Interesting video! It’s not quite ‘disused’ though - I’m the MOM for this route and regularly use that bridge to access the Milk Dock (in order to access the tracks at this important junction). That silver roller shutter you see in the video is my access gate. 🚂
It has been a good many decades since my duties took me to the milk dock - thank you for binging back the memory (along with the Drain which could then be undertaken on a Saturday afternoon after the services stopped at lunchtime). 🙂
@@phaasch - Mobile Operations Manager. I’m basically a first responder to any & all incidents on the Railway such as dropped items, points failures right up to managing fatalities.
For those who may be interested HG Wells made reference to this link in his book "War of the Worlds" published in 1897. The Martians had arrived at Horsell Common near Woking and were starting to emerge from their pit. Train services were beginning to get disrupted by the advance of the aliens and fighting was breaking out. The relevant paragraph reads: "About five o'clock the gathering crowd at Waterloo station was immensely excited by the opening of the line of communication, which is almost invariably closed, between the South-Eastern and South-Western stations, and the passage of carriage-trucks bearing huge guns , and carriages crammed with soldiers. These were the guns that were brought up from Woolwich and Chatham to cover Kingston...." etc. (forgive the duplication Mark Bunn, your comment had not appeared when I started to write mine).
Oh wow. I must give the book yet another read as I can't believe I missed that line. Though speaking of this, Wells was really thorough and accurate with the locations and journey throughout the book, I think that makes it all the more appealing.
Darn, you beat me to it! Reading the book, I loved how Wells took time to name check all the pre-Grouping companies the protagonist encountered on his flight around London...
The connection is really interesting. It even appears in HG Wells "The War of the Worlds" written in 1898, "the gathering crowd in the station was immensely excited by the opening of the line of communication, which is almost invariably closed, between the South-Eastern and South-Western stations"...(it was so they could bring up troops and guns from Woolwich & Chatham to fight in the invasion taking place in Surrey)
This spur must have been a nightmare to operate, effectively severing the main line concourse, whilst the train, presumably at walking pace, in that chaotic environment, trundled slowly across. As for the "old" Waterloo, here's how Jerome K Jerome vividly described it in "Three Men in a Boat": "We got to Waterloo at eleven, and asked where the eleven-five started from. Of course nobody knew; nobody at Waterloo ever does know where a train is going to start from, or where a train when it does start is going to, or anything about it. The porter who took our things thought it would go from number two platform, while another porter, with whom he discussed the question, had heard a rumour that it would go from number one. The station-master, on the other hand, was convinced it would start from the local. To put an end to the matter, we went upstairs, and asked the traffic superintendent, and he told us that he had just met a man, who said he had seen it at number three platform. We went to number three platform, but the authorities there said that they rather thought that train was the Southampton express, or else the Windsor loop. But they were sure it wasn’t the Kingston train, though why they were sure it wasn’t they couldn’t say. Then our porter said he thought that must be it on the high-level platform; said he thought he knew the train. So we went to the high- level platform, and saw the engine-driver, and asked him if he was going to Kingston. He said he couldn’t say for certain of course, but that he rather thought he was. Anyhow, if he wasn’t the 11.5 for Kingston, he said he was pretty confident he was the 9.32 for Virginia Water, or the 10 a.m. express for the Isle of Wight, or somewhere in that direction, and we should all know when we got there. We slipped half-a-crown into his hand, and begged him to be the 11.5 for Kingston. “Nobody will ever know, on this line,” we said, “what you are, or where you’re going. You know the way, you slip off quietly and go to Kingston.” “Well, I don’t know, gents,” replied the noble fellow, “but I suppose SOME train’s got to go to Kingston; and I’ll do it. Gimme the half- crown.” Thus we got to Kingston by the London and South-Western Railway. We learnt, afterwards, that the train we had come by was really the Exeter mail, and that they had spent hours at Waterloo, looking for it, and nobody knew what had become of it."
It is Kings Cross that the "local" really refers to. Waterloo is relatively Simple. Kingston Trains (via Wimbledon) Platforms 1-4, Kingston (Via Richmond) normally the higher numbered platforms The higher low numbered platforms are fasts and semi fasts via Clapham Junction/ Surbition / Woking to the South West , The lower high numbered platforms are semi fasts etc to Reading / Alton and other things loosley heading out on lines through Putney after Clapham Junction
@@highpath4776 Waterloo*IS* relatively simple. The tense is everything. But it was a very different matter in 1890. It's worth mentioning that photographs taken of the Titanic's 1st class boat train before departure, show the new (eastern) side of the station as we know it, but discernible in the background is the ongoing rebuilding, and the chaotic clutter of the old station gradually being replaced. A pity that so few of those individuals pictured would ever live to see the transformation completed. (Incidentally, for those with a Titanic obsession, the train departed from platform 5)
Waterloo, couldn't escape if I wanted to ( Brighton 1974 ). It would be of great comfort to any Victorian railway pioneers featured in this video, to think that very questionable decisions on Railways are still being made today.
Ah, Brighton 1974. I was there! -well, the morning after, anyway. Hunting for souvenirs and getting in the roadies' way. Then we saw ABBA doing a photoshoot in the Pavilion gardens. That then became a whole lot more interesting than souvenirs, particularly to a couple of 14 year-old lads, as you might imagine!
I don’t know whether it’s frustrating or comforting that passengers saying “why couldn’t you just do THIS?” while it never happens, has been a universal fixed point in all of railway history.
Millions of people swarming like flies 'round Waterloo underground But terry and Julie cross over the river where they feel safe and sound And they don't need no friends, as long as they gaze on Waterloo sunset, they are in paradise.
A pop classic of the first order. Over half a dozen years ago now (time flies),we went to see the stage show based on the Kinks,with all those old favourites in it from You've Really Got Me to Waterloo Sunset to Lola. A week later we went to a classical concert on the South Bank,meeting up under the clock at Waterloo station beforehand,and taking a quick pre-concert wander across Waterloo Bridge and taking in Big Ben and the gated-off end of Downing Street. That was the most recent time I've been to Waterloo,but I'm sure I'll be back.
I went through Waterloo for years - Claphan Junction to the City. Slam-door times. When they were re-doing it, there was a sign - 'We listened to you! We are putting in what you asked for!'. What they did was put in a shack that would sell me socks. What I wanted, as I would imagine most of my fellow commuters would, was clean trains that actually turned up on time. But then it got me to Boulevard St Michel, where the socks were much more stylish.
@@comicus01 The old trains which had doors which opened on hinges, had a double latch to hold them shut and a mechanical action to open them - just like a[n internal] house door. When the train arrived at a station it was possible to open the doors and alight before it had physically come to a stop. There were signs telling you not to "alight before the train has stopped" - however, there were none telling you "not to board before the train has stopped", so I used to delight in opening a door, boarding the train and slamming the door shut (hence "slam door") behind me before the train had stopped... The modern trains have slide doors operated by a button which is not enabled until after the train has stopped.
@@comicus01 A slam-door train had doors that you opened yourself (also opening windows) and when you left you slammed them shut. I doubt there are any left now. Rather dangerous; waiting on the platform you could get whacked by one if the exiting passenger was a bit too enthusiastic.
