Underground station is on theVictoria line and the station is close toSt George Wharf Pier for river services.
The station was opened by theLondon and South Western Railway in 1848 as Vauxhall Bridge station. It was rebuilt in 1856 after a large fire, and given its current name in 1862. In the early 20th century, Vauxhall saw significant use as a stop for trains delivering milk from across the country into London. The tube station opened in 1971 as part of the Victoria line extension towardsBrixton, while the bus station opened in 2004. It remains an important local interchange on the London transport network.
The station sits just to the east ofVauxhall Bridge, on a viaduct with eight platforms, straddling South Lambeth Road and South Lambeth Place, alongsideVauxhall Cross.[8][9] On the National Rail network it is the next station on theSouth West Main Line along fromLondon Waterloo, 1 mile 29 chains (2.2 km) to the south-west. On the London Underground it is on theVictoria line betweenStockwell andPimlico stations.[10] The area has several surrounding railways, including the line from Victoria toStreatham.[11] The station is on the boundary of zones 1 and 2 of the LondonTravelcard area and, although a through station, it is classed as acentral London terminus for ticketing purposes.[1][12]
Vauxhall bus station is at ground level, across the road from the railway station. It has aphotovoltaic roof supplying much of its electricity, and caters for around 2,000 buses per day.[13]
The station is incorporated within theNine Elms to Waterloo Viaduct. It was opened by theLondon and South Western Railway (LSWR) as "Vauxhall Bridge Station" on 11 July 1848 when the main line was extended fromNine Elms to Waterloo, then known as "Waterloo Bridge Station". The viaduct was constructed to minimize property disturbances; nevertheless some 700 properties were demolished extending the line past Nine Elms and through Vauxhall.[14]
In the period when Vauxhall was opened, there was no way for an inspector to move through the length of a train to check tickets, so it was used as a ticket stop, like several other stations. Having arrived at Vauxhall, the train would stop for as long as necessary while all tickets could be examined and collected.[15][16]
On 13 April 1856, the station caught fire and was almost totally destroyed. The line was quickly repaired and services through to Waterloo resumed without much delay.[17] After being rebuilt, the station was renamed "Vauxhall" in 1862.[18][a] In the same year, the LSWR widened the main line through the station.[20] Vauxhall was remodelled in 1936, which included an overhaul of the signalling system up to Waterloo.[21]
In 1921,United Dairies opened a majorcreamery and milk bottling plant opposite Vauxhall station.[22] Subsequently,milk trains regularly stopped at the station.[11][23] The regular dailymilk train was fromTorrington, but services from all over theWest Country would stop atClapham Junction in the evening,[24] and reduce their length by half so that they did not block Vauxhall station while unloading. They would then proceed to Vauxhall, and pull into the Up Windsor Local platform, where a discharge pipe was provided to the creamery on the other side of the road.[23][25] There was also pedestrian access from below the station, under the road to the depot, in the tunnel where the pipeline ran. Unloaded trains would then proceed to Waterloo, where they would reverse and return to Clapham Junction to pick up the other half of the train. The procedure was then repeated, so that the entire milk train was unloaded between the end of evening peak traffic and the start of the following morning.[25]
In 2017, work began to modernise the station layout and reduce congestion as part of an £800 million works programme to improve access to Waterloo. The existing lift was replaced and a new staircase was added between platforms 7 and 8 and the concourse.[26]
The first proposed underground station at Vauxhall was as part of the West and South London Junction Railway. The line was intended to connectPaddington toOval via Vauxhall, crossing theRiver Thames slightly downstream of Vauxhall Bridge. It was rejected in January 1901 for failing to comply with Standing Orders and giving correct notice of eviction, and the plans were quietly shelved.[27] Another abandoned scheme to connectCannon Street withWimbledon would have seen an interchange at Vauxhall; these plans were scrapped in 1902 owing to lack of funds.[28]
The current deep tube London Underground station is on theVictoria line, which was the first major post-war underground project in Central London. The line was given approval to be extended fromVictoria underneath the Thames to Vauxhall (and onwards toBrixton) in March 1966. To construct the escalator shaft, the ground beneath it was frozen withbrine.[29] The station platforms were designed byDesign Research Unit and decorated with a motif from the 19th-centuryVauxhall Gardens, designed by George Smith.[30][31] At the same time, Vauxhall Cross road junction was rebuilt in order to accommodate the new Underground station.[32] The Underground station was opened on 23 July 1971 byPrincess Alexandra, as part of the extension of the Victoria line to Brixton.[18][30]
In October 1982, the first automated ticketing system on the Underground was installed at Vauxhall on an experimental basis. The two machines were a "Tenfare" which sold the ten most popular single tickets, and "Allfare" which supplied single and return tickets to any tube station. The experiment ran until July 1983, and was subsequently used in the design of the rollout of theUnderground ticketing system across the network.[33]
In 2005, the existing fixed staircase between the two escalators down to platform level was replaced by a new escalator. Installed byMetronet as part of the Tube Private Public Partnership, the escalator was installed due to the high numbers of passengers using the station.[34]
In the late 2000s, one potential option forextending the Northern line to Battersea was a route via Vauxhall station. Despite the benefit of connecting to the Victoria line and National Rail services, the option had a significantly higher cost than others, and increased the potential for increased overcrowding at the station.[35] A route viaNine Elms was chosen instead.[36] In the mid 2010s, the Underground station was upgraded and refurbished at a cost of £36m, as part of the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea regeneration project.[37] Lifts were installed to provide step-free access to the Victoria line.[38]
The bus station opened on 4 December 2004. It was designed byArup Associates and features a distinctive metallic design constructed out of stainless steel.[39] The station has been criticised for its proximity to the heavy traffic around Vauxhall Cross. In 2011, Transport for London announced they would demolish the bus station and construct a "linear walkway" instead. This was scrapped, but in 2017, they revived the demolition plans as part of general improvements in the area following support from Lambeth Council. The rebuilding is expected to take place between 2019 and 2021.[40]Kate Hoey, member of parliament forVauxhall has criticised the proposals, calling them a "stitch up".[41]
Vauxhall railway station is served by theSouth Western Railway to and from London Waterloo. Approximately 460 trains travel between the stations each day.[42]
There are 8 platforms at the station, arranged into 4 islands, which, from north to south:
In practice, platforms 5 and 6 are not used for passenger calls as fast trains do not call at this station.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[43]
Vauxhall is between Pimlico and Stockwell on theVictoria line with a peak time service frequency of 36 trains per hour, or around one every 100 seconds.[44]
London Buses routes2,36,77,87,88,156,185,196,344,360,436,452 and night routesN2,N87 andN136 serve the adjacentbus station.[45][46]
London River Services are available from nearbySt George Wharf Pier.[47] The service was opened in September 2011 by theMayor of London,Boris Johnson, with the aim of expanding boat transport along the Thames by 20%. A service runs approximately every 40 minutes to theCity of London andCanary Wharf.[48]
| Preceding station |  National Rail | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London Waterloo | South Western Railway | Queenstown Road or Clapham Junction | ||
| Preceding station |  London Underground | Following station | ||
| Stockwell towardsPimlico | Victoria line | Pimlico towardsWalthamstow Central | ||
The name Vauxhall is phonetically similar to theRussian word for arailway station,вокзал (vokzal). One theory for this similarity is thatTsar Nicholas I visited Britain in the mid-19th century to study the railway network. At the time, every train on the South Western Railway called at Vauxhall as a ticket stop. From this, the Tsar concluded that Vauxhall was a major transport interchange, and the word was introduced as the generic term in Russian.[55]
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