Cannon Street | |
|---|---|
| London Cannon Street | |
 Main entrance | |
  Cannon Street Location of Cannon Street in Central London | |
| Location | Cannon Street |
| Local authority | City of London |
| Grid reference | TQ326808 |
| Managed by | Network Rail |
| Station code(s) | CST |
| DfT category | A |
| Number of platforms | 7 |
| Accessible | Yes |
| Fare zone | 1 |
| OSI | Bank  [1] |
| National Rail annual entry and exit | |
| 2019–20 |  18.513 million[2] |
| 2020–21 | 2.684 million[2] |
| 2021–22 |  7.024 million[2] |
| 2022–23 | 6.723 million[2] |
| 2023–24 | 7.102 million[2] |
| – interchange |  0.294 million[2] |
| Railway companies | |
| Original company | South Eastern Railway |
| Pre-grouping | South Eastern and Chatham Railway |
| Post-grouping | Southern Railway |
| Key dates | |
| 1 September 1866 | Opened |
| 5 June 1926 | Closed |
| 28 June 1926 | Reopened |
| 5 August 1974 | Closed |
| 9 September 1974 | Reopened |
| Other information | |
| External links | |
| Coordinates | 51°30′37″N0°05′27″W / 51.5104°N 0.0907°W /51.5104; -0.0907 |
 London transport portal | |
Cannon Street station, also known asLondon Cannon Street,[3] is acentral London railway terminus and connectedLondon Underground station inTravelcard zone 1 located onCannon Street in theCity of London and managed byNetwork Rail. It is one of two London termini of theSouth Eastern Main Line, the other beingCharing Cross, while the London Underground station is on theCircle andDistrict lines, betweenMonument andMansion House stations. The station runs services bySoutheastern, mostly catering for commuters in southeast London and Kent, with occasional services further into the latter.
The station was built on a site of the medievalsteelyard, the trading base in England of theHanseatic League. It was built by theSouth Eastern Railway in order to have a railway terminal in the City and compete with the rivalLondon, Chatham and Dover Railway. This required a new bridge across theRiver Thames, which was constructed between 1863 and 1866. The station was initially a stop for continental services from Charing Cross, and that route was convenient for travel between the City and theWest End, until the construction of theDistrict Railway. It remained popular with commuters, though its off-peak services were discontinued in the early 20th century, leading to it being closed on Sundays for almost 100 years. The original hotel on the station was unsuccessful, and eventually closed. The station was controversially renovated in the late 1950s byJohn Poulson, while further construction on top of the station building occurred during the City's 1980s property boom. The Poulson building was replaced in 2007 as part of a general renovation of the station to make it more accessible. As part of theThameslink Programme development in the 2010s, it was re-opened on Sundays and began to offer more long-distance services in place of Charing Cross.
Cannon Street is a terminal station, approached across theRiver Thames by the Cannon Street Railway Bridge. Its approach by rail is through a triangular connection to bothLondon Bridge andCharing Cross. It is one of eighteen stations in the country that are managed byNetwork Rail.[4]
There were originally eight platforms; a refurbishment in the late 1990s removed the original platform 1.[5] It has entrances onCannon Street itself and Dowgate Hill. It is located nearLondon Stone (to the north of the station).
London Buses routes15 and17 and night routesN15 andN199 serve the station.[6][7]
Cannon Street station was built on a site where theHanseatic merchants'Steelyard had been based from the 10th century until 1598.[8] The site was proposed in 1860 by theSouth Eastern Railway (SER) in response to its rival, theLondon, Chatham & Dover Railway (LC&DR), extending a line into theCity of London as far north asLudgate Hill. The SER had already made plans to extend its line towardsCharing Cross, but decided that it should complement this with a terminus in the City.[9]
In 1861, the company obtained an act of Parliament for a station in Cannon Street, a short distance fromMansion House and theBank of England.[9] In addition to taking traffic from the LC&DR, the new station would provide a direct railway link between the City and theWest End, over which a journey could be made in a fraction of the time taken travelling by road.[10] The approach was a 60-chain (4,000 ft; 1,200 m) branch of the line to Charing Cross, west of London Bridge. Work started on the station and its approach in July 1863.[11] The construction work was undertaken byLucas Brothers.[12]
The station was opened on 1 September 1866[11] at a cost of £4 million (now £468 million).[13] The original building was designed bySir John Hawkshaw andJohn Wolfe-Barry and was characterised by its twoChristopher Wren-style towers, 23 ft (7.0 m) square and 135 ft (41 m) high, which faced on to theRiver Thames. The towers supported an iron train shed, 700 ft (210 m) long and crowned by a high single arch, almost semicircular, of glass and iron. The station is carried overUpper Thames Street on a brick viaduct, 700 ft (210 m) long and containing 27 million bricks.[14] Below this viaduct exist the remains of a number of Roman buildings, which form ascheduled monument.[15] The bridge was open to pedestrians between 1872 and 1877; they paid a toll of½d.[11]
The five-storey City Terminus Hotel, which fronted the station, was opened in May 1867. It was anItalianate style hotel and forecourt, designed byE. M. Barry, and it provided many of the station's passenger facilities, as well as an appropriate architectural frontispiece to the street. This arrangement was very similar to that put in place at Charing Cross.[16] The hotel was also built byLucas Brothers.[12] The hotel was not profitable, and was over £47,000 (now £5,680,000) in debt by 1870.[17] The City Terminus Hotel was renamed the Cannon Street Hotel in 1879.[5] In July 1920, the hotel was the venue for theFoundation Congress of theCommunist Party of Great Britain. Most of the hotel was closed in 1931, but the public rooms were kept open for meetings. The rest were converted into offices and renamed Southern House.[16] The hotel is referred to in The Fire Sermon section ofT. S. Eliot'sThe Waste Land.[18]