I grew up in Thames Ditton and then Hersham (50s and 60s), so Waterloo was 'my' terminus - for a while, as a kid - I thought Hampton Court, which was just down the road and over the bridge from our house, was the other terminus of the line! When I later discovered that it was just a branch, I felt rather cheated. Waterloo in those days was like a wonderland for me (it had a cartoon cinema, apart from anything else!). Those were the days of steam, and at practically every platform stood an engine that had brought the last train in (waiting for it's carriages to be shunted away so it could reverse out - no 'heritage railway' style run around loops for them!). And every now and again the boiler pressure release valve would go on each engine and an ear-splitting blast of steam would shoot out - entirely without warning. And how it echoed under that enormous train shed! As a kid, these unexpected and extremely loud screeches were both terryfying - and thrilling. In much the same way as standing on Hersham station when the Atlantic Coast Express went through. You heard it approach for minutes before it arrived, the rails singing, and then suddenly it was on top of you, thundering through the station on the fast lines, steam and smoke pouring out, and then seconds later just a receding dotr, disappearing into the distance. No train comes close to that these days, not even the fast train that nearly knocks you over at Reading. It's impressive, yes, even a little scary, but not a roaring, thundering demon of a train like those expresses. We moved to east London in 69, shortly after the end of steam, and it was years before I returned to Waterloo, Thames Ditton and Hersham. Now just stations - all the glamour and heart-stopping noise and speed gone. Waterloo is still a impressive station, still my favourite, but very pedestrian now without those banshee wails that made you jump clean out of your skin. And even the cartoon cinema has gone...
As a fairly frequent Eurostar traveller from its inception, I miss the Waterloo terminus. In the same way that I miss Dover Western Docks/Calais Maritime. It was convenient. I accept that going from here to there takes time. We don't have Transporters or Stargates. And I am glad of that. The journey is the point. It is the glory of the ride. Apologies to anyone that needs to be elsewhere quickly. Life choices are what they are.
I had the most circuitous journey a few years ago from Waterloo Eurostar to Tonbridge, via all sorts of diversions including the Bat & Ball loop. It was so bonkers, I came back the same day just to experience it all over again.
My two visits to London involved return via train and ferry. But this was in 1959 and 1965. the ferry ride was definitely leisurely. I believe both trips started from Waterloo. one was to LeHarve, the other to Ostend.
Pictures of Waterloo East always brings back memories of my 1970s student days and taking the train back to Kent to visit the family. This platform message particularily: " The three minutes past main line service to Ramsgate and Sandwich. This service will run fast to Ashford, where the train will be divided. The front four coaches are for Canterbury West and Ramsgate. The rear eight coaches are for Folkestone Central, Dover Priory, Martin Mill, Walmer, Deal and Sandwich. Please make sure you are in the correct portion of this train!"
A classic Southern Region split portion train, thought they are more frequently seen on the lines out of Victoria. But it ran to Ashford in an hour - much quicker than anything else since then on this route (obviously HS1 is quicker now, if you go to St Pancras). If you got in the rear portion by mistake and wanted to go to Ramsgate you would get there - eventually, by the scenic route, as it carried on to Ramsgate (and possibly Margate) after Sandwich.
@@iankemp1131 It's over two hours. There is no direct bus service between the two locations. You either have to go to Canterbury and change for Ramsgate, or catch a Dover bus, then change for Sandwich, and change _again_ there for Ramsgate as ludicrously, there has not been a direct Dover to Ramsgate service for several years.
In rainy London town,Jago strikes again! Your photography is spot on,and anyone who can make rain shots come alive,is a real photographer!! Thanks,Jago!! Thank you 😇!
With a certain just on 3 yr old of my direct acquaintance, we like to watch "steam trains!" or any rail videos. Master 3 said last week, on watching a video of the Watercress Line,..." It's raining...... a wet day."but not here in LevinNZ....He inSISted to his mother yesterday that a certain train was an A6 or an A4.... he was right. ( We have a commentary on every video)
Years ago, my workplace was on Lower Marsh, and I would take the train from Greenwich to Waterloo East for my commute. This is an interesting topic for me, but if I can offer some (hopefully constructive!) feedback, I found it a bit hard to follow some of the developments you described based on the photos/footage alone; I don’t know if you’d want to include more maps or diagrams, but I think they’d have helped me at least to get a better view into your clearly excellent research.
i used to travel on trains a lot with my dad when i was younger. i remember when we did the walk through the footbridges from waterloo to waterloo east for the first time. i thought it was so cool because nobody was there and it was like my dad knew this cool secret station lol
Yes, if I remember correctly, the confusion was so bad that our three heroes (plus dog) successfuly bribed one of the engine drivers to be the 2.15 to Kingston.
@@JP_TaVeryMuch I think that there are many more that baulk at looking through 200 plus comments so the odd repartition of facts is not a problem to me
I remember using it as a pedestrian to the old entrance to Waterloo East - having to leave Waterloo at platform level, across the taxi/bus road and across the bridge.
Sure Liverpool Street had the same thing as well with a Railway going through the concourse and connected with the Metropolitain Line, great video Jago
I think closing the spur was not a bad idea, just imagine what it would be like on the concourse of Waterloo LSWR if tracks ran through the middle of it?
I think it would have been a bit like Stratford where the old North London Line crosses the new station concourse. That part of the old North London Line has now been converted to be part of the DLR which continues in a spur to Stratford International. So half of the station is on one side and the there is a large mezzanine level where passengers cross over the spur line going underneath, and the rest of the station is on the other side. Like at Stratford the Jubilee Line Platforms and the northbound Stratford International platform are on one side with tunnels going off from there to the National Rail, Central Line and London Overground platforms, and then there is a mezzanine level that takes passengers over the spur going across to the rest of the station on the other side where the station entrance, ticket office, south bound DLR towards Custom House and Woolwich, bus station exit and some more tunnels to the rest of the East-West railway and tube lines are.
Waterloo is an area that fascinates me, I work in a building where The Ring used to be ;). When I go for walks in the area, I see the Peabody estate, old converted warehouses, social housing. It saddens me, this area had a REAL economy. I get it, the docks had to close eventually but what’s there makes no sense. Excessively expensive properties and offices churning out an endless supply of BS jobs? Or WFH BS jobs now and empty offices.
Another great video. It's amazing that the bridge is still there, considering it was last used by trains well over a 100 years ago. Also, the mileages used out of Waterloo actually start at the old junction at Waterloo East. (5 chains)
Until the 1990s you could still see the platform and canopy for the line. Jerome K Jerome refers to it in 'Three Men in a Boat' As you say all swept away now.
Spurs like this could be used for occasional shunting of stock between lines, usually after hours or when any of the scheduled links fail. Much modern railroad planning seems to blindly ignore the necessity of having workable plans for eventualities, frequent or rare as they may be.
Waterloo named after the battle. It is always said that Churchill specified that his funeral train should leave from Waterloo despite being buried in Oxfordshire in order that President De Gaulle would be forced to catch the train from Waterloo Station.
Hi Jago, can you do a video about how the Overground went from a collection of suburban rail lines to something resembling a single network with its own brand? Maybe elaborate on cancelled plans along the way and plans for future extensions?
As a resident of Hastings who often comes up to London by means of the South Eastern Railway, I think that it is a great shame that this connection was lost. Waterloo could have been rebuilt with through platforms in the centre and a concourse over the top. Imagine through trains running from the South East corner of England (Hastings/ Dover/Maidstone/Tonbridge) stopping at Waterloo and then proceeding via Olympia and the West London Line onto the L&NWR to the Midlands and The North or to the GW/GC line to the West Midlands via Banbury. Yes, we have Thameslink but this other link could have given so many more opportunities for through trains form the South East to the North West. At present, the standard way of going from somewhere like Hastings to destinations North and West of London is to cross London on the tube - not great if it's crowded and you have heavy luggage. I usually find myself crossing to Marylebone as services from there are cheaper. I have in the past also gone South East to North West via Redhill and Reading but that takes ages often with poor connections.
