Charing Cross | |
|---|---|
| London Charing Cross | |
 Approach tracks across the River Thames | |
  Charing Cross Location of Charing Cross in Central London | |
| Location | Charing Cross |
| Local authority | City of Westminster |
| Managed by | Network Rail |
| Station code | CHX |
| DfT category | A |
| Number of platforms | 6 |
| Accessible | Yes[1] |
| Fare zone | 1 |
| OSI | Charing Cross Embankment Embankment Pier  [2] |
| Cycle parking | No |
| Toilet facilities | Yes |
| National Rail annual entry and exit | |
| 2020–21 |  5.373 million[3] |
| – interchange | 91,995[3] |
| 2021–22 |  15.733 million[3] |
| – interchange | 0.295 million[3] |
| 2022–23 | 16.191 million[3] |
| – interchange | 0.419 million[3] |
| 2023–24 | 17.701 million[3] |
| – interchange | 0.488 million[3] |
| 2024–25 | 19.768 million[3] |
| – interchange | 0.316 million[3] |
| Railway companies | |
| Original company | South Eastern Railway |
| Pre-grouping | South Eastern & Chatham Railway |
| Post-grouping | Southern Railway |
| Key dates | |
| 11 January 1864 | Opened |
| Other information | |
| External links | |
| Coordinates | 51°30′29″N0°07′30″W / 51.508°N 0.125°W /51.508; -0.125 |
 London transport portal | |
Charing Cross railway station (also known asLondon Charing Cross)[4] is acentral London railway terminus between theStrand andHungerford Bridge in theCity of Westminster. It is the terminus of theSoutheastern Main Lines toDover viaAshford andHastings viaTunbridge Wells. All trains are operated bySoutheastern, which provides the majority of commuter and regional services to south-east London andKent. It is connected toCharing Cross Underground station and is near toEmbankment Underground station andEmbankment Pier.
The station was originally opened by theSouth Eastern Railway in 1864. It takes its name from its proximity to the road junctionCharing Cross, the notional "centre of London" from which distances from the city are measured. During the 19th century the station became the main London terminus for continental traffic viaboat trains, and served several prestigious international services. It was badly damaged by a roof collapse in 1905 and extensively rebuilt, subsequently becoming an important meeting point for military and government traffic duringWorld War I. By this time, Charing Cross station was seen as out of date by some politicians and proposals were made to replace Hungerford Bridge with a road bridge or road/rail combination, with the station moving to the south bank of theRiver Thames in the case of a road-only replacement. The station was bombed several times duringWorld War II, and was rebuilt afterwards, re-opening in 1951. In the late 1980s, the station complex was redesigned byTerry Farrell and rebuilt to accommodate a modern office block, now known as Embankment Place.
Charing Cross station is located at the western end of theStrand in theCity of Westminster, east ofTrafalgar Square and northeast ofWhitehall. It is close to theEmbankment Pier, providing river services along theRiver Thames. The railway leads directly out ontoHungerford Bridge and across the river towards theLondon Borough of Lambeth.[5]
Thestation code is CHX.[4] It is one of twenty stations in Great Britain that are managed byNetwork Rail[6] and is the 15thbusiest station in the country. A number of key bus routes run in the area, and are designated "Trafalgar Square for Charing Cross".[7]
The station was planned as the London terminus of theSouth Eastern Railway (SER). They had wanted to extend the line fromBricklayers Arms towards Hungerford Bridge, but a bill presented in 1846 was unsuccessful. In 1857, they proposed to Parliament that they would build a railway terminus in theWest End, hoping to useVictoria, before reaching an agreement with theLondon, Brighton and South Coast Railway to build a line west fromLondon Bridge.[8]
| Charing Cross Railway Act 1859 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
.svg) | |
| Long title | An Act for the making and maintaining of the Charing Cross Railway, and for other Purposes. |
| Citation | 22 & 23 Vict. c. lxxxi |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 8 August 1859 |
| Charing Cross Railway (City Terminus) Act 1861 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
| |
| Long title | An Act for authorizing the Charing Cross Railway to make a Line of Railway from their authorized Line into the City of London, with an additional Line in Southwark, and to raise further Monies; and for other Purposes. |
| Citation | 24 & 25 Vict. c. xciii |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 28 June 1861 |
| Charing Cross Railway (City Terminus Bridge) Act 1862 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
| |
| Long title | An Act for amending "The Charing Cross Railway (City Terminus) Act, 1861." |
| Citation | 25 & 26 Vict. c. ccxx |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 7 August 1862 |
| Other legislation | |
| Amends |
|
Later in the year, theSER secretary Samuel Smiles looked for potential routes and decided the best location would be on the site of the formerHungerford Market adjacent toThe Strand, and that the line should be directly connected toWaterloo, allowing a link withLondon and South Western Railway services.[8] TheCharing Cross Railway Company was formed by theCharing Cross Railway Act 1859 (22 & 23 Vict. c. lxxxi) in order to build the extension, and theSER paid £300,000 (now £38,000,000) in capital to help build this.[9] The line towards Charing Cross was expensive to build as it traversed a heavily built-up area, which was exacerbated in 1862 when the company chose to upgrade the two running lines to three, and doubled the capacity over the bridge to four tracks.[10] The bridge replaced the original suspension bridge designed byIsambard Kingdom Brunel which opened in 1845.[a] Work began in June 1860 and took around three years. The old suspension bridge remained open until the newHungerford Bridge was suitable to carry foot traffic.[11] A trial run over the new line took place on 1 December 1863.[12]
