Balham  | |
|---|---|
 Balham station east building including shared entrance | |
  Balham Location of Balham in Greater London | |
| Location | Balham |
| Local authority | London Borough of Wandsworth |
| Managed by | Southern London Underground |
| Owners | |
| Station code | BAL |
| DfT category | C2 |
| Number of platforms | 4 (National Rail) 2 (Underground) |
| Fare zone | 3 |
| London Underground annual entry and exit | |
| 2020 |  5.24 million[1] |
| 2021 |  5.36 million[2] |
| 2022 | 9.22 million[3] |
| 2023 | 9.83 million[4] |
| 2024 | 10.24 million[5] |
| National Rail annual entry and exit | |
| 2020–21 | 2.044 million[6] |
| – interchange | 0.129 million[6] |
| 2021–22 | 3.689 million[6] |
| – interchange | 0.229 million[6] |
| 2022–23 | 4.176 million[6] |
| – interchange | 0.184 million[6] |
| 2023–24 | 5.213 million[6] |
| – interchange | 0.238 million[6] |
| 2024–25 | 5.955 million[6] |
| – interchange | 0.267 million[6] |
| Railway companies | |
| Original company | London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (National Rail) City and South London Railway (London Underground) |
| Pre-grouping | London, Brighton and South Coast Railway |
| Post-grouping | Southern Railway |
| Key dates | |
| 1 December 1856 | first station opened as Balham Hill |
| 1863 | present station opened (LB&SCR) |
| 6 December 1926 | Opened (C&SLR) |
| 14 October 1940 | Closed for repairs (Underground) |
| 12 January 1941 | Reopened (Underground) |
| Listed status | |
| Listing grade | II (Underground station) |
| Entry number | 1225887[7] |
| Added to list | 16 June 1987; 38 years ago (1987-06-16) |
| Other information | |
| External links | |
| Coordinates | 51°26′36″N0°09′09″W / 51.4432°N 0.1525°W /51.4432; -0.1525 |
 London transport portal | |
Balham (/ˈbæləm/) is aninterchange station located in centralBalham in theLondon Borough of Wandsworth, south west London forLondon Underground andNational Rail services.
The station is formed of a range of underground entrances for the Underground'sNorthern line and a shared entrance with itsNational Rail station component. The tube can be accessed on each side of theBalham High Road (A24); National Rail on the south side of the road leading east, where the track is on a mixture of light-brick high viaduct and earth embankment, quadruple track and on a brief east–west axis.
On the National Rail network it is 4 miles 52 chains (7.5 km) fromLondon Victoria.
It is inLondon fare zone 3. The conjoined stations are owned and operated separately with different ticket machines andgatelines.
The National Rail station is on theBrighton Main Line, four stops fromLondon Victoria. On a north–south route, the tracks pass through Balham on an approximate east–west axis, with Victoria towards the west. The station is managed bySouthern. The platforms are on embankment between bridges over Balham High Road and Bedford Hill. Access to the platforms is via an underpass beneath them. There are four tracks and four platforms.[8] The station is betweenWandsworth Common and eitherStreatham Hill,Streatham Common orMitcham Eastfields.
TheWest End of London and Crystal Palace Railway opened a station namedBalham Hill on 1 December 1856.[9]
The original station was on the west side of Balham High Road; it was re-sited by the LB&SCR in 1863 as part of works to widen the line, and improve the route betweenEast Croydon andVictoria.[10] Further remodelling of the line was undertaken in 1890 and 1897 to increase capacity.[11] It was namedBalham then renamedBalham and Upper Tooting on 9 March 1927, reverting toBalham on 6 October 1969.[9]
The lines through the station to Crystal Palace wereelectrified in 1911,[12][page needed] by means of the LB&SCR'Elevated Electric' overhead system. Work on electrifying the remaining services through the station had begun in 1913 but was interrupted by theFirst World War and not completed until 1925.[13] By this time the LB&SCR had been absorbed into theSouthern Railway following theRailways Act 1921. In 1925 the Southern Railway decided to adopt athird rail electrification system and the lines through the station were converted between June 1928 and September 1929.[14]
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The station has a high brick wall along Balham Station Road on which four cold cast bronze reliefs are mounted and titled "Impressions of Balham". These depict local residents and everyday scenes. They were conceived and constructed by Christine Thomas and Julia Barton and installed in 1991 forWandsworth Borough Council.[15]
The London Underground station opened on 6 December 1926 as part of theMorden extension of theCity and South London Railway south fromClapham Common. The line and other stations on the extension had opened earlier, on 13 September 1926.[16][page needed] The station is betweenClapham South andTooting Bec stations on theNorthern line.