Many years ago when I was still at school, I remember walking from Waterloo to Waterloo East on this very bridge. I was not aware that it had been built for a connecting railway line. The walkway was quite narrow as I recall. What is astonishing is that it hasn't been taken down with the new bridge installed. I surmise that it carries cables and suchlike so it's not just a simple job.
Every time I walk underneath en route for a Tesco meal deal I look up and wonder what's going on with that. Well now I know. Thanks for the information Harry!
One of these lines that looks so tempting on a map. Cannon Street isn't a useful destination (Waterloo and City is quicker) but running Thameslink trains towards Wimbledon via Blackfriars, Waterloo East and Clapham Junction always appealed to me - much better connections than going via Tooting. I even suggested this in the 1980s before Thameslink had been reinstated. But yes it would have been tricky to implement, and the potential site of a spur from the Blackfriars to Waterloo East lines has had houses built on it since then. If all the old link lines had been preserved you could have run services like Clapham-Waterloo-Blackfriars-Barbican-Liverpool Street-Stratford and beyond! But capacity would have been much less than Thameslink due to conflicting movements at the flat junctions (same problem as the Circle Line).
One thing missed is that while the track went during the rebuild of 1900+, road access was still provided until the 1990's rework. So the concourse dropped and what was known as the 'cab road' to areas known as "cab yards" were in place to an area between what at the time were platforms 11 and 12, this as the name indicates offered in-station cab rank for many years and goods access to and from trains. With the freeing up of the space 2 new tracks and put in the space, so closing the space between what had been known as the central and north stations. This road (without the cab rank) can be seen in the 1988 Christmas Special of Only fools and Horses where Dellboy is waiting under the Waterloo Station clock for Raquel.
Even though it’s lightly more expensive and longer by 230 hrs then the fast train Totnes to Paddington I love the sw trains line from devon to Waterloo as it much prettier county sign and nice smallish towns as well
Sometime in the late 1950s my father shewed me this old connection. There was a dip in the concourse leading to the bridge but although the track was leading up to what was by then a footbridge, I cannot recall whether rails were still in place 'in the wee dip'.
This is the most interesting of your recent videos, in my opinion. When I lived in London, Waterloo was my principal terminus and the seemingly very disorganised relationship between Waterloo and Waterloo East always stood out, in comparison to the seemingly more integrated system in other major London termini. Thanks for explaining it.
Waterloo/Waterloo East is used by a great many patients attending nearby St Thomas' Hospital, a centre for cardiac care in the region. The only way off the platforms at Waterloo East is by a long, steep ramp up to the footbridge. People with mobility or cardiac/breathing problems find this climb a struggle on their journey to hospital appointments (I speak from experience) but there is no alternative.
From what I remember, when that bridge was a footway it had sides and a roof installed (which have now gone). The main problem was having to cross the Taxi road before the main station
Why is it that, as an expat, those wet roads, miserable weather and what looks like a distinct lack of city planning seems so attractive? I never really did get Waterloo East so some improvement there after the video but following up and finding a schematic ‘Mainline Railways Around the South Bank’ suggests that the Victorian Railway companies have a lot to answer for.
So pleased to see that others have commented on the War of the Worlds connection but one wonders why HG Wells went out of his way to include mention of troop train movements on the Waterloo link since it is scarcely relevant to the plot! Was Wells a train buff? Curious.
PS Jago, if you could I'd really love you do a quick history on the Irish Railway story. I recently seen a video on your channel about the first railway from Dublin to Kingstown, Dun Laoghaire now. Be great watch about it. Cheers. Seán.
Oh gosh, waterloo station. Whenever I needed to get home to Wimbledon I always had to use _the very last_ platform - number 23. It felt like I'd walk half a mile every time just to get there.
Waterloo East has platform letters and not numbers, apparently to stop passengers getting confused with it's big brother next door. Similarly so do New Cross and New Cross Gate stations.
For some reason it reminds me of the Queen Alexandra Bridge in Sunderland. This is also a 'forgotten' bridge, opened in 1909 and was Sunderland's own High Level Bridge as it carried a road with a railway on top. It didn't last long as a railway bridge. I think by WW2 the rails on the bridge held anti aircraft guns but the railway itself was disused. It's mostly all gone but the bridge still survives though as the road portion has always remained in use.
Reminds me of the link that was between Liverpool Street and the Metropolitan Line, now swept away by developments. Would have connected the East London Line to Liverpool Street too. But probably got in the way of main line services, whose lines it needed to cross.
I always understood that Waterloo station is named after Waterloo Bridge, which in turn was named after the battle of 1815, some 33 years before the station opened. Very interesting video, I live in Surrey so Waterloo is usually my entry station to London.
Thank you for bringing back some memories. I was born on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent but my parents decided to move to Hampshire in the early seventies. We then spent the next 10 or so years travelling a few times a yearto visit relatives. This involved catching a train to Waterloo and then crossing to Waterloo East to catch a train to Chatham or Gillingham in Kent (I am sorry I am not sure which - both names resonate with me) where we would have to change trains for a service to Sittingbourne, Kent. There we would have to change to catch a train to Sheerness. Then there was the annual visits to London at Christmas where we would travel to Waterloo and then catch the tube to Elephant and Castle so we could go to the street market there - I think it was East Street Market? We always got roasted chestnuts and hot sarsaparilla drinks there before heading to the West End of London on the tube to see the Oxford Street shop windows and Christmas lights.
The line from Sittingbourne to Sheerness crosses onto the Island by the old Kings Ferry Bridge, where the railway line runs alongside the roadway. When a tall vessel passes through, the whole centre section, road and rail, is raised up to allow clearance underneath.
I left school in 1974 and had to go for a medical examination at County Hall. The ILEA kindly sent me a GLC printed map of how to get there. This map still showed the South Eastern station as Waterloo Junction. It wasn’t a very old map, it was a fairly recently printed one, but still using the old name.
I think his flower stall was outside Embankment Tube station , exit going up to the Strand. I think I remember seeing him there and thinking he looks familiar.
I remember a rhyme somewhere to the tune the runaway train. " The runaway train ran down the the line and she blew, repeat, the runaway train ran down the line, and got to Cannon St right on time. It can't be true" Only used Cannon Street once, on a Monday morning coming from Paris. Got somehow from Dover Marine to Dover Priory, train to London Bridge then picked up one to Cannon Street to walk to London Wall
Superb! Must have walked / driven under that bridge (s) a million times didn’t give it a second glance. I remember first going in the Wellington Pub probably circa 1990. & I remember parties in Alaska Studios just around the corner in Alaska St. Great local history 😊👍
The Wellington pup is intriguing. It appears to have a central upper section missing where this bridge passes through. But presumably you can still go in the bit underneath the bridge.
Nice video. Maybe a few more diagrams of the stations, their relationships and the route of the spur would have helped those of us outside central London to picture it all a bit better.
Victoria made trips to Aix-les-Bains as the Countess of Balmoral. There is still a bust of her in the town. The royal train used the spur to take her from Windsor to the channel.
About 60 years ago, when I was a young lad and steam trains could still be seen at Waterloo, I was walked to Waterloo East by crossing the busy road. Much more convenient nowadays using the pedestrian footbridge - which I used earlier on today. While I would love the disused bridge to be reopened, I can't see it happening any time soon - especially as we still have two train companies involved (even though South Eastern is the operator of last resort).