| Charing Cross Railway Act 1863 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
| |
| Long title | An Act for regulating the Capital and Debenture Debt of the Charing Cross Railway Company; and for authorizing the Amalgamation of that Company with the South-eastern Railway Company; and for other Purposes. |
| Citation | 26 & 27 Vict. c. cxv |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 13 July 1863 |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
The station was designed by SirJohn Hawkshaw, and featured a single spanwrought iron roof, 510 feet (155 m) long and 164 feet (50 m) wide, arching over the six platforms on its relatively cramped site.[9] It was built on a brick arched viaduct, the level of the rails above the ground varying up to 30 feet (9 m). The space underneath the line was used aswine cellars.[11] The roof above the tracks is a single 164-foot (50 m) wide great arch, rising to 102 feet (31 m) at its highest point.[13] The station was built byLucas Brothers.[14]
| Charing Cross Railway Act 1864 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
| |
| Long title | An Act for authorizing the Charing Cross Railway Company to acquire additional Lands at or near to their Cannon Street Station in the City of London, and to raise further Monies; and for other Purposes. |
| Citation | 27 & 28 Vict. c. cxcii |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 14 July 1864 |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
Charing Cross station opened on 11 January 1864. The Charing Cross Railway was absorbed into theSER on 1 September, shortly after the station opened.[9][15]
TheCharing Cross Hotel, designed byEdward Middleton Barry, and built byLucas Brothers,[16] opened on 15 May 1865 and gave the station an ornate frontage in the French Renaissance style. It had 250 bedrooms spread over seven floors and extended alongVilliers Street as well as the front of the Strand. The public rooms had balconies overlooking the main station concourse. It quickly became popular and was profitable, leading to a 90-bedroom annexe on the other side of Villiers Street opening in 1878. A bridge over the street connected the two parts of the hotel together.[17]
In 1887, Hungerford Bridge was widened to 48 feet 9 inches (14.86 m) in order to provide three more tracks into the station.[18] On 1 January 1899, theSER merged with theLondon, Chatham and Dover Railway to form theSouth Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR), which took over operations at Charing Cross.[19]
Contemporary with the Charing Cross Hotel was a replica of theEleanor Cross in RedMansfield stone, also designed byEdward Middleton Barry, that was erected in the station forecourt. It was based on the original Whitehall Cross built in 1291, that had been demolished in 1647 by order of Parliament.[20] Distances in London are officially measured from the original site of the cross, now thestatue of Charles I facingWhitehall, and not from this replica.[21]
The cross deteriorated over time until it was in such a vulnerable condition that it was placed onEnglish Heritage's "Heritage At Risk Register" in 2008. A ten-month project to repair and restore the cross was completed in August 2010. This work included recreating and attaching almost 100 missing ornamental features including heraldic shields, an angel, pinnacles, crockets and finials; securing weak or fractured masonry with stainless steel pins and rods and re-attaching decorative items which had previously been removed after becoming loose.[22]
After opening, Charing Cross became the main terminus of allSER services instead of London Bridge, includingboat trains to Continental Europe. Along with Victoria, it became the main departure point from London to abroad, and was called "the Gates of the World" byPercy Fitzgerald.Thomas Cook established a travel office on the corner of the station forecourt. TheSER route became the shortest from London to Dover after a diversion at Sevenoaks was built in 1868, and by 1913 it was possible to travel from Charing Cross to Paris in six and a half hours.[23]
Owing to its international connections, Charing Cross played an important part inWorld War I as the main departure point for both the military and government towards theWestern Front. All civilian and public boat services were suspended on 3 August 1914. Return journeys from Dover carried the sick and wounded towards Charing Cross and hence to hospitals around the country. Over the course of the war, 283 journeys departed from the station. On 26 December 1918, shortly after the war, the US PresidentWoodrow Wilson metKing George V at Charing Cross. Commercial cross-Channel services resumed toOstend on 18 January 1919,Boulogne on 3 February andCalais on 8 January 1920, but by this time, Victoria had been expanded to accommodate the strict wartime immigration and customs checks, and Charing Cross ceased to be important as an international terminal.[24]
