Bricklayers' Arms Railway Station

From the Wikipedia article about Bricklayers' Arms

Adjacent to Bricklayers' Arms was a 26-acre (110,000 m2) site, connected to the main line between London Bridge and Croydon which was formerly of considerable importance to the history of railways in south London.

Bricklayers' Arms branch
The line was one mile (1.6 km) and 56 chains in length and was constructed in 1843–4 as a result of concerns by the South Eastern (SER) and London and Croydon (L&CR) railways about the charges being imposed by the London and Greenwich Railway (L&GR) for the use of their terminus at London Bridge and its approaches. The two railways constructed a new passenger terminus and goods station on the site, thereby removing the need for them to use the Greenwich Railway facilities. According to Charles Vignoles, 'the making of Bricklayers' Arms station was a matter of compulsion in driving the Greenwich people to reasonable terms'. It had the desired effect and the L&GR agreed to more reasonable terms, as a result the L&CR ceased using the station in March 1845.

Plans to extend the line from Bricklayers' Arms to a new South Eastern Railway terminus at Hungerford Bridge, closer to the centre of London were never implemented. The railway introduced a proposal to extend the line to Waterloo Road in 1846 which was rejected by a committee of Parliament.[7] In 1846 L&C became part of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) and the SER had leased the L&G line the previous year; future passenger developments were at London Bridge.

As part of a series of agreements of 1848 and 1849, the LB&SCR sold its inherited share of the facilities to the SER in the latter year whilst retaining the right to use the branch and to construct its own 15-acre (61,000 m2) goods depot on the site for an annual rent of one shilling (£0.05).

In the early 1890s the SER again proposed building an extension of the branch, but this time to Charing Cross and thence to Cannon Street but the plan was deferred about 1894, and was not later proceeded with by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway Management Committee.

The line is historically significant as it was the first in the world to be controlled by a signal box. The signals and points installed by Charles Hutton Gregory and were the first to contain some elements of interlocking. A boiler explosion by a SER locomotive on 11 December 1844 caused a bridge collapse and killed two staff.

Passenger terminus
The terminus building was designed by Lewis Cubitt with an imposing facade resembling his later design of King's Cross Station, and costing £89,000.] From 1844 the SER transferred all of its services to this new terminus, whilst the L&CR operated services from both termini. As mentioned above the L&CR ceased using the station in 1845 although its successor (the LB&SCR) retained running powers over the branch.

The station was never commercially viable as a passenger terminus due to its location in a poor working-class neighbourhood on the Old Kent Road and its distance from the centre of London. Also its raison d'etre largely disappeared after the South Eastern Railway took over the operation of the London and Greenwich Railway in 1845. A shunting accident during August 1850 caused the collapse of a large part of the station roof, killing a porter. The SER therefore closed Bricklayers' Arms terminus for passenger traffic in 1852 and transferred all of its services back to London Bridge. Thereafter it was occasionally used for special trains, such as a Royal train carrying Queen Alexandra on 3 March 1863. It was also used for passenger excursions trains from 1932 until circa 1940, and occasional enthusiasts' specials until closure of the line in 1981.