I remember when there was a cinema adjacent to Platform 1 where you could pop in if your train was delayed. The Hampton Court trains (headcode 30) always monopolised Platform One.
Thank you for this Sir. I have always had a vague remembrance of walking across that bridge and that of the new one being built and hadn't found much about it to confirm when it was "abandoned".
Few years ago they were working on the footbridge between Waterloo East and Waterloo. I came up the stairs and Somehow managed to access this bridge, totally innocently.. I remember stepping onto it and thinking...” I shouldn’t be here !!! “
My father's model railway includes a very eclectic mix of post-steam locos and rolling stock, including both overhead and 3rd rail electrics, including a Class 442 Wessex Electric. In attempting to find a plausible location where they might all be seen together, I posited a major interchange station on the Swanscombe peninsula, served by OHLE trains from Liverpool Street and Norwich and 3rd Rail units off the South Eastern, with a (not modelled) Eurostar platform underneath. The 442 was assumed to have got there via the disused Waterloo curve, to maintain a connection from Dorset to Eurostar once Waterloo International was taken out of use.
Even without the Waterloo spur, that journey is still possible today via Clapham Junction-Wandsworth Road-Brixton flyover-Peckham Rye-Lewisham-Dartford.
The short-lived LNWR service was the only regular passenger service to use the link. It ran initially to London Bridge (with LSWR loco from Addison Road) and later to Cannon Street (with SER loco from Waterloo). The track across the concourse is pictured on the London Reconnections website (search for ‘the Waterloo link’), which also gives further information on the link, which was severed in 1911. Trains were required to run at 4mph. The LSWR’s main route to the City (apart from the Waterloo & City Line) was to the LCDR station at Ludgate Hill, reached either via Addison Road or Clapham Junction and Wandsworth Road, or (later) via Wimbledon and Tooting.
have walked/bused/ridden under many times,to knock in down would cost many many pounds and closeing waterloo road,so its being left ,just has railway people looking at it once a year.
Jago I love the effort you put into research and B-roll for this channel, but as someone from outside London, I'd love to see some maps to better understand station locations!
Jago, the way you were able to describe all these lines…it’s as if you’ve recently portrayed an underappreciated map maker in a recent Jay Foreman video. 🧐Hmmmm…
First time I have seen someone mention this line on TH-cam. Interesting point for you, when the Waterloo East was just Waterloo, the platforms were given letters to distinguish them from the mainline. Even after the renaming to Waterloo East and indeed to this present day, the lettering of the platforms remains. One other location this occurred was at New Cross. As you are aware there was New Cross (SER) and New Cross (LBSCR).Under the Southern Railway, again to avoid confusion, New Cross (SER) which is only a few minutes walk along the road from New Cross (LBSCR) had its platforms lettered. New Cross (LBSCR) later became New Cross Gate but New Cross (SER) kept its lettering. One other little anecdote of note. The line from Waterloo East to Waterloo is still used today as an access point by on-track staff. There still exists on the bridge part of the original platform that was on it. For some reason in railway circles, staff refer to this as the Milk Dock, which it never was. Great videos as always, good work, love them.
What I like about Waterloo Esat is that it still has some NSE era tiling & possibly the last remaining Connex displays on the network. They may not be technically superior but are certainly superior in the way they display information
It's hard to imagine how a line across the concourse would pass even Victorian standards of Health and Safety. It must have been a big problem if passengers needed to get from one side of the concourse to the other when a train was passing - unless there was some form of bridge over the spur or a subway under it. If they'd put the spur at one end or the other of the row of platforms, it would have been better, but not somewhere in the middle. But that might have made for a very tight curve to meet the Charing Cross line in the right place. I hadn't realised that the spur bridge was still there. I wonder why it wasn't removed in 1993 when the new footbridge was built, given that so much other disused railway infrastructure is removed as soon as it is no longer needed.
Cheers for the video Jago, very informative as usual! I lived near Waterloo for a couple of years and still use it pretty regularly. I've always thought the outside (where those three bridges are) is a bit of a mess. It's like a hodge podge of different ideas and nobody has really ever done anything with it. Waterloo East has always felt very shoehorned as well, so it's good to have that confirmed.
It's certainly an interesting history lesson and delivered in an entertaining manner. I wonder if you'd consider including more maps for those of us for whom London is a mystical, faraway place, so we can appreciate the various routes, connections and junctions you discuss?
Interesting video! It’s not quite ‘disused’ though - I’m the MOM for this route and regularly use that bridge to access the Milk Dock (in order to access the tracks at this important junction). That silver roller shutter you see in the video is my access gate. 🚂
Thanks for filling that piece of info in! I must admit that I didn’t know that that was what it was used for these days.
It has been a good many decades since my duties took me to the milk dock - thank you for binging back the memory (along with the Drain which could then be undertaken on a Saturday afternoon after the services stopped at lunchtime). 🙂
That's really interesting that the bridge still has a use, but forgive my ignorance - what does MOM stand for?
@@ewhurstgreen This is some amazingly specific Londoniana - What is the milk dock? Please enlighten me as to what you're referring to here!
@@phaasch - Mobile Operations Manager. I’m basically a first responder to any & all incidents on the Railway such as dropped items, points failures right up to managing fatalities.
For those who may be interested HG Wells made reference to this link in his book "War of the Worlds" published in 1897. The Martians had arrived at Horsell Common near Woking and were starting to emerge from their pit. Train services were beginning to get disrupted by the advance of the aliens and fighting was breaking out. The relevant paragraph reads: "About five o'clock the gathering crowd at Waterloo station was immensely excited by the opening of the line of communication, which is almost invariably closed, between the South-Eastern and South-Western stations, and the passage of carriage-trucks bearing huge guns , and carriages crammed with soldiers. These were the guns that were brought up from Woolwich and Chatham to cover Kingston...." etc. (forgive the duplication Mark Bunn, your comment had not appeared when I started to write mine).
The Idea of Guns from Woolwich covering Kingston rather appeals to me
Oh wow. I must give the book yet another read as I can't believe I missed that line. Though speaking of this, Wells was really thorough and accurate with the locations and journey throughout the book, I think that makes it all the more appealing.
Wrong kind of aliens
Darn, you beat me to it!
Reading the book, I loved how Wells took time to name check all the pre-Grouping companies the protagonist encountered on his flight around London...
I dare say this ought to be a pinned comment! :)
The connection is really interesting. It even appears in HG Wells "The War of the Worlds" written in 1898, "the gathering crowd in the station was immensely excited by the opening of the line of communication, which is almost invariably closed, between the South-Eastern and South-Western stations"...(it was so they could bring up troops and guns from Woolwich & Chatham to fight in the invasion taking place in Surrey)
This spur must have been a nightmare to operate, effectively severing the main line concourse, whilst the train, presumably at walking pace, in that chaotic environment, trundled slowly across.
As for the "old" Waterloo, here's how Jerome K Jerome vividly described it in "Three Men in a Boat":
"We got to Waterloo at eleven, and asked where the eleven-five started from. Of course nobody knew; nobody at Waterloo ever does know where a train is going to start from, or where a train when it does start is going to, or anything about it. The porter who took our things thought it would go from number two platform, while another porter, with whom he discussed the question, had heard a rumour that it would go from number one. The station-master, on the other hand, was convinced it would start from the local.
To put an end to the matter, we went upstairs, and asked the traffic superintendent, and he told us that he had just met a man, who said he had seen it at number three platform. We went to number three platform, but the authorities there said that they rather thought that train was the Southampton express, or else the Windsor loop. But they were sure it wasn’t the Kingston train, though why they were sure it wasn’t they couldn’t say.
