Stations › Other London stations › Elephant & Castle

Elephant & Castle

A station of 1862 on the London, Chatham and Dover Railway’s Metropolitan Extension, carried on a brick viaduct, where Thameslink and Southeastern trains call above the Bakerloo and Northern line station of the same name.

4Platforms
1862Opened
2.2 millionEntries and exits (2024-25)
271stBusiest station in Britain (2024-25)

Platforms 4

Platform plan, to scale from OpenStreetMap12/34Platform 1. About 550 ft (168 m) long, off OpenStreetMapPlatforms 2 and 3. About 610 ft (185 m) long, off OpenStreetMapPlatform 4. About 540 ft (163 m) long, off OpenStreetMapBelow ground: the Northern and Bakerloo lines’ platforms 1 to 4. Same scale, in line with the plan above1234N100 ft (30 m)Platforms, tracks and outline © OpenStreetMap contributors

Seen from above, to scale: the platforms, tracks and the station building’s outline (the grey line) from OpenStreetMap, the lines running roughly north to south. North is marked top left, and the scale bottom left. Point at a platform for its number and length.

Facts

Opened
6 October 1862 by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway as a temporary terminus; a permanent structure followed in February 1863
Platforms
4, numbered 1 to 4, on a brick viaduct, two of them on an island between the lines
Routes
Thameslink between Blackfriars and Herne Hill, with the Sutton Loop and Sevenoaks services, and a few Southeastern peak trains
Underground
Bakerloo Northern
Operators
Thameslink, Southeastern
Access
Stairs only; National Rail step-free category C (no step-free access to the platforms)
Managed by
Thameslink
Listed
No listing found (not confirmed)
Interchanges
0.44 million (2024-25)

unverified Some of these figures haven’t yet been checked against an official source or a published history. What’s in doubt ↓

Trains

The trains the operators run here, as the sources give them.

History 10

  1. The London, Chatham and Dover Railway opens the station as the terminus of the first section of its Metropolitan Extension from Herne Hill, with two timber-planked platforms under a trainshed.
  2. Quadrupling of the line from Herne Hill to Blackfriars is completed; the station gains two more platform faces on a parallel viaduct.
  3. The City and South London Railway opens its station below, now the Northern line’s.
  4. The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway, now the Bakerloo line, opens its Elephant & Castle station as its southern terminus.
  5. Public electric services begin on the Holborn Viaduct to Orpington route via Herne Hill, on the Southern Railway’s 660-volt third-rail system.
  6. An air raid burns out the 1862 trainshed and signal box and destroys the platform 1 canopy.
  7. Repairs begin: new 120-foot canopies go on all platforms and the platforms are rebuilt in prefabricated concrete.
  8. The Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre opens beside the station, with a footbridge giving a direct link to the platforms.
  9. Thameslink services begin, including Cricklewood to Sevenoaks, which run over this route.
  10. A fire in the railway arches below fills the station with smoke and the station and line close for a time; the station itself is not damaged.

Sources 11

Show the 11 sources from Kent Rail, Wikipedia, Office of Rail and Road and 6 more

Where the sources disagree:

  • Platform count (4) and numbering (1 to 4) come from Wikipedia and Southeastern’s live boards (platforms 1 to 4 listed), not from a Network Rail or National Rail page, which gives no platform count. The order of the platforms across the viaduct was not confirmed: Kent Rail puts platform 1 on the west side with 2 and 3 the island, yet says the 1866 faces were added on the west.
  • The permanent station of February 1863 and the extension to Blackfriars Bridge on 1 June 1864 are from Wikipedia only.
  • The Northern line (18 December 1890) and Bakerloo (5 August 1906) opening dates are from Wikipedia only (a search-result summary agrees).
  • The 2021 fire date and cause are from Wikipedia; press reports agree on 28 June 2021 and 15 engines but gave the cause as unknown at the time. Wikipedia’s cause (a car in a spray booth) is not used.
  • Service pattern: Wikipedia gives off-peak Thameslink with Class 700 only (2 trains an hour to Blackfriars, 4 to St Albans City, 4 to Sutton, 2 to Sevenoaks via Catford) and a few Southeastern peak trains. A search summary of other sites gives a different split (about twelve an hour including West Hampstead Thameslink and Luton) and attributes the Sevenoaks trains to Southeastern. Southeastern’s live boards show Blackfriars, St Albans, Sutton, Sevenoaks via Catford and Bedford. No operator timetable was opened. Class 700 is the only stock listed; the Southeastern peak units were not identified.
  • Whether the canopies seen today date from 1948, and whether any of the 1862 structure survives, is not confirmed (Kent Rail photograph captions only).
  • Wikipedia gives a shopping-centre entrance closure of September 2020 and plans for a new rail entrance and arches opened to Elephant Park; both are left out as Wikipedia only and undated. The new Northern line ticket hall (Wikipedia: 2028/9) is not used.
  • Listing status: not found; Historic England’s site was not opened.
  • National Rail names Thameslink as manager but does not state the owner; Wikipedia says Network Rail owns the station. ORR’s facility owner was not read. Wikipedia’s DfT category E is not used.
  • Stairs-only access is from National Rail (category C), Southeastern and SE1 News (February 2023); no step-free scheme is confirmed.
  • 18 December 1890: The City and South London Railway opens its station below, now the Northern line’s: the date is from Wikipedia only.
  • 5 August 1906: The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway, now the Bakerloo line, opens its Elephant & Castle station as its southern terminus: the date is from Wikipedia only.
  • 28 June 2021: A fire in the railway arches below fills the station with smoke and the station and line close for a time; the station itself is not damaged: the date is from Wikipedia only.
Top