Fenchurch Street railway station
Fenchurch Street railway station
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Fenchurch Street railway station

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Fenchurch Street railway station

Fenchurch Street railway station, also known as London Fenchurch Street, is a central London railway terminus in the southeastern corner of the City of London. It takes its name from its proximity to Fenchurch Street, a key thoroughfare in the City. The station and all trains are operated by c2c. Services run on lines built by the London and Blackwall Railway (L&BR) and the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LTSR) are to destinations in east London and south Essex, including Upminster, Grays, Basildon, Southend and Shoeburyness.

The station opened in 1841 to serve the L&BR and was rebuilt in 1854 when the LTSR, a joint venture between the L&BR and the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR), began operating. The ECR also operated trains out of Fenchurch Street to relieve congestion at its other London terminus at Bishopsgate. In 1862 the Great Eastern Railway was created by amalgamating various East Anglian railway companies (including the ECR) and it shared the station with the LTSR until 1912, when the latter was bought by the Midland Railway. The station came under ownership of the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) following the Railways Act 1921, and was shared by LNER and London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) services until nationalisation in 1948. The line from the station was electrified in 1961, and closed for seven weeks in 1994.

Fenchurch Street is one of the smallest railway terminals in London in terms of platforms, but one of the most intensively operated. It is the only London terminal with no direct interchange with the London Underground. Plans to connect it stalled in the early 1980s because of the lack of progress on the Jubilee line, but it is within 350 yards (320 m) of both the Tower Hill station on the London Underground and the Tower Gateway station on the Docklands Light Railway.

The station frontage is on Fenchurch Place, adjacent to Fenchurch Street in the City of London. The station has two entrances: one on Fenchurch Place and another on Cooper's Row, near Tower Hill. It has four platforms arranged on two islands elevated on a viaduct. The station has been Grade II listed since 1972 and the conference venue One America Square is built adjacent to it. Following rail privatisation in 1994, the station was run by Network Rail. Since 1996, the station has been served by c2c.

Fenchurch Street is in the central London fare zone 1 like other terminal stations in the city, but it does not have a direct link to the London Underground. The nearest stations on the London Underground network are Tower Hill about 0.2 miles (0.32 km) to the southeast and Aldgate around 0.3 miles (0.48 km) to the northeast.

The area around Fenchurch Street is one of the oldest inhabited parts of London; the name "Fenchurch" derives from the Latin faenum (hay) and refers to hay markets in the area. The station was the first to be granted permission by the Corporation of London to be constructed inside the City of London, following several refusals against other railway companies.

The original building, designed by William Tite opened on 20 July 1841, serving the London and Blackwall Railway (L&BR), replacing a nearby terminus at Minories that had opened in July 1840. It had two platforms connected via a stairway to the booking hall. Steam locomotives did not use the station until 1849 because before this time trains were dragged uphill from Blackwall to Minories, and ran to Fenchurch Street via their own momentum. The reverse journey eastwards required a manual push from railway staff. William Marshall's railway bookstall established at the station in 1841 was the first to be opened in the City of London.

Following the opening of the London and Blackwall Extension Railway on 2 April 1849, services operated from Fenchurch Street to Bow & Bromley. Some were extended to Victoria Park & Bow where an interchange existed with the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) from Bishopsgate.

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