Then our porter said he thought that must be it on the high-level platform; said he thought he knew the train. So we went to the high- level platform, and saw the engine-driver, and asked him if he was going to Kingston. He said he couldn’t say for certain of course, but that he rather thought he was. Anyhow, if he wasn’t the 11.5 for Kingston, he said he was pretty confident he was the 9.32 for Virginia Water, or the 10 a.m. express for the Isle of Wight, or somewhere in that direction, and we should all know when we got there. We slipped half-a-crown into his hand, and begged him to be the 11.5 for Kingston.
“Nobody will ever know, on this line,” we said, “what you are, or where you’re going. You know the way, you slip off quietly and go to Kingston.”
“Well, I don’t know, gents,” replied the noble fellow, “but I suppose SOME train’s got to go to Kingston; and I’ll do it. Gimme the half- crown.”
Thus we got to Kingston by the London and South-Western Railway.
We learnt, afterwards, that the train we had come by was really the Exeter mail, and that they had spent hours at Waterloo, looking for it, and nobody knew what had become of it."
That book is an excellent example of dry, understated British humour.
It is Kings Cross that the "local" really refers to. Waterloo is relatively Simple. Kingston Trains (via Wimbledon) Platforms 1-4, Kingston (Via Richmond) normally the higher numbered platforms The higher low numbered platforms are fasts and semi fasts via Clapham Junction/ Surbition / Woking to the South West , The lower high numbered platforms are semi fasts etc to Reading / Alton and other things loosley heading out on lines through Putney after Clapham Junction
@@highpath4776 Waterloo*IS* relatively simple. The tense is everything.
But it was a very different matter in 1890.
It's worth mentioning that photographs taken of the Titanic's 1st class boat train before departure, show the new (eastern) side of the station as we know it, but discernible in the background is the ongoing rebuilding, and the chaotic clutter of the old station gradually being replaced. A pity that so few of those individuals pictured would ever live to see the transformation completed. (Incidentally, for those with a Titanic obsession, the train departed from platform 5)
@@SynchroScore Isn't it just!
@@phaasch I think a few folk got the vessel from Southampton then got off at Cork
Waterloo, couldn't escape if I wanted to ( Brighton 1974 ).
It would be of great comfort to any Victorian railway pioneers featured in this video, to think that very questionable decisions on Railways are still being made today.
Ah, Brighton 1974. I was there! -well, the morning after, anyway. Hunting for souvenirs and getting in the roadies' way. Then we saw ABBA doing a photoshoot in the Pavilion gardens. That then became a whole lot more interesting than souvenirs, particularly to a couple of 14 year-old lads, as you might imagine!
‘This is the ABBA group from Sweden ‘ 😊 th-cam.com/video/Vp1_OKawHYw/w-d-xo.html
I don’t know whether it’s frustrating or comforting that passengers saying “why couldn’t you just do THIS?” while it never happens, has been a universal fixed point in all of railway history.
There's the right way, the wrong way and the railway.
Millions of people swarming like flies 'round Waterloo underground
But terry and Julie cross over the river where they feel safe and sound
And they don't need no friends, as long as they gaze on
Waterloo sunset, they are in paradise.
A wonderful song.
Indeed. My favourite song about London.
A pop classic of the first order. Over half a dozen years ago now (time flies),we went to see the stage show based on the Kinks,with all those old favourites in it from You've Really Got Me to Waterloo Sunset to Lola. A week later we went to a classical concert on the South Bank,meeting up under the clock at Waterloo station beforehand,and taking a quick pre-concert wander across Waterloo Bridge and taking in Big Ben and the gated-off end of Downing Street. That was the most recent time I've been to Waterloo,but I'm sure I'll be back.
I went through Waterloo for years - Claphan Junction to the City. Slam-door times. When they were re-doing it, there was a sign - 'We listened to you! We are putting in what you asked for!'. What they did was put in a shack that would sell me socks. What I wanted, as I would imagine most of my fellow commuters would, was clean trains that actually turned up on time.
But then it got me to Boulevard St Michel, where the socks were much more stylish.
For us Americans, what does "slam door times" mean?
I'd love it if my local train station had a sock shack! Also trains. It would be great if it had trains.
@@comicus01
The old trains which had doors which opened on hinges, had a double latch to hold them shut and a mechanical action to open them - just like a[n internal] house door. When the train arrived at a station it was possible to open the doors and alight before it had physically come to a stop. There were signs telling you not to "alight before the train has stopped" - however, there were none telling you "not to board before the train has stopped", so I used to delight in opening a door, boarding the train and slamming the door shut (hence "slam door") behind me before the train had stopped...
The modern trains have slide doors operated by a button which is not enabled until after the train has stopped.
@@cigmorfil4101 .
You could and I often did, jump onboard even after the train had started.
@@comicus01 A slam-door train had doors that you opened yourself (also opening windows) and when you left you slammed them shut. I doubt there are any left now. Rather dangerous; waiting on the platform you could get whacked by one if the exiting passenger was a bit too enthusiastic.
I grew up in Thames Ditton and then Hersham (50s and 60s), so Waterloo was 'my' terminus - for a while, as a kid - I thought Hampton Court, which was just down the road and over the bridge from our house, was the other terminus of the line! When I later discovered that it was just a branch, I felt rather cheated. Waterloo in those days was like a wonderland for me (it had a cartoon cinema, apart from anything else!). Those were the days of steam, and at practically every platform stood an engine that had brought the last train in (waiting for it's carriages to be shunted away so it could reverse out - no 'heritage railway' style run around loops for them!). And every now and again the boiler pressure release valve would go on each engine and an ear-splitting blast of steam would shoot out - entirely without warning. And how it echoed under that enormous train shed! As a kid, these unexpected and extremely loud screeches were both terryfying - and thrilling. In much the same way as standing on Hersham station when the Atlantic Coast Express went through. You heard it approach for minutes before it arrived, the rails singing, and then suddenly it was on top of you, thundering through the station on the fast lines, steam and smoke pouring out, and then seconds later just a receding dotr, disappearing into the distance. No train comes close to that these days, not even the fast train that nearly knocks you over at Reading. It's impressive, yes, even a little scary, but not a roaring, thundering demon of a train like those expresses. We moved to east London in 69, shortly after the end of steam, and it was years before I returned to Waterloo, Thames Ditton and Hersham. Now just stations - all the glamour and heart-stopping noise and speed gone. Waterloo is still a impressive station, still my favourite, but very pedestrian now without those banshee wails that made you jump clean out of your skin. And even the cartoon cinema has gone...
As a fairly frequent Eurostar traveller from its inception, I miss the Waterloo terminus. In the same way that I miss Dover Western Docks/Calais Maritime. It was convenient. I accept that going from here to there takes time. We don't have Transporters or Stargates. And I am glad of that. The journey is the point. It is the glory of the ride.
Apologies to anyone that needs to be elsewhere quickly. Life choices are what they are.
"The journey is the point. It is the glory of the ride". Well put.
I had the most circuitous journey a few years ago from Waterloo Eurostar to Tonbridge, via all sorts of diversions including the Bat & Ball loop. It was so bonkers, I came back the same day just to experience it all over again.
Life before death
Strength before weakness
Journey before destination
My two visits to London involved return via train and ferry. But this was in 1959 and 1965. the ferry ride was definitely leisurely. I believe both trips started from Waterloo. one was to LeHarve, the other to Ostend.
