Balham station
Encyclopedia
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
station and a National Rail
National Rail
National Rail is a title used by the Association of Train Operating Companies as a generic term to define the passenger rail services operated in Great Britain...
station) located in the Balham
Balham, London
Balham is a neighbourhood of south London, England, and is part of the London Borough of Wandsworth and the London Borough of Lambeth.-History:...
area of south London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The station is located on the A24 Balham High Road
A24 road (Great Britain)
The A24 is a major road in England. It runs south from Clapham in southwest London through Morden before entering Surrey and heading through Ewell, Epsom, Ashtead, Leatherhead and Dorking...
in the London Borough of Wandsworth
London Borough of Wandsworth
The London Borough of Wandsworth is a London borough in southwest London, England, and forms part of Inner London.-History:The borough was formed in 1965 from the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea and much of the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth, but...
, and is in Travelcard Zone 3
Travelcard Zone 3
Fare zone 3 is a zone of Transport for London's zonal fare system used for calculating the price of tickets for travel on the London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and, since 2007, on National Rail services...
.
The two stations are interconnected, albeit owned and operated separately, with separate ticket-issuing facilities and gatelines.
National Rail station
The National Rail station at Balham, which is managed by SouthernSouthern (train operating company)
Southern is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. Officially named Southern Railway Ltd., it is a subsidiary of Govia, a joint venture between transport groups Go-Ahead Group and Keolis, and has operated the South Central rail franchise since October 2000 and the Gatwick Express service...
is located on the Brighton Main Line
Brighton Main Line
The Brighton Main Line is a British railway line from London Victoria and London Bridge to Brighton. It is about 50 miles long, and is electrified throughout. Trains are operated by Southern, First Capital Connect, and Gatwick Express, now part of Southern.-Original proposals:There were no fewer...
, four stops south of London Victoria. Although on a north-south route, the tracks pass through Balham on an approximately east-west axis, with Victoria towards the west.
The tracks are on an embankment and access to the platforms is via an underpass beneath them. There are four tracks and four platforms, although only two are regularly used in service. Just beyond the south/east end of the station, the line divides into two branches. One branch is the Brighton Main Line, continuing towards East Croydon
East Croydon station
East Croydon station is a railway station and tram stop in Croydon, 10.35 miles south of London Bridge in Travelcard Zone 5. It is the largest and busiest station in Croydon and the busiest in London outside Travelcard Zone 1 in terms of the number of passengers entering and exiting...
, with the other heading towards . Further south, there is another branch which heads towards Mitcham Junction
Mitcham Junction station
Mitcham Junction is a National Rail station served by First Capital Connect and Southern trains, and a Tramlink stop. It is in the London Borough of Merton and is in Travelcard Zone 4.The station opened on 1 October 1868...
and Sutton. Between Balham and Mitcham Junction, a new station at was opened in 2008.
History
West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway
The West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway was an early railway company in south London between Crystal Palace station and Wandsworth, which was opened in 1856. The line was extended in 1858 to a station at Battersea Wharf which was misleadingly named Pimlico...
opened a station nearby named Balham Hill on 1 December 1856, when the line ran from Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace railway station
Crystal Palace railway station is in the London Borough of Bromley in south London. It is located in the Anerley area between the town centres of Crystal Palace and Penge...
to Wandsworth Common
Wandsworth Common railway station
Wandsworth Common railway station is in the London Borough of Wandsworth in south London. The station and all trains serving it are operated by Southern, and it is in Travelcard Zone 3.-History:...
. From the outset the line was worked by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its apex, practically the whole coastline of Sussex as its base, and a large part of Surrey...
which purchased the line in 1859, after it had been extended to Battersea Wharf
Battersea
Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...
.
Balham Hill station was resited by the LB&SCR to its present location during 1863 as part of works to widen the line, and improve the route between East Croydon and Victoria. It was known initially as Balham and Upper Tooting.
Further remodelling of the line and was undertaken in 1890 and 1897 to increase capacity.
The lines through the station to Crystal Palace were electrified in 1910, by means of the LB&SCR 'Elevated Electric' overhead system. Work on electrifing the remaining services through the station had begun in 1913 but was interrupted by the First World War and not completed until 1925. By this time the LB&SCR was absorbed into the Southern Railway following the 1921 Railways Act
Railways Act 1921
The Railways Act 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, was an enactment by the British government of David Lloyd George intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, move the railways away from internal competition, and to retain some of the benefits which...
.
In 1925 the Southern Railway decided to adopt a third rail
Third rail
A third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a mass transit or rapid transit system, which has alignments in its own corridors, fully or almost...
electirication system and the lines through the station were converted between June 1928 and September 1929.
When sectorisation
British Rail brand names
British Rail was the brand image of the nationalised railway owner and operator in Great Britain, the British Railways Board, used from 1965 until its breakup and sell-off from 1993 onwards....
was introduced in the 1980s, the national rail lines were served by Network SouthEast
Network SouthEast
Network SouthEast was one of three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE principally operated commuter trains in the London area and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the network reached as far west as Exeter...
until the privatisation of the British Railways
Privatisation of British Rail
The privatisation of British Rail was set in motion when the Conservative government enacted, on 19 January 1993, the British Coal and British Rail Act 1993 . This enabled the relevant Secretary of State to issue directions to the relevant Board...
.
Upon privatisation in the 1990s, the national rail lines came under the Connex South Central
Connex South Central
Connex South Central was a short-lived train operating company in the United Kingdom. It was owned by the Connex Group, and operated under the Connex brand between October 1996 until mid-2001....
franchise, which was replaced by the current operator in 2000.
