Holborn Viaduct–Herne Hill line
AClass 700 unit atBlackfriars
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	Network Rail
ELR	HHH
Locale	Greater London
Termini	Holborn Viaduct (closed) Herne Hill
Service
Services	Thameslink Southeastern (peak only)
Operator(s)	Govia Thameslink Railway Southeastern
History
Opened	6 October 1863
Last extension	1874
Technical
Number of tracks	2 4(Blackfriars–Loughborough Junction)
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)standard gauge
Electrification	750VDCthird rail

v t e Holborn Viaduct–Herne Hill North Jn
Legend
m ch Widened Lines toKentish Town Jn │ Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan andCircle lines Farringdon Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan andCircle lines Widened Lines toMoorgate 0 15 Smithfield Sidings Holborn Viaduct low level 0 28 City Thameslink│Holborn Viaduct (superimposed) former portal of Snow Hill tunnel tunnel extension beneath former line Ludgate Hill 0 44 0 23 change of line 0 35 Blackfriars River Thames (Blackfriars Railway Bridge) Blackfriars Bridge 0 63 BlackfriarsJn. South Eastern Main Line Charing Cross–Dover Priory 0 74 Union Street Jn. Borough Road 1 20 Southwark Bridge Jn. 1 47 Elephant & Castle Walworth Road Camberwell 3 36 Loughborough Jn. 3 48 Loughborough Junction Catford loop line Brixton Jn–Shortlands Jn South London line Battersea Park–Peckham Rye Jn Herne Hill sorting sidings Chatham Main Line to Victoria 4 30 Herne Hill north Jn. Herne Hill Herne Hill south Jn. Chatham Main Line toRamsgate curve toTulse Hill forPortsmouth line toHorsham

TheHolborn Viaduct–Herne Hill line is a railway line betweenHolborn Viaduct in theCity of London andHerne Hill in theLondon Borough of Lambeth. After the closure of Holborn Viaduct station the line ends at the south portal ofSnow Hill tunnel merging into Snow Hill lines. From there theWidened Lines toSt Pancras and Kentish Town are reached. Today the section north ofBlackfriars is part of the Thameslink core. Originally being a branch line of theLondon, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) towards the City of London, the line is sometimes calledLCDR City Branch.

In the late 1850s, theEast Kent Railway had ambitions to run passenger trains between Kent and London, but it did not own any railway lines in inner London. It reached an agreement with theLondon, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) in 1858 to use theCrystal Palace line originally built by theWest End of London and Crystal Palace Railway fromBeckenham Junction toClapham Junction to accessBattersea and (from 1860)Victoria. This arrangement incurred costly access fees, but it was necessary until the company obtained parliamentary authority to build in London.^[1][2]

v t e LC&DR's Metropolitan Extensions and neighbouring railway lines
Legend
ToSt Pancras Farringdon 1866 2009 Barbican Moorgate 1866 2009 1874 1990 Holborn Viaduct Holborn Viaduct (low) 1874 1916 Victoria City Thameslink 1867 1911 Grosvenor Road Ludgate Hill 1865 1929 Charing Cross Blackfriars River Thames 1867 1916 Battersea Park Road Blackfriars Bridge 1864 1964 Waterloo East ToLondon Bridge Vauxhall Waterloo ToClapham Jct Borough Road 1864 1907 Wandsworth Road Elephant & Castle Clapham High Street Walworth Road 1862 1916 Camberwell 1862 1916 Loughborough Junction Brixton Denmark Hill Catford loop 1866 1976 East Brixton South London Line Herne Hill sidings 1885 1966 North Junction Herne Hill South Junction ToSutton Tulse Hill North Dulwich ToL. Bridge West Dulwich Chatham Main Line toKent

On 6 August 1860, theLondon, Chatham and Dover Railway (Metropolitan Extensions) Act 1860 (23 & 24 Vict. c. clxxvii) granted theLondon, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR; the successor to the East Kent Railway Company) the powers to extend theChatham Main Line from Beckenham Junction to Battersea and to build a branch line fromHerne Hill to the City of London.^[3][4]

After the main extension was built, the City Branch opened on 6 October 1863 from Herne Hill as far asElephant & Castle, viaCamberwell andWalworth Road. On 1 June 1864, the line had been extended toBlackfriars Bridge railway station (on the south bank of theRiver Thames) viaBorough Road.^[5]Blackfriars Railway Bridge was then built across the Thames and a terminus for trains from the south opened atLudgate Hill on 1 June 1865^[6] (closed 3 March 1929).