Upon its opening Cannon Street station was a stopping point for all services to and from Charing Cross, including boat trains to Continental Europe. A shuttle service between the two stations ran every 20 minutes and became a popular way of travelling between the City and the West End.[16] However, the opening of theDistrict Railway as far asBlackfriars caused traffic to decline, and its extension toMansion House the following year reduced it further. The SER's route could not compete with the Underground, which was more direct and reliable,[19] but suburban traffic to Cannon Street remained significant, and the bridge was widened to 120 feet (37 m) in the late 1880s, allowing ten tracks with sidings. The rebuilt bridge was opened on 13 February 1892.[20] The signal boxes outside the station were upgraded the following year.[21]
The SER merged with the LC&DR in 1899 to form theSouth Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR). The following year, the station was earmarked for part-time closures as it relied primarily on business travel, but this was rejected. A further proposal was a monorail running between London Bridge and Cannon Street, at an estimated cost of £100,000; this was also abandoned.[22] TheLondon and Southwestern Railway (LSWR) became interested in using Cannon Street as a terminus, as it would allow a connection betweenWaterloo and the City.[23]
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Work on strengthening the bridge, by the addition of six new 443-foot (135 m) girders in between the existing ones, was completed in 1913.[20]
Most Cannon Street train services ceased duringWorld War I. Continental boat trains were stopped on 15 November 1914 and rerouted to Victoria. The station stopped being served by through services from Charing Cross on 31 December 1916, and was closed on Sundays. Services were reduced further on 1 May 1918, when it was closed after 3 p.m. on Saturdays and between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Mondays to Fridays. This allowed Cannon Street to be used as a goods depot for war supplies.[24]
Between 5 and 28 June 1926, the station was closed to allow theSouthern Railway to carry out various works, including the rebuilding of the platforms, relaying of the tracks and installation of a new system of electrical signalling – the four-aspect colour light scheme. The station was also renovated and the glass roof cleaned. The number of platforms was reduced from nine to eight, with five set aside for the new electric trains. The signal box spanning the width of the railway bridge was removed.[25] In July 1939, Cannon Street was closed for a week following a fire inBorough Market which prevented any trains accessing it.[26]
The station, which had been subject to structural neglect prior toWorld War II, suffered extensive bomb damage and was hit by several incendiary devices which damaged the roof. A high explosive also hit platform 8.[27] The original glass roof had been removed before the war, in an attempt to save it; however, the factory in which the roof was stored was itself badly bombed, destroying the roof.[5]
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Followingnationalisation of the railways in 1948, the station was managed by theSouthern Region of British Railways. The station's prime location coupled with the property boom of the 1950s and the need forBritish Rail to seek alternative revenue streams made war-damaged Cannon Street a key target for property developers.[28] Steam trains stopped running from Cannon Street in 1961[29]
Various plans were mooted for the reconstruction of the station, from the installation of a new ticket hall and concourse under Southern House in 1955 as part of British Rail'sModernisation Plan to the construction of a car park estimated to cost £125,000 (now £4,142,000)[28] and even a helipad.[a][30] In 1962, theBritish Transport Commission entered into an agreement with Town & Country Properties for the construction of a multi-storey office building above the station with 154,000 sq ft (14,300 m2) of floor space. The cost of the development was £2.35 million (now £57 million) and it was scheduled for completion by June 1965.[31]
In preparation for redevelopment, the remains of the train shed roof had been demolished in 1958, and Barry's hotel (which had been used as offices since 1931) soon followed in 1960.[32] The architect selected to design the new building wasJohn Poulson who was good friends with Graham Tunbridge, a British Rail surveyor whom he had met during the war. Poulson took advantage of this friendship to win contracts for the redevelopment of various British Rail termini. He paid Tunbridge a weekly income of £25 and received in return building contracts, including the rebuilding ofWaterloo andEast Croydon stations. At his trial in 1974, Poulson admitted that, shortly before receiving the Cannon Street building contract, he had given Tunbridge a cheque for £200 and a suit worth £80.[33] Poulson was later found guilty of corruption charges and given a seven-year concurrent sentence; Tunbridge received a 15-month suspended sentence and a £4,000 fine for his role in the affair.[34]
All that now remains of the original station architecture are the twin 120 ft (37 m) yellow brick towers at the country-end and parts of the low flanking walls.[5]