A 70-foot (21 m) length of the original roof structure, comprising the two end bays at the south of the station, and part of the western wall collapsed at 3:57 p.m. on 5 December 1905. A gang of men were employed at the time in repairing, glazing and painting the section of roof which fell. Shortly after 3:45 p.m, the roof emitted a loud noise, which was when someone noticed that one of the main tie rods had broken and was hanging down. Part of the roof began to sag and the western wall began to crack.[25][26]
It was another 12 minutes before the collapse occurred, which enabled trains and platforms to be evacuated and incoming trains to be held back. The roof, girders and debris fell across four passenger trains, blocking all tracks. The part of the western wall that fell had crashed through the wall and roof of the neighbouring Royal Avenue Theatre (now thePlayhouse Theatre) inNorthumberland Avenue, which was being reconstructed at the time.[25] Six people died (two workmen on the roof, aW.H. Smith bookstall vendor and three workmen on the Royal Avenue Theatre site).[27]
At the Board Of Trade Inquiry into the accident, expert witnesses expressed doubts about the design of the roof, even though the cause of the failure was attributed to a faulty weld in a tie rod. Though the SECR believed the roof had a lifespan of at least forty more years, they decided not to repair it but to replace it entirely. A travelling timber gantry had to be constructed to take the remainder of the station roof down safely. The replacement was a utilitarian post and girder structure supporting a ridge and furrow roof. The curve of the original roof design can still be seen on the interior brickwork. The station was partially re-opened on 19 March 1906.[28]
The old booking offices were demolished and the various rooms on the ground floor were rearranged. A new 58-by-22-foot (17.7 m × 6.7 m) booking hall was constructed, along with a separate ladies' waiting-room. The additional remedial work was completed in 1913.[29]
By the late 19th century, Charing Cross was seen as being inconveniently placed. In 1889, the newly formedLondon County Council'sJohn Burns proposed that the station and its approach should be demolished, with a road bridge put in place. The idea gained support within the council as it would allow the Strand to be widened and put a road crossing over the Thames that could bypass Whitehall. When the SECR went to Parliament asking for an act to strengthen the bridge in 1916, Burns suggested the station was in the wrong place and should be rebuilt on the south side of the Thames.[30] The following year, an act was passed to reconstruct the bridge, with strict conditions about its appearance and a ban on enlarging the station building itself.[31]
Ownership of Charing Cross passed to theSouthern Railway (SR) in 1923 following theBig Four grouping. The line waselectrified in 1926 to cater for suburban services. The lighter load of multiple-unit electric trains was found to put far less strain on the bridge, and so traffic was redesigned so that local services ran on the older section, with mainline services using the 1887 extension.[32]
In 1926, the Royal Commission on Cross River Traffic proposed that Hungerford Bridge should be replaced by a double deck road / rail bridge, and a new Charing Cross station built to the east of the old one. The SR approved the idea as it would allow them to expand the station.[31] Two years later, a proposal appeared again to build just a road bridge and relocate the station south of the Thames, as it was significantly cheaper. The Prime MinisterStanley Baldwin urged the SR to accept the proposal, as "a matter of national importance", but the bill failed in 1930 after theselect committee did not accept building a new Charing Cross on the south bank.[33] The proposal was formally rejected in 1936 by the London & Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee, which revived the double-deck bridge option. The plans were all abandoned following the outbreak ofWorld War II.[34]
Charing Cross sustained substantial damage in air-raids during the war. On 8 October 1940, a train was hit during a daylight raid on Whitehall. On the evening of 16/17 April 1941, the hotel was damaged by fire and explosives, four trains caught fire and there were several fires on the bridge. A 28 long hundredweight (3,100 lb; 1,400 kg)parachute mine landed next to platform 4. The station was closed to repair the damage and defuse the mine. A further raid took place on the night of 10/11 May, leading to the station's closure again. On 18 June 1944, a bomb took out a span of the bridge. Normal operation did not resume until 4 December.[35]
Following the war, the hotel received extensive repairs in 1951. This consisted of a whole new set of top floors, while themansard roof of the upper floors of the hotel was rebuilt in a plain neo-Georgian white brick.[35]
The booking hall and ticket offices were modernised in 1974. Electronic ticket printing was first trialled at the station in 1983.[36]
In 1986, redevelopment began over most of the area above the platforms. The new buildings were named Embankment Place, apostmodern office and shopping complex designed byTerry Farrell and Partners. This development led to the replacement of almost the whole of the 1906 roof.[13] The rear two spans of this structure – immediately adjacent to the existing concourse roof – were retained as part of an enlarged waiting area. In addition the original retaining side walls of the station which once supported it remain in near complete condition. The works were completed in November 1990. Most of the Embankment Place complex is office space, with a selection of restaurants on the ground floor.[37][38][39]
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The station has six platforms.[4] All trains call atWaterloo East andLondon Bridge.