Snow Hill tunnel opened on 1 January 1866, enabling trains from Ludgate Hill to reach theWidened Lines at Farringdon. LCDR andGreat Northern Railway (GNR) joint services from Blackfriars Bridge began operating viaSnow Hill tunnel under Smithfield market toFarringdon and northwards on to the GNR.^[7]

Later that year, the LCDR completed work to widen the railway viaduct between Herne Hill and Blackfriars Bridge, which included doubling the number of lines north of Loughborough Junction from two to four.^[8]

v t e Herne Hill–Tulse Hill
Legend
Holborn Viaduct– Herne Hill line toHolborn Viaduct   Chatham Main Line toVictoria Herne Hill Portsmouth line toSouth Bermondsey Jn Chatham Main Line toRamsgate Tulse Hill Crystal Palace line toBalham Jn Crystal Palace line toBeckenham Junction Portsmouth line toHorsham

In 1868, theLondon, Brighton and South Coast Railway opened a suburban line fromLondon Bridge toSutton viaTulse Hill. A 1 mi (1.6 km) connecting line from Tulse Hill to Herne Hill opened on 1 January 1869.^[9]

The platforms atLoughborough Junction between Camberwell and Herne Hill opened in 1872.^[5]

In 1874 the line was extended toHolborn Viaduct where a new terminus was built. In 1886 a second parallel bridge across the River Thames opened. At the northern end of the bridgeSt. Paul's station (later renamed Blackfriars) was opened by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. Blackfriars Bridge station on the south bank closed at this time.

In 1900, it was suggested inThe Contemporary Review that the City Branch should be replaced with an electric deep-level railway (i.e. a 'tube' line) between Herne Hill and Farringdon in order to removeBlackfriars Railway Bridge, which the author considered to be a blight on the Thames.^[10]

In 1916 passenger services through Snow Hill tunnel were discontinued, and trains from the south terminated atHolborn Viaduct.^[11][12] The tunnel remained in use for freight trains.

On 12 July 1925, a 660-voltthird-rail system came into operation along the entire length of line. Electric trains ran every 20 minutes during the day^[13]

Trains on the City Branch were affected byWorld War II. Services were reduced from September 1939 to once every 30 minutes during the week and hourly at weekends;^[14] and the line was cut twice duringthe Blitz. On the second occasion, the railway bridge over Hinton Road (immediately south of Loughborough Junction) was destroyed.^[15] The route between Holborn Viaduct and Herne Hill was disrupted by 62 incidents during the war.^[16]

Snow Hill tunnel closed at the end of the 1960s and the tracks were lifted in 1971.

In 1988, Snow Hill tunnel re-opened and the former LCDR City Branch formed the basis of the newThameslink route. The line was dismantled between Ludgate Hill and Holborn Viaduct; instead a new section of Snow Hill tunnel was built. Holborn Viaduct station was demolished and replaced bySt Paul's Thameslink station (later renamed City Thameslink) in the tunnel.

Network Rail began a major upgrade of the route in 2009. A key objective of theThameslink Programme was allowing more trains to travel between central London andBrighton, which was prevented by a bottleneck between London Bridge and Blackfriars on a viaduct through the historicBorough Market. Network Rail initially suggested widening the viaduct and demolishing part of the market, but the public backlash against this plan prompted Network Rail to consider permanently routing all Thameslink trains to/from Brighton via Herne Hill, avoiding London Bridge and the market.^[17] This would have required the grade separation of the two lines through Herne Hill, which would have been achieved by constructing a new viaduct immediately to the east of the existing viaduct and using afly-over to connect the southern end of the new viaduct to the line between Tulse Hill and North Dulwich (taking the tracks over the Chatham Main Line and towards Tulse Hill).^[18] This proposal was rejected in 2004 because of its environmental impact on Herne Hill and the larger number of interchanges offered on the London Bridge route; the Borough Market viaduct was widened instead.^[17] From December 2008 to May 2012, Thameslink trains serving Herne Hill did not run most weekends or after 22:30 every week-night because of construction work on the Thameslink route through central London as part of the Thameslink Programme.^[19]