The station's twin brick towers werelisted Grade II in 1972.[35][36] In 1974, the station was closed for five weeks from 2 August to 9 September to enable alterations to be made to the track and the approaches to London Bridge to be resignalled. Traffic was diverted to London Bridge, Charing Cross andBlackfriars.[37] On 4 March 1976, aProvisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb of about 10 lb (4.5 kg) exploded on an empty commuter train leaving Cannon Street, injuring eight people on another train travelling alongside.[b][38]
On 15 February 1984, it was reported inThe Times that Cannon Street was to close. At the time, the station had been closed for weekends and evenings, and the publication of British Rail's new timetable for 1984–1985 revealed that it would lose all its direct off-peak services to the south-east. Services from Sevenoaks,Orpington,Hayes,Dartford,Sidcup,Bexleyheath,Woolwich,Lewisham andGreenwich would instead terminate atLondon Bridge except during peak hours.[39] This was denied by British Rail (Southern)'s manager David Kirby, who pointed out that it had invested £10 million in redecking the railway bridge, and that passengers travelling from the south-east during off-peak hours would most likely be visiting theWest End and notthe City.[40]
In 1986, the twin towers were restored in a project costing £242,000 (now £4,033,000). The works revealed that the east tower still contained a large water tank which was used during the days of steam traction to replenish locomotives and to power the station's hydraulic systems. The brickwork was repaired, cleaned and repointed, and theweather vanes gilded to complement the dome of nearbySt Paul's Cathedral. This work was one of the Railway Heritage Trust's first projects and coincided with an exhibition held in the station in August of the same year to mark its 150th anniversary.[41]
In the 1980s, there was another property boom and British Rail again began looking into further commercial uses of the Cannon Street landspace, including 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2) of office space.[43] Theair rights over the platforms to the rear of Poulson's office were sold to Speyhawk which appointedBovis Construction to build a free-standing structure comprising two office blocks on a 6,000 tonne steel deck constructed over the station's eight platforms.[5] The Cannons Club, a sports club, was founded beneath the station's arches around this time, and quickly became one of the most prestigioussquash clubs in the country.InterCity, the high-speed arm of British Rail, subsequently sponsored the National Squash Championships and National Squash Challenge.[44]
The larger office block, the "Atrium building", provides 190,000 sq ft (18,000 m2) of office space on six floors and is linked to the smaller building, the "River building", via a glazed link raised through a central glazed atrium. The River building, which has two storeys, is built on the steel deck and contained within the station's two flank walls, which were rebuilt, providing 95,000 sq ft (8,800 m2) of office space. This building projects slightly beyond the restored twin towers which form the riverside boundary to the development.[45] The Atrium building was later let to theLondon International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (Liffe). The River building has a 1 acre (0.40 ha) roof garden. The project cost around £500,000 and was laid to comply with planning restrictions which required the building to be low and flat to maintain the sight lines from St Paul's toTower Bridge.[46]
Planning permission was granted in March 2007 to replace the Poulson building, with a new air rights building designed by Foggo Associates.[47]Hines, the US developer, led a £360 million project involving the demolition of Poulson's office block, replacing it with a mixed-use development containing more than 400,000 sq ft (37,000 m2) of office space alongside 17,000 sq ft (1,600 m2) of station retail space.[15] The redevelopment was part of a larger regeneration programme undertaken byNetwork Rail to modernise and "unlock the commercial potential" of the main London termini;Euston andLondon Bridge were also redeveloped. Network Rail's director of commercial property said that the finished station would be "less congested and more accessible for passengers."[48] Cannon Street won the award for "Major Station of the Year" at the 2013 National Rail Awards.[49]
In January 2015, the station's opening hours were extended to 0500–0100 Monday to Sunday (prior to this, the station had been closed on Sundays and during the evenings), and several services which previously terminated at Charing Cross were diverted to Cannon Street as a result ofThameslink Programme works. Some of these services reverted to terminating at Charing Cross following the completion of the works, while services from theGreenwich line and fromNew Cross andSt Johns will permanently run to Cannon Street due to the removal of the Spa Road Junction.[50][51]
The station connects the south side of the City to south and south-east London viaLondon Bridge station. Some services run directly into Cannon Street fromKent andEast Sussex, but generally only during peak hours. Occasionally during the weekends when track maintenance is in progress, the station serves as an intermediate station between London Bridge andCharing Cross. Either trains reverse at the station or rail passengers change trains here. From 1918 to 2015, the station was closed on Sundays; this changed with Southeastern's introduction of a new timetable from January 2015 which resulted in the station's opening hours being extended over the entire week,[52] except when engineering works require its closure and most services can be diverted to Charing Cross.[53] In the same way, many trains can be diverted to Cannon Street if engineering works affect Charing Cross.