All services at London Charing Cross are operated bySoutheastern usingClass 375,376,377,465,466 and707EMUs.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[40]
| Preceding station |  National Rail | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminus | Southeastern | |||
| Historical railways | ||||
| Terminus | South Eastern Railway | London Blackfriars | ||
The station is served by twoLondon Underground stations, both within walking distance of the mainline terminal and sited at each end:Charing Cross (to the north), andEmbankment (to the south).[41] Both stations have anOyster Out of Station Interchange, which allows passengers to change lines while still being charged as a single journey.[42]
Numerous proposals for underground connections for the mainline station were considered in the decades after its opening. Almost as soon as work was complete on the station, the SER wanted to build a connection from Charing Cross to the railway terminals further north. Soon after Charing Cross station opened, theNorth Western and Charing Cross Railway Act was passed, a joint act between the SER and theLondon and North Western Railway (LNWR) that proposed a shallow sub-surface line toEuston.[23] The scheme collapsed in 1866 due to a shortage of funding caused by abanking crisis. The scheme was revived with theLondon Central Railway, that proposed to link Charing Cross to Euston andSt Pancras, but was again abandoned in 1874.
The first underground railway to serve Charing Cross was theDistrict Railway (now theDistrict line), which opened its station at Charing Cross on 30 May 1870.[43]
In 1884, bills were submitted to parliament by theCharing Cross and Euston Railway and theLondon Central Subway for sub-surface underground lines between Charing Cross and Euston and Charing Cross and King's Cross respectively and by theKing's Cross, Charing Cross and Waterloo Subway for a deep-level railway linking the three terminals in its name.[44] None of the three plans proceeded.
TheBaker Street and Waterloo Railway (now theBakerloo line) constructed a deep-level tube line on the west side of the station in the late 19th century, which opened on 10 March 1906 with a new station in Trafalgar Square and an interchange with the District Railway's station.[45] The link between Charing Cross and Euston was finally built by theCharing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (now part of theNorthern line) as a deep-level tube line in 1906 which opened its station under the forecourt of the mainline station on 22 June 1907.[45][46][b]
Originally, Embankment tube station was called Charing Cross, while the present Charing Cross tube station was the separate Trafalgar Square (Bakerloo line) and Strand (Northern line) stations.[41] The two northern stations were combined under the current name when connected by the development of theJubilee line. New below ground passageways were constructed linking the platforms so that an interchange could be made. The Northern line's Strand station was temporarily closed from 1974 to enable new escalators to be installed and it reopened along with the opening of the Jubilee line on 1 May 1979.[45][49] The Jubilee line platforms were closed on 20 November 1999, following theextension of the Jubilee line where it was diverted toWestminster and onwards south of the River Thames.[50]
On 25 October 1913, two trains collided in thick fog at Waterloo junction, killing three people.[51] On 31 July 1925, there was a minor side-on collision near platform 2.[52]
In May 1927, a trunk was deposited in Charing Cross station's cloakroom that contained the five severed body parts of Minnie Alice Bonati. She was later identified as having been murdered inRochester Row by John Robinson, who was convicted of theCharing Cross Trunk Murder, for which he was later executed.[53][54][55]
On 19 September 1928, a train formed of two3SUBelectric multiple units and a trailer set ran into the buffers. Sixty-eight people were injured, 45 of whom were treated at theCharing Cross Hospital.[56]
TheMaggie Hambling statueA Conversation with Oscar Wilde is directly opposite the station. It was erected in 1998 and designed for people to sit on the monument and have a virtual conversation withOscar Wilde.[57]
Charing Cross is referenced in numerousSherlock Holmes stories. InThe Adventure of the Abbey Grange, Holmes and Watson catch a train from the station towards the fictional Abbey Grange in Kent, while inThe Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez, they travel toChatham from the station.[58]
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