@@delurkor Almost certainly Victoria.
i miss london so much i used to walk past waterloo station very single day to get to school. great times
The bridge that met its Waterloo at Waterloo!
Pictures of Waterloo East always brings back memories of my 1970s student days and taking the train back to Kent to visit the family. This platform message particularily:
" The three minutes past main line service to Ramsgate and Sandwich. This service will run fast to Ashford, where the train will be divided. The front four coaches are for Canterbury West and Ramsgate. The rear eight coaches are for Folkestone Central, Dover Priory, Martin Mill, Walmer, Deal and Sandwich. Please make sure you are in the correct portion of this train!"
As if there is a massive distance between ramsgate and folkstone, easlily covered by bus.
I was exactly the same in the mid 1980s - having to make sure I was in the correct portion of the train for Sandling.
A classic Southern Region split portion train, thought they are more frequently seen on the lines out of Victoria. But it ran to Ashford in an hour - much quicker than anything else since then on this route (obviously HS1 is quicker now, if you go to St Pancras). If you got in the rear portion by mistake and wanted to go to Ramsgate you would get there - eventually, by the scenic route, as it carried on to Ramsgate (and possibly Margate) after Sandwich.
@@highpath4776 Really? It's 25-30 miles, surely over an hour, even if there's any direct service not involving a change at Dover or Canterbury.
@@iankemp1131 It's over two hours. There is no direct bus service between the two locations. You either have to go to Canterbury and change for Ramsgate, or catch a Dover bus, then change for Sandwich, and change _again_ there for Ramsgate as ludicrously, there has not been a direct Dover to Ramsgate service for several years.
used to walk under that bridge every day. always wondered about it. never enough to actually look into it. this was great!
Ta!
In rainy London town,Jago strikes again! Your photography is spot on,and anyone who can make rain shots come alive,is a real photographer!! Thanks,Jago!! Thank you 😇!
With a certain just on 3 yr old of my direct acquaintance, we like to watch "steam trains!" or any rail videos. Master 3 said last week, on watching a video of the Watercress Line,..." It's raining...... a wet day."but not here in LevinNZ....He inSISted to his mother yesterday that a certain train was an A6 or an A4.... he was right. ( We have a commentary on every video)
The weather may not have permitted a radiant Waterloo sunset,but that wasn't going to thwart Jago.
Years ago, my workplace was on Lower Marsh, and I would take the train from Greenwich to Waterloo East for my commute.
This is an interesting topic for me, but if I can offer some (hopefully constructive!) feedback, I found it a bit hard to follow some of the developments you described based on the photos/footage alone; I don’t know if you’d want to include more maps or diagrams, but I think they’d have helped me at least to get a better view into your clearly excellent research.
i used to travel on trains a lot with my dad when i was younger. i remember when we did the walk through the footbridges from waterloo to waterloo east for the first time. i thought it was so cool because nobody was there and it was like my dad knew this cool secret station lol
In the book ‘Three Men in a Boat’ refers to the Waterloo chaos when the three are making their way out west to pick their boat up.
Yes, if I remember correctly, the confusion was so bad that our three heroes (plus dog) successfuly bribed one of the engine drivers to be the 2.15 to Kingston.
Already quoted in full elsewhere in the comments section.
@@RJSRdg haven’t enough time to read of the comments hence missed it
@@JP_TaVeryMuch just how many comments do you read?
I am surprised that you have the time
@@JP_TaVeryMuch I think that there are many more that baulk at looking through 200 plus comments so the odd repartition of facts is not a problem to me
A video on Waterloo for an otherwise gloomy Sunday? Sign me up!
Always wondered about that bridge. I've walked under it more times than I can remember. Thanks Jago!
I remember using it as a pedestrian to the old entrance to Waterloo East - having to leave Waterloo at platform level, across the taxi/bus road and across the bridge.
Sure Liverpool Street had the same thing as well with a Railway going through the concourse and connected with the Metropolitain Line, great video Jago
This could be described as being like a bridge over troubled Waterloo
I think closing the spur was not a bad idea, just imagine what it would be like on the concourse of Waterloo LSWR if tracks ran through the middle of it?
I think it would have been a bit like Stratford where the old North London Line crosses the new station concourse. That part of the old North London Line has now been converted to be part of the DLR which continues in a spur to Stratford International. So half of the station is on one side and the there is a large mezzanine level where passengers cross over the spur line going underneath, and the rest of the station is on the other side. Like at Stratford the Jubilee Line Platforms and the northbound Stratford International platform are on one side with tunnels going off from there to the National Rail, Central Line and London Overground platforms, and then there is a mezzanine level that takes passengers over the spur going across to the rest of the station on the other side where the station entrance, ticket office, south bound DLR towards Custom House and Woolwich, bus station exit and some more tunnels to the rest of the East-West railway and tube lines are.
It'd be like the airport in Gibraltar, where they have to stop traffic on the main road to let airplanes land.
It would have been right where the smokers congregate so it wouldnt be all bad!
You would need at least three signs to bring attention to the third rail......
@@jonatday Not on crossings.
Waterloo is an area that fascinates me, I work in a building where The Ring used to be ;). When I go for walks in the area, I see the Peabody estate, old converted warehouses, social housing. It saddens me, this area had a REAL economy. I get it, the docks had to close eventually but what’s there makes no sense. Excessively expensive properties and offices churning out an endless supply of BS jobs? Or WFH BS jobs now and empty offices.
Another great video. It's amazing that the bridge is still there, considering it was last used by trains well over a 100 years ago. Also, the mileages used out of Waterloo actually start at the old junction at Waterloo East. (5 chains)
Used as a footbridge for almost 100 years.
Until the 1990s you could still see the platform and canopy for the line. Jerome K Jerome refers to it in 'Three Men in a Boat' As you say all swept away now.
Spurs like this could be used for occasional shunting of stock between lines, usually after hours or when any of the scheduled links fail. Much modern railroad planning seems to blindly ignore the necessity of having workable plans for eventualities, frequent or rare as they may be.
As a non-English native speaker I was surprised to hear about a station named Waterlouise.
Waterloo named after the battle. It is always said that Churchill specified that his funeral train should leave from Waterloo despite being buried in Oxfordshire in order that President De Gaulle would be forced to catch the train from Waterloo Station.
@@owencarlstrand1945 I wonder if it ruffled a few French feathers as being the original Eurostar terminal.
@@MATTY110981 Paris has an Austerlitz station in the same vein.
Hi Jago, can you do a video about how the Overground went from a collection of suburban rail lines to something resembling a single network with its own brand? Maybe elaborate on cancelled plans along the way and plans for future extensions?
As a resident of Hastings who often comes up to London by means of the South Eastern Railway, I think that it is a great shame that this connection was lost. Waterloo could have been rebuilt with through platforms in the centre and a concourse over the top. Imagine through trains running from the South East corner of England (Hastings/ Dover/Maidstone/Tonbridge) stopping at Waterloo and then proceeding via Olympia and the West London Line onto the L&NWR to the Midlands and The North or to the GW/GC line to the West Midlands via Banbury. Yes, we have Thameslink but this other link could have given so many more opportunities for through trains form the South East to the North West. At present, the standard way of going from somewhere like Hastings to destinations North and West of London is to cross London on the tube - not great if it's crowded and you have heavy luggage. I usually find myself crossing to Marylebone as services from there are cheaper. I have in the past also gone South East to North West via Redhill and Reading but that takes ages often with poor connections.