Along with the other stations on the Morden extension, the building was designed by architectCharles Holden. They were Holden's first major project for the Underground.[17] He was selected byFrank Pick, general manager of theUnderground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL), to design the stations after he was dissatisfied with designs produced by the UERL's own architect,Stanley Heaps.[18] The Underground station buildings are listed Grade II.[7]
The station has entrances on the east and west sides of Balham High Road linked by a pedestrian subway. The modernist designs of each building take the form of double-height screens clad in whitePortland stone with three-part glazed screens in the centres of the façades divided by columns of which thecapitals are three-dimensional versions of theUnderground roundel. The central panel of the screens contain a large version of the roundel. Balham is the only station on theMorden branch of the Northern Line conjoined to aNational Rail station.[citation needed]
During theSecond World War, Balham was one of many deep tube stations designated for use as a civilianair raid shelter. On the evening of 14 October 1940, a 1,400 kg semi-armour piercing fragmentation bomb fell on the road above the northern end of the platform tunnels,[19][20] creating a large crater into which an out-of-service bus then crashed. The northbound platform tunnel partially collapsed and was filled with earth and water from the fractured water mains and sewers above, which also flowed through the cross-passages into the southbound platform tunnel, with the flooding and debris reaching to within 100 yards (91 m) ofClapham South. According to theCommonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), sixty-six people in the station were killed[21] – although some sources report 64 shelterers and four railway staff were killed,[22] and more than seventy injured. The damage at track level closed the line to traffic betweenTooting Bec andClapham Common. The closed section and station were reopened on 12 January 1941.[23]
In October 2000 a memorial plaque commemorating this event was placed in the station's ticket hall. It stated that 64 people died, which differed from the CWGC register at the time, and other sources. On 14 October 2010 this was replaced with a new commemorative plaque which does not state the number of fatalities.[24] This second plaque was again replaced with an official memorial stone in Welsh slate commissioned by London Underground and that was unveiled on 14 October 2016.[25] The two removed plaques were given to the London Transport Museum.
The bombing of the station during the war is briefly mentioned inIan McEwan's 2001 novelAtonement, while the2007 film based on the book depicts the station's flooding, in which a main character is killed. A character dates the event incorrectly (September in the novel; 15 October in the film). The film also refers to the fracturing of gas mains, as well as water. The bombing of the station is also featured in the children's novelBilly's Blitz byBarbara Mitchelhill when Billy and his family are sheltering in the tube station on the night of 14 October 1940.Ben Aaronovitch's 2012 novel,Whispers Under Ground, also mentions the flooding.[26]
A radio documentary exploring the background to the bombing and events on the day was broadcast on Riverside Radio to mark the 80th anniversary of the bomb on 14 October 2020.
DirectorSteve McQueen made a 2024 film,Blitz, about the wartime bombing of London (the Blitz), depicting and partly inspired by this event.[27]
It has been proposed to build a Crossrail 2 station interchange at Balham station as an alternative toTooting Broadway station.[28]
AllNational Rail services at Balham are operated bySouthern usingClass 377EMUs.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[29]
During the peak hours, the station is served by an additional half-hourly service between London Victoria andSutton via Norbury.On Saturday evenings (after approximately 18:45) and on Sundays, there is no service south of Dorking to Horsham.
The typical off-peakLondon Underground service on theNorthern line in trains per hour is:[30]
During the peak hours, the service is increased to up to 22 tph in each direction, including trains that run viaCharing Cross.
London Buses routes155,249,255,315,355 and night routeN155 serve the station.[31]
| Preceding station |  National Rail | Following station | ||
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| Clapham South | Northern line | Tooting Bec towardsMorden | ||
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