The entrance buildings of Balham's railway (extreme left) and Underground (right) stations
Balham station consists of two adjacent stations (a London Underground station and a National Rail station) located in the Balham area of south London, England. The station is located on the A24 Balham High Road in the London Borough of Wandsworth, and is in Travelcard Zone 3.
The two stations are interconnected, albeit owned and operated separately, with separate ticket-issuing facilities and gatelines.
National Rail[]
| Template:R-I Template:R-I Template:R-I Template:R-I | |
| File:Balham railway 080120.jpg | |
| Location | Balham |
|---|---|
| Local authority | Wandsworth |
| Managed by | Southern |
| Station code | BAL |
| Number of platforms | 4 |
| Fare zone | 3 |
| National Rail annual entry and exit | |
| 2004–05 | 3.161 million[1] |
| 2005–06 | 3.236 million[1] |
| 2006–07 | 5.455 million[1] |
| 1863 | Opened |
| Lists of stations | *DLR |
| External links | *Departures
|
| Template:Portal-inline Template:Portal-inline | |
The National Rail station at Balham, which is managed by Southern is located on the Brighton Main Line, 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, with the other heading towards Crystal Palace. Further south, there is another branch which heads towards Mitcham Junction and Sutton. Between Balham and Mitcham Junction, a new station at Mitcham Eastfields was opened in 2008.
History[]
A 1908 Railway Clearing House map of lines around Balham station
The station was opened in 1863 by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, replacing another station nearby which opened in 1856.[2] It was known initially as Balham and Upper Tooting. Following the 1921 Railways Act, the LBSCR was absorbed into the Southern Railway, which electrified the tracks through the station.
When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the national rail lines were served by Network SouthEast until the privatisation of British Railways.
Upon privatisation in the 1990s, the national rail lines came under the Connex South Central franchise, which was replaced by the current operator in 2000.
Services[]
All services are operated by Southern. While the station is physically on the Brighton Main Line, train services form part of the South London Lines and the Sutton & Mole Valley Lines. To the north, trains operate to London Victoria via Clapham Junction; and Milton Keynes Central via Kensington (Olympia) and Watford Junction.
To the south and east, typical destinations include London Bridge via Crystal Palace, Croydon stations (West Croydon and East Croydon), Caterham, Epsom Downs and Sutton.
| Preceding station |  National Rail
|
Following station
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|---|---|---|---|---|
London Underground[]
| Template:R-I Template:R-I Template:R-I Template:R-I | |
| File:Balham tube 080120.jpg One of the station entrances | |
| Location | Balham |
|---|---|
| Local authority | Wandsworth |
| Managed by | London Underground |
| Owner | London Underground |
| Number of platforms | 2 |
| Fare zone | 3 |
| London Underground annual entry and exit | |
| 2007 | 11.337 million[3] |
| 2008 | increase 11.560 million[4] |
| 2009 | decrease 11.550 million[5] |
| 1926 | Opened (C&SLR) |
| Lists of stations | *DLR |
| Template:Portal-inlineCoordinates: 51°26′33″N 0°09′07″W / 51.4426°N 0.152°W | |
Balham is located on the Northern Line between Clapham South and Tooting Bec 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. It is the only station on the Morden branch of the Northern line with an interchange to a National Rail station of the same name.
History[]
The station opened on 6 December 1926 as part of the Morden extension of the City & South London Railway (although the line had opened slightly earlier, on 13 September 1926),[6] which later became part of the Northern Line.
World War II[]
The memorial plaque in the entrance hall
During the Second World War, 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 Clapham South. according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), sixty-seven people in the station were killed[7] - although some sources report 68 - and more than seventy injured. The damage at track level closed the line to traffic between Tooting Bec and Clapham Common, but was repaired rapidly with the closed section and station being reopened on 12 January 1941.[8] In October 2000 a memorial plaque was placed in the station ticket hall commemorating this event. It stating 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 plaque commemorating the event, but without giving the number of fatalities.[9]
In popular culture[]
The video for the single Missing by Everything But the Girl repeatedly uses the same shot from a moving vehicle passing between the two tube entrance buildings, while in another shot Tracey Thorn is seen walking down the side of one of them.
The flooding of the station during World War II is briefly portrayed in Ian McEwan's novel Atonement, and in the film based on the book. Both the novel and the film date the event incorrectly, with the novel placing it in September 1940 rather than October, and the film dating it as 15 October rather than the previous day.
Transports links[]
London Bus routes 155, 249, 315, 355 and Night routes N155 serve the station and its surrounding area.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Template:Citation ORR rail usage data
- ↑ About the borough - Borough history. Wandsworth Borough Council. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved on 2008-01-24.
- ↑ Template:Citation London Underground performance exits 2003 to 2011
- ↑ Template:Citation London Underground performance exits 2003 to 2011
- ↑ Template:Citation London Underground performance exits 2003 to 2011
- ↑ Rose, Douglas (1999). The London Underground, A Diagrammatic History. Douglas Rose/Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-219-4.
- ↑ Casualty List for Balham. cwgcuser.org.uk. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
- ↑ Northern Line, Dates. Clive's Underground Line Guides. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
- ↑ http://www.ukniwm.org.uk/server/show/conMemorial.52421/fromUkniwmSearch/1
External links[]
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- Train times and station information for Balham station from National Rail
- London's Transport Museum Photographic Archive
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| Terminus | {{{{{system}}} lines|{{{line}}}}} | Terminus | ||
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