Many years ago when I was still at school, I remember walking from Waterloo to Waterloo East on this very bridge. I was not aware that it had been built for a connecting railway line. The walkway was quite narrow as I recall. What is astonishing is that it hasn't been taken down with the new bridge installed. I surmise that it carries cables and suchlike so it's not just a simple job.
Every time I walk underneath en route for a Tesco meal deal I look up and wonder what's going on with that. Well now I know. Thanks for the information Harry!
One of these lines that looks so tempting on a map. Cannon Street isn't a useful destination (Waterloo and City is quicker) but running Thameslink trains towards Wimbledon via Blackfriars, Waterloo East and Clapham Junction always appealed to me - much better connections than going via Tooting. I even suggested this in the 1980s before Thameslink had been reinstated. But yes it would have been tricky to implement, and the potential site of a spur from the Blackfriars to Waterloo East lines has had houses built on it since then. If all the old link lines had been preserved you could have run services like Clapham-Waterloo-Blackfriars-Barbican-Liverpool Street-Stratford and beyond! But capacity would have been much less than Thameslink due to conflicting movements at the flat junctions (same problem as the Circle Line).
I can confirm over the years I have messy add-ons as I have expanded.
One thing missed is that while the track went during the rebuild of 1900+, road access was still provided until the 1990's rework. So the concourse dropped and what was known as the 'cab road' to areas known as "cab yards" were in place to an area between what at the time were platforms 11 and 12, this as the name indicates offered in-station cab rank for many years and goods access to and from trains. With the freeing up of the space 2 new tracks and put in the space, so closing the space between what had been known as the central and north stations. This road (without the cab rank) can be seen in the 1988 Christmas Special of Only fools and Horses where Dellboy is waiting under the Waterloo Station clock for Raquel.
Seen about 1.22 and 2.30 into th-cam.com/video/Kf1FhX2_jOs/w-d-xo.html
I think Waterloo is my favourite of the London Termini!
Even though it’s lightly more expensive and longer by 230 hrs then the fast train Totnes to Paddington I love the sw trains line from devon to Waterloo as it much prettier county sign and nice smallish towns as well
@@abigailbarfoot3846 If you can book in advance SWR do a cheap ticket London to Exeter for about £12. I've used this to get to Totnes before. :o)
@@abigailbarfoot3846 I hope you're missing a decimal point in that time! 10 days to get there?🙂I know SW trains aren't great but still.
@@surreygoldprospector576 Plus you can use a Network Railcard !!
Sometime in the late 1950s my father shewed me this old connection. There was a dip in the concourse leading to the bridge but although the track was leading up to what was by then a footbridge, I cannot recall whether rails were still in place 'in the wee dip'.
This is the most interesting of your recent videos, in my opinion. When I lived in London, Waterloo was my principal terminus and the seemingly very disorganised relationship between Waterloo and Waterloo East always stood out, in comparison to the seemingly more integrated system in other major London termini. Thanks for explaining it.
Waterloo/Waterloo East is used by a great many patients attending nearby St Thomas' Hospital, a centre for cardiac care in the region. The only way off the platforms at Waterloo East is by a long, steep ramp up to the footbridge. People with mobility or cardiac/breathing problems find this climb a struggle on their journey to hospital appointments (I speak from experience) but there is no alternative.
From what I remember, when that bridge was a footway it had sides and a roof installed (which have now gone). The main problem was having to cross the Taxi road before the main station
Why is it that, as an expat, those wet roads, miserable weather and what looks like a distinct lack of city planning seems so attractive? I never really did get Waterloo East so some improvement there after the video but following up and finding a schematic ‘Mainline Railways Around the South Bank’ suggests that the Victorian Railway companies have a lot to answer for.
It's useful to people coming up from south-west London needing to get to south-east London.
So pleased to see that others have commented on the War of the Worlds connection but one wonders why HG Wells went out of his way to include mention of troop train movements on the Waterloo link since it is scarcely relevant to the plot! Was Wells a train buff? Curious.
i remember walking the lower bridge back in the early 90s crazy >....
PS Jago, if you could I'd really love you do a quick history on the Irish Railway story. I recently seen a video on your channel about the first railway from Dublin to Kingstown, Dun Laoghaire now. Be great watch about it. Cheers. Seán.
Ah, Waterloo.. least used station in London 🧐
Oh gosh, waterloo station.
Whenever I needed to get home to Wimbledon I always had to use _the very last_ platform - number 23. It felt like I'd walk half a mile every time just to get there.
Waterloo East has platform letters and not numbers, apparently to stop passengers getting confused with it's big brother next door. Similarly so do New Cross and New Cross Gate stations.
St Pancras low level and most of the Elizabeth line new stations also have lettered platforms for the same reason.
Watches video, doesn’t understand, gets railmapsonline up, gets Google street maps up, watches video again, pauses, goes back, checks maps, starts video again. Understands its. Half hour down the rabbit hole
I'm really getting into these video's Jago...I'm hooked. Great content. A lot of catching up to do I have
The midday special from Jago Hazzard
Worked in a building overlooking Waterloo East. Brings back memories though I never used the station for travel.
For some reason it reminds me of the Queen Alexandra Bridge in Sunderland. This is also a 'forgotten' bridge, opened in 1909 and was Sunderland's own High Level Bridge as it carried a road with a railway on top. It didn't last long as a railway bridge. I think by WW2 the rails on the bridge held anti aircraft guns but the railway itself was disused. It's mostly all gone but the bridge still survives though as the road portion has always remained in use.
Radial Rail?
Any chance of a video on that?
Reminds me of the link that was between Liverpool Street and the Metropolitan Line, now swept away by developments. Would have connected the East London Line to Liverpool Street too. But probably got in the way of main line services, whose lines it needed to cross.
I always understood that Waterloo station is named after Waterloo Bridge, which in turn was named after the battle of 1815, some 33 years before the station opened. Very interesting video, I live in Surrey so Waterloo is usually my entry station to London.
Thank you for bringing back some memories. I was born on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent but my parents decided to move to Hampshire in the early seventies. We then spent the next 10 or so years travelling a few times a yearto visit relatives. This involved catching a train to Waterloo and then crossing to Waterloo East to catch a train to Chatham or Gillingham in Kent (I am sorry I am not sure which - both names resonate with me) where we would have to change trains for a service to Sittingbourne, Kent. There we would have to change to catch a train to Sheerness. Then there was the annual visits to London at Christmas where we would travel to Waterloo and then catch the tube to Elephant and Castle so we could go to the street market there - I think it was East Street Market? We always got roasted chestnuts and hot sarsaparilla drinks there before heading to the West End of London on the tube to see the Oxford Street shop windows and Christmas lights.
The line from Sittingbourne to Sheerness crosses onto the Island by the old Kings Ferry Bridge, where the railway line runs alongside the roadway. When a tall vessel passes through, the whole centre section, road and rail, is raised up to allow clearance underneath.
I left school in 1974 and had to go for a medical examination at County Hall. The ILEA kindly sent me a GLC printed map of how to get there. This map still showed the South Eastern station as Waterloo Junction. It wasn’t a very old map, it was a fairly recently printed one, but still using the old name.
I think it was under that same bridge where the great train robber Buster Edwards had his flower stall
I think his flower stall was outside Embankment Tube station , exit going up to the Strand. I think I remember seeing him there and thinking he looks familiar.
Correction sorry you are right it was there at Waterloo.