All services at London Cannon Street are operated bySoutheastern usingClass 375,376,465,466 and707EMUs.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[54]
During peak hours, there are also additional services toAshford International,Tunbridge Wells,Hastings andOre, and toRamsgate andDover Priory viaChatham.[55]
| Cannon Street | |
|---|---|
 Entrance from Dowgate Hill | |
| Location | Cannon Street |
| Local authority | City of London |
| Managed by | London Underground |
| Number of platforms | 2 |
| Accessible | Yes(Westbound only)[66] |
| Fare zone | 1 |
| London Underground annual entry and exit | |
| 2019 | 7.11 million[67] |
| 2020 | 1.56 million[68] |
| 2021 | 2.15 million[69] |
| 2022 | 3.79 million[70] |
| 2023 | 3.84 million[71] |
| Key dates | |
| 1884 | Opened (MICCR) |
| Other information | |
| External links | |
| London transport portal | |
The London Underground station is sub-surface, situated immediately below the main line station. It is served by theDistrict andCircle lines.[72] Entrances are located on Cannon Street, Dowgate Hill, and on the main line concourse upstairs at the National Rail station, providing an interconnection for commuters.[73] Since 2018,out of station interchange has been permitted between Cannon Street andBank stations.[74]
By 1876, theMetropolitan Railway (MR) andDistrict Railway (DR) had constructed the majority of the Inner Circle (now the Circle line), reachingAldgate andMansion House respectively.[75] The companies were in dispute over the completion of the route as the DR was struggling financially and the MR was concerned that completion would affect its revenues through increased competition from the DR in the City area. In 1874, city financiers who were keen to see the line completed established the Metropolitan Inner Circle Completion Railway (MICCR) to link Mansion House to Aldgate.[76][77] Forced into action, the MR bought out the company, and it and the DR began construction of the final section of the Inner Circle in 1879.[76]
On 6 October 1884, the final section of the Inner Circle was opened, along with Cannon Street station.[78] Initially, the station was served by trains of both companies as part of the circular Inner Circle service, but various operational patterns have been used during the station's life.[79] The Inner Circle service achieved a separate identity as the Circle line in 1949, although its trains were still provided by the District or Metropolitan lines.[80]
A station here was part of the abandoned phase two expansion of the Fleet line (nowJubilee line). It had originally been planned in 1943, and was revived as a major transport plan in 1965.[81] London Transport spent £10m (now £167m) in 1972 safeguarding the route underneath Cannon Street and building reinforcements for laying a tube in the water-bearing ground around the station. The plan was abandoned in the early 1980s in favour of the current extension further south.[82]
The Underground station underwent major reconstruction at the same time as the main line station, with the work being completed in 2012. From 14 December 2014, the station's opening hours changed significantly, with the station opening on Sundays and no longer closing early in the evenings.[83] The station previously had restricted opening hours because it primarily served the local financial services sector, so there was low demand for services outside office hours. However, with the main line station's opening hours being extended due to theThameslink Programme, the Underground station's opening hours were changed to accommodate the additional passengers.[citation needed]
Notes
Citations
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| Preceding station | London Underground | Following station | ||
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| Mansion House towardsEdgware Road via Victoria | Circle line | Monument towardsHammersmith via King's Cross St Pancras | ||
| Mansion House | District line | Monument towardsUpminster | ||
| Preceding station |  National Rail | Following station | ||
| Terminus | Southeastern | |||
| Abandoned plans | ||||
| Preceding station | London Underground | Following station | ||
| Ludgate Circus towardsStanmore | Jubilee line Phase 2 (never constructed) | Fenchurch Street towardsNew Cross Gate orLewisham | ||
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