Services
All services are operated by SouthernSouthern (train operating company)
Southern is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. Officially named Southern Railway Ltd., it is a subsidiary of Govia, a joint venture between transport groups Go-Ahead Group and Keolis, and has operated the South Central rail franchise since October 2000 and the Gatwick Express service...
. While the station is physically on the Brighton Main Line, train services form part of the South London Line
South London Line
South London Line may refer to one of two semicircular railway lines which both run between London Victoria and London Bridge stations through the southern suburbs of London, UK:*Inner South London Line - running via Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye...
s and the Sutton & Mole Valley Line
Sutton & Mole Valley Line
The Sutton & Mole Valley Lines are a group of railway lines constructed between 1847 and 1868 by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, the London and South Western Railway and the LBSCR-sponsored Horsham, Dorking and Leatherhead Railway.-Services:The scheduled services run along the Sutton...
s. To the north, trains operate to London Victoria via ; and via Kensington (Olympia)
Kensington (Olympia) station
Kensington station is a station in West London managed and served by London Overground and also served by Southern and London Underground. It is in Travelcard Zone 2...
and .
To the south and east, typical destinations include via , Croydon stations (West Croydon
West Croydon station
West Croydon station is a transport interchange for National Rail and Tramlink services, as well as London Buses. It is in the London Borough of Croydon and Travelcard Zone 5...
and East Croydon
East Croydon station
East Croydon station is a railway station and tram stop in Croydon, 10.35 miles south of London Bridge in Travelcard Zone 5. It is the largest and busiest station in Croydon and the busiest in London outside Travelcard Zone 1 in terms of the number of passengers entering and exiting...
), , and Sutton.
London Underground station
The station opened on 6 December 1926 as part of the Morden extension of the City & South London RailwayCity & South London Railway
The City and South London Railway was the first deep-level underground "tube" railway in the world, and the first major railway to use electric traction...
(although the line had opened slightly earlier, on 13 September 1926), which later became part of the Northern Line. The Station is located on the Northern Line
Northern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...
between and stations. It has entrances on the east and west sides of Balham High Road linked by a pedestrian subway. The surface buildings were designed by the architect Charles Holden
Charles Holden
Charles Henry Holden, Litt. D., FRIBA, MRTPI, RDI was a Bolton-born English architect best known for designing many London Underground stations during the 1920s and 1930s, for Bristol Central Library, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London's headquarters at 55 Broadway and for the...
. It is the only station on the Morden
Morden tube station
Morden is a London Underground station in Morden in the London Borough of Merton. The station is the southern terminus for the Northern line and is the most southerly station on the Underground network. The next station north is...
branch of the Northern line with an interchange to a National Rail
National Rail
National Rail is a title used by the Association of Train Operating Companies as a generic term to define the passenger rail services operated in Great Britain...
station of the same name.
World War II
During the Second World WarWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Balham was one of many deep tube stations designated for use as a civilian air raid shelter. At 20:02 on 14 October 1940, a 1400 kg semi-armour piercing fragmentation bomb fell on the road above the northern end of the platform tunnels, causing a large crater into which a 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 of . According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...
(CWGC), sixty-six people in the station were killed – although some sources report 68 – and more than seventy injured. The damage at track level closed the line to traffic between and , but was quickly repaired, with the closed section and station being reopened on 12 January 1941. In October 2000 a memorial plaque commemorating this event was placed in the station's ticket hall. It stated that 64 lives were lost, 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 did not give the number of fatalities.
In popular culture
The video for the single MissingMissing (Everything but the Girl song)
"Missing" is a song written and recorded by British pop music duo Everything but the Girl. The song was released as a single from the band's 1994 album Amplified Heart...
by Everything But the Girl
Everything but the Girl
Everything but the Girl was a two-person English band, formed in Hull during 1981, consisting of lead singer and occasional guitarist Tracey Thorn and guitarist, keyboardist, and singer Ben Watt . They are currently inactive although vocalist Tracey Thorn hinted that they may reform someday...
repeatedly uses the same shot from a moving vehicle passing between the two tube entrance buildings, while in another shot Tracey Thorn
Tracey Thorn
Tracey Anne Thorn is an English pop singer and songwriter. She is best known as being one half of the duo Everything but the Girl, which is currently on extended hiatus.-Personal life:...
is seen walking down the side of one of them.
The bombing of the station during World War II is briefly mentioned in Ian McEwan's
Ian McEwan
Ian Russell McEwan CBE, FRSA, FRSL is a British novelist and screenwriter, and one of Britain's most highly regarded writers. In 2008, The Times named him among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945"....
novel Atonement
Atonement (novel)
Atonement is a 2001 novel by British author Ian McEwan.On a fateful day, a young girl makes a terrible mistake that has life-changing effects for many people...
, while the film based on the book
Atonement (film)
Atonement is a 2007 British romantic suspense war film directed by Joe Wright. It is a film adaptation of the 2001 novel of the same name by Ian McEwan. The film stars James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, and Saoirse Ronan. It was produced by Working Title Films and filmed throughout the summer of 2006...
depicts the station's flooding. Both the novel and the film date the event incorrectly, with the novel placing it in September 1940, and the film dating it as 15 October rather than the previous day. The film also refers to the fracturing of gas mains, as well as water.
Transports links
London Bus routes 155, 249, 315, 355 and Night routes N155 serve the station and its surrounding area.External links
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