During the initial planning in the late 1980s forHigh Speed 1,British Rail considered building the line to serve a low-level station atKing's Cross via south London.^[20] An option for this route was via the City Branch, which would have required quadrupling the tracks between Loughborough Junction and Herne Hill.^[21]

From July 1863, LCDR trains between London and Kent ran to continental Europe via a connecting steamboat fromDover Harbour toCalais;^[22] theseboat trains left Victoria and Ludgate Hill simultaneously and were joined atHerne Hill.^[23] to give passengers easier access to theCity of London and beyond.^[24] The LCDR also began operating direct services toKing's Cross and Barnet (nowHigh Barnet Underground station) when Snow Hill tunnel opened.^[25]

A popular workmen's train (onepenny per journey) ran between Ludgate Hill and Victoria via Herne Hill from 1865. Trains left from both termini at 04:55 and returned at 18:15.^[26] The LCDR was compelled to operate this service by Parliament to compensate for the large number of working-class homes destroyed inCamberwell during the construction of the line.^[27] Regular one-way fares from Herne Hill to Ludgate Hill were eightpence, sixpence and fourpence for first, second and third class respectively (or return for oneshilling, ninepence and sevenpence respectively), with journey times of 15 minutes on express trains and 26 minutes when calling at all stops.^[28]

Both theGreat Northern Railway (GNR) and theLondon and South Western Railway (LSWR) helped fund the Metropolitan Extensions (£320,000 and £310,000 respectively; £37,970,000 and £36,780,000 in 2023^[29]) in return for the right to use the LCDR's tracks.The LSWR began running trains between Ludgate Hill andWimbledon via Herne Hill when the Tulse Hill extension was completed.^[30] Some of these services went as far asKingston until the mid-1890s.^[31]

A late-night service from Ludgate Hill (departing 01:15) to Beckenham Junction via Herne Hill began in 1910. The intention was to satisfy journalists onFleet Street who regularly complained in print about the poor quality of service on the line; those working on the morning papers often worked beyond midnight and missed the last train.^[32]

By 1959, the pattern of commuter services had taken the shape it held into the 21st century: all-stops trains from the City of London to Wimbledon and Sutton (but, unlike the modern Sutton Loop, viaWest Croydon).^[33]

Passenger services are operated byGovia Thameslink Railway. Additional peak-services terminating at Blackfriars are run bySoutheastern.

Stations on the line are

• Herne Hill (opened 1862)
• Loughborough Junction (opened 1 March 1863 on west chord as Loughborough Road, renamed when City line and east chord platforms opened in 1872, west platforms closed 1916, east platforms closed 1925)
• Camberwell (opened as Camberwell New Road 6 October 1862, closed 1916)
• Walworth Road (opened as Camberwell Gate 1 May 1863, closed 1916)
• Elephant & Castle (opened 6 October 1862)
• Borough Road (opened 1 June 1864, closed 1907)
• Blackfriars Bridge (opened 1 June 1864, goods only from 1885, closed 1964) Now part of its site is the southbank entrance for Blackfriars station.
• Blackfriars (opened 1886 as St Paul's, renamed Blackfriars 1937)
• Ludgate Hill (opened 1865, closed 1929)
• Holborn Viaduct (opened 1874, closed 1990)

Wikimedia Commons has media related toHolborn Viaduct–Herne Hill line.

Blackfriars: A complicated station onYouTube

• Transport in the City of London
• Railway lines in London
• Standard gauge railways in London
• Electric railways in the United Kingdom
• Transport in the London Borough of Lambeth
• Transport in the London Borough of Southwark

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