Waterloo

Facts

Opened

11 July 1848, as Waterloo Bridge, by the London and South Western Railway, replacing the Nine Elms terminus

Platforms

24, numbered 1 to 24, all terminal. Platforms 20 to 24 were Waterloo International’s, closed in 2007 and reopened in 2018–19

Routes

South Western Main Line; the West of England line; the Portsmouth Direct line; the Reading line; south-west London’s suburban lines. Route names from Wikipedia only

Operators

South Western Railway

Underground

Bakerloo Jubilee Northern Waterloo & City

Next door

Waterloo East (Southeastern), a separate station

Roof

Ridge-and-furrow over the main station, from the 1900–22 rebuild; platforms 20 to 24 under Nicholas Grimshaw’s glazed international trainshed, 1,312 ft (400 m) long, completed in 1993

Architect

J. R. Scott (offices and the Victory Arch) with J. W. Jacomb-Hood (chief engineer); sculpture by Charles Whiffen; the international terminal by Nicholas Grimshaw

Listed

The Victory Arch only, Grade II (Historic England, entry 1063898). A Network Rail press release says Grade I

Interchanges

4.46 million (2024-25)

Managed by

Network Rail

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

Where trains go

Waterloo’s routes follow the railway out of London, then split to the parts of the country they reach, set at their compass bearings; point at a line to see who runs it. The other termini are the small dots; select one to open its page. Distances are true at the circle’s edge, 6 miles (10 km) out, and stretched towards the middle so the termini have room. The route colour is the map’s own: not official, and not any operator’s livery. All 13 together: the map on the Maps page.

Platforms 24

Seen from above, to scale: the platforms, tracks and the station building’s outline (the grey line) from OpenStreetMap, the buffer stops on the left and the platforms running out to the south-south-west (north is marked top left). Platforms 20 to 24, along the west side, curve away under the former international shed.

Trains

• Class 701 Arterio South Western Railway
• Class 444 Desiro South Western Railway
• Class 450 Desiro South Western Railway
• Class 458 Juniper South Western Railway
• Class 159 South Western Turbo South Western Railway
• Class 158 Express Sprinter South Western Railway

Each of these trains’ records names Waterloo.

History 7

1. 11 July 1848Opens as Waterloo Bridge, with six platforms, replacing Nine Elms.
2. 1900–1922Rebuilt by the London and South Western Railway, with 21 platforms.
3. 21 March 1922Formally opened by Queen Mary, with the Victory Arch to those who fell in the First World War.
4. 1993–1994Waterloo International’s trainshed is completed, and Eurostar starts running from it.
5. 8 March 2002The Victory Arch is listed, Grade II.
6. 2007Eurostar moves to St Pancras and the international platforms close.
7. 2018–2019Platforms 20 to 22 reopen for South Western Railway in December 2018, and 23 and 24 in May 2019.

Sources 9

Where the sources disagree:

• Rebuild dates: 1900-1922 (Network Rail) vs 1903-1922 (Wikipedia).
• Grimshaw trainshed completion 1993 (RIBA Journal, archiweb) vs opened November 1994 (Londonist; Network Rail says 1994): both fit, one is completion, one is opening to traffic.
• Network Rail's Waterloo history page summary calls the 1848 station 'Central station'; the 175th-anniversary release calls it Waterloo Bridge. Waterloo Bridge recorded.