London Bridge station

London Bridge is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Southwark, south-east London. It occupies a large area on three levels immediately south-east of London Bridge, from which it takes its name. The main line station is the oldest railway station in London fare zone 1 and one of the oldest in the world having opened in 1836. It is one of two main line termini in London to the south of the River Thames (the other being Waterloo) and is the fourth-busiest station in London, handling over 50 million passengers a year.

The station was originally opened by the London and Greenwich Railway as a local service. It subsequently served the London and Croydon Railway, the London and Brighton Railway and the South Eastern Railway, thus becoming an important London terminus. It was rebuilt in 1849 and again in 1864 to provide more services and increase capacity. Local services from London Bridge began to be electrified in the beginning of the 20th century, and had spread to national routes by the 1930s. The station was extensively rebuilt by British Rail during the 1970s, along with a comprehensive re-signalling scheme and track alignment. It was further redeveloped in the 2010s to better accommodate the Thameslink route which provides a connection to Gatwick Airport, Luton Airport and Crossrail.

The National Rail station is served by Southeastern services from Charing Cross and Cannon Street to destinations in southeast London, Kent and East Sussex and is a terminus for many Southern commuter and regional services to south London and numerous destinations in South East England. Thameslink services from Bedford, Cambridge and Peterborough to Brighton and other destinations in Sussex and Kent began serving the station in 2018. The London Underground station is served by the Jubilee and Northern lines.

The main line station is one of 19 UK stations managed by Network Rail. It has a ticket hall and entrance area with its main frontage on Tooley Street, and other entrances on Borough High Street and within the main line station concourse. It is one of two mainline London termini south of the River Thames, the other is Waterloo.

The London Underground station is on the Jubilee line and the Bank branch of the Northern line. River buses use the nearby London Bridge City Pier.

London Bridge station was opened on 14 December 1836, making it the oldest London railway terminus that is still running. It was not the earliest station in the London metropolitan area, as the London and Greenwich Railway had opened stations at Spa Road (in Bermondsey) and Deptford on 8 February 1836. The completion of the line into London Bridge was postponed because of delays in constructing a bridge at Bermondsey Street. From 10 October 1836, trains were able to operate as far as the east end of this bridge, with passengers having to walk the last 300 yards (270 m). The station has had several changes of ownership and complete rebuilds since opening.

The original station had four tracks and was 60 feet (18 m) wide and 400 feet (120 m) long. It was approached through a pair of iron gates. Three tracks led into two platforms as a stub end of a viaduct. The station was entirely exposed to the weather until a tarred canvas roof was erected in 1840. Sixteen columns and fourteen beams from this structure were retrieved in 2013 and given to the Vale of Rheidol Railway in Aberystwyth, Wales for use in a planned railway museum.

Before completing the train shed, the London and Greenwich Railway entered into an agreement with the proposed London and Croydon Railway for the latter to use its tracks from Corbett's Lane, Bermondsey, and to share its station. However, the Greenwich railway had underestimated the cost of building the long viaduct leading to London Bridge and was not able to build a sufficiently large station for the traffic for both companies, and so in July 1836 it sold some land adjacent to its station (then still under construction) to the Croydon railway to build their own independent station.