I remember a rhyme somewhere to the tune the runaway train. " The runaway train ran down the the line and she blew, repeat, the runaway train ran down the line, and got to Cannon St right on time. It can't be true"
Only used Cannon Street once, on a Monday morning coming from Paris. Got somehow from Dover Marine to Dover Priory, train to London Bridge then picked up one to Cannon Street to walk to London Wall
It’s a cold, grey and wintry Sunday afternoon and I’m inside with a mug of tea and a Jago video! Happy! 😀
I used to work in Waterloo in the 80s and remember using that old bridge. What a complicated story, thanks for sharing in a simplified way 😃
Superb! Must have walked / driven under that bridge (s) a million times didn’t give it a second glance. I remember first going in the Wellington Pub probably circa 1990. & I remember parties in Alaska Studios just around the corner in Alaska St. Great local history 😊👍
The Wellington pup is intriguing. It appears to have a central upper section missing where this bridge passes through. But presumably you can still go in the bit underneath the bridge.
Nice video. Maybe a few more diagrams of the stations, their relationships and the route of the spur would have helped those of us outside central London to picture it all a bit better.
I shall remember this during my morning commute via Waterloo East 😊
Sorry it took me so long to subscribe, these videos are always epic.
Victoria made trips to Aix-les-Bains as the Countess of Balmoral. There is still a bust of her in the town. The royal train used the spur to take her from Windsor to the channel.
Is this the abridged version? 🥁
Randomly spotted this at the weekend and remembered this video, Snapped a pic to add to the abandoned folder :D thanks!
Interesting video. Thanks for sharing it. I liked Waterloo Station when I visited London
About 60 years ago, when I was a young lad and steam trains could still be seen at Waterloo, I was walked to Waterloo East by crossing the busy road. Much more convenient nowadays using the pedestrian footbridge - which I used earlier on today. While I would love the disused bridge to be reopened, I can't see it happening any time soon - especially as we still have two train companies involved (even though South Eastern is the operator of last resort).
I've supped many a pint of ESB in The Wellington. And then there's "The Hole in the Wall." Cripes, I miss London!
I remember when there was a cinema adjacent to Platform 1 where you could pop in if your train was delayed. The Hampton Court trains (headcode 30) always monopolised Platform One.
Thank you for this Sir. I have always had a vague remembrance of walking across that bridge and that of the new one being built and hadn't found much about it to confirm when it was "abandoned".
It's not completely abandoned! It's handy access for the railway staff to get to the tracks at waterloo east.
I can remember crossing that old bridge with my mother and brother in 1969.
used to work on track round here a couple years ago, crossed that dis-used bridge many times for access
Few years ago they were working on the footbridge between Waterloo East and Waterloo. I came up the stairs and Somehow managed to access this bridge, totally innocently.. I remember stepping onto it and thinking...” I shouldn’t be here !!! “
Interesting video Mr H.
Thanks for the “Cheerio”.
My father's model railway includes a very eclectic mix of post-steam locos and rolling stock, including both overhead and 3rd rail electrics, including a Class 442 Wessex Electric. In attempting to find a plausible location where they might all be seen together, I posited a major interchange station on the Swanscombe peninsula, served by OHLE trains from Liverpool Street and Norwich and 3rd Rail units off the South Eastern, with a (not modelled) Eurostar platform underneath. The 442 was assumed to have got there via the disused Waterloo curve, to maintain a connection from Dorset to Eurostar once Waterloo International was taken out of use.
Even without the Waterloo spur, that journey is still possible today via Clapham Junction-Wandsworth Road-Brixton flyover-Peckham Rye-Lewisham-Dartford.
It comes to something when victorian health and safety said "steady on, this is a bit dodgy"
Terry met Julie there.
The short-lived LNWR service was the only regular passenger service to use the link. It ran initially to London Bridge (with LSWR loco from Addison Road) and later to Cannon Street (with SER loco from Waterloo). The track across the concourse is pictured on the London Reconnections website (search for ‘the Waterloo link’), which also gives further information on the link, which was severed in 1911. Trains were required to run at 4mph. The LSWR’s main route to the City (apart from the Waterloo & City Line) was to the LCDR station at Ludgate Hill, reached either via Addison Road or Clapham Junction and Wandsworth Road, or (later) via Wimbledon and Tooting.
Interesting and beautifully produced. Thank you.
Vic Mitchell, (joint) author of so many railway books, passed away in January 2021 aged 82.
have walked/bused/ridden under many times,to knock in down would cost many many pounds and closeing waterloo road,so its being left ,just has railway people looking at it once a year.
The Fallings-Out are always a great twist, no matter how predictable they are.
I thought the French were the ones who abandoned the line at Waterloo
Jago I love the effort you put into research and B-roll for this channel, but as someone from outside London, I'd love to see some maps to better understand station locations!
Jago, the way you were able to describe all these lines…it’s as if you’ve recently portrayed an underappreciated map maker in a recent Jay Foreman video. 🧐Hmmmm…
The Weather Gods weren't too kind for you on filming day.As always , a very interesting video. Greetings from Australia.
I used to live in the Wellington, the pub/hotel pictured here, when I worked there.
First time I have seen someone mention this line on TH-cam. Interesting point for you, when the Waterloo East was just Waterloo, the platforms were given letters to distinguish them from the mainline. Even after the renaming to Waterloo East and indeed to this present day, the lettering of the platforms remains. One other location this occurred was at New Cross. As you are aware there was New Cross (SER) and New Cross (LBSCR).Under the Southern Railway, again to avoid confusion, New Cross (SER) which is only a few minutes walk along the road from New Cross (LBSCR) had its platforms lettered. New Cross (LBSCR) later became New Cross Gate but New Cross (SER) kept its lettering. One other little anecdote of note. The line from Waterloo East to Waterloo is still used today as an access point by on-track staff. There still exists on the bridge part of the original platform that was on it. For some reason in railway circles, staff refer to this as the Milk Dock, which it never was. Great videos as always, good work, love them.
What I like about Waterloo Esat is that it still has some NSE era tiling & possibly the last remaining Connex displays on the network. They may not be technically superior but are certainly superior in the way they display information
It's hard to imagine how a line across the concourse would pass even Victorian standards of Health and Safety. It must have been a big problem if passengers needed to get from one side of the concourse to the other when a train was passing - unless there was some form of bridge over the spur or a subway under it. If they'd put the spur at one end or the other of the row of platforms, it would have been better, but not somewhere in the middle. But that might have made for a very tight curve to meet the Charing Cross line in the right place.
I hadn't realised that the spur bridge was still there. I wonder why it wasn't removed in 1993 when the new footbridge was built, given that so much other disused railway infrastructure is removed as soon as it is no longer needed.
Thanks Jago.
Of course, the correct rejoinder to 'Cheerio!' is 'Pip, pip!' 🙂👍
Transporting the Queen sounds like a nice way to end a feud.
Love your videos
Cheers for the video Jago, very informative as usual! I lived near Waterloo for a couple of years and still use it pretty regularly. I've always thought the outside (where those three bridges are) is a bit of a mess. It's like a hodge podge of different ideas and nobody has really ever done anything with it. Waterloo East has always felt very shoehorned as well, so it's good to have that confirmed.
I remember using the old footbridge to Waterloo East back in the 1980’s
Thank you I'm a Eastleigh railwayman and found it very informative and interesting thank you would be great to have a through connection.
I guess you could have subtitled this as "A bridge between two troubled lines."
It's certainly an interesting history lesson and delivered in an entertaining manner. I wonder if you'd consider including more maps for those of us for whom London is a mystical, faraway place, so we can appreciate the various routes, connections and junctions you discuss?