Crystal Palace Railway Station
From Virtual Norwood
Crystal Palace Railway Station was opened on 10 June 1854 by the London Brighton & South Coast Railway which opened a branch from Sydenham. This line was extended to Wandsworth Common by the West End of London and Crystal Palace Junction Railway (WEL&CPR) and on 1st December 1856. The stations at Gipsy Hill, Streatham (renamed Streatham Hill on 1st September 1868), Balham and Wandsworth Common opened on the same day. It was then extended to a pier on the Thames at Battersea on 29th March 1858, with the terminus at Victoria opened on 1st October 1860. The Norwood Junction route opened on 1st October 1857, and then the route to Beckenham and Bromley (renamed Shortlands) opened on 3rd May 1858.
Originally called Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, it was renamed as Crystal Palace (Low Level) when the High Level station was opened in 1865 and reverted to plain Crystal Palace when the High Level line closed. Historical records about the station can be found in books such as Mitchell, V & Smith, K (1994), "Clapham Jn to Beckenham Jn", Middleton Press, Midhurst (ISBN 1-873793-36-7), but by the end of the 20th century, the station building (listed as Grade 2) comprised four elements. The old booking hall (used for many years by Rosebery's antiques business) was flanked by the (non-matching) North and South towers. As part of British Rail cost-saving measures, a green metal-and-glass booking hall structure was added to the Anerley Hill side of the South tower in 1982, to act as the main entrance. This unfortunately led to a very circuitous access involving over 100 stairs to access trains to Sydenham, which ran all-day (as opposed to peak-only) from the early 1990s.
Although the station is owned by Railtrack (now Network Rail) it is operated by the local train operator. After rail privatisation, this was Connex until they lost the franchise to the Go-Ahead group, who were subsequently successful in retaining the franchise. However, on 20th September 2009, management of the station passed to LOROL, a franchise specified by Transport for London as well as the Department for Transport. This was because Crystal Palace will become one of the two southern termini of the East London Line Extension that is due to open in 2010.
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[edit] Train Services
Although the main train service at Crystal Palace is to/from London Victoria via Balham and Clapham Junction (generally 4 trains per hour, 2 on Sundays), the station has a range of other local passenger services within South London. Two of the Victoria trains run on to West Croydon, the other two to London Bridge via Sydenham. A further 2 trains per hour run between London Bridge, Peckham Rye, Tulse Hill and Beckenham Junction via Crystal Palace, which means that passengers for London Bridge can sometimes depart simultaneously in opposite directions! Since the demise of slam-door stock, most of these services have been formed of Class 455/456 suburban trains, although Class 377 set (designed for outer-suburban journeys) are increasingly finding their way on to local services. Government figures show that about 2500 passengers enter the station on a typical weekday.
In addition, there are plenty of other trains passing through. Some of these are empty (because of the proximity of depots at Selhurst and Streatham Hill), some diverted (because Crystal Palace is on a loop off the Victoria - Brighton main line, this can be helpful to maintain services during disruption), and others booked to pass through without stopping (e.g. Thameslink services in peak hours, when track capacity constraints prevent these from following their normal route via London Bridge). There are also several freight trains per day, generally carrying building materials to/from terminals on the Brighton main line, making Crystal Palace surprisingly busy for an apparently-quiet location.
Extra trains are also operated in connection with events in Crystal Palace Park, most notably in 2005 when Coldplay had concerts on two successive evenings. 42 additional trains were run, carrying about 32,000 extra passengers.
[edit] Refurbishment 2000-2002
The roof over the Sydenham platforms needed to be supported by scaffolding from around 1984, and by the late 1990s had deteriorated further. Pressured by local residents and L B Bromley, a £4.5 million regeneration package of works by Railtrack started at the station on 24th June 2000.
The extensive programme of works included:
- the complete replacement of the timber and glass train shed roof over the Sydenham platforms using modern materials
- re-roofing of the footbridge between platforms 1 and 2
- repair of the footbridge and staircases to platforms 3 and 4
- internal and external refurbishment of the old station buildings
- new roof to the 'old' booking hall
- restoration of the train shed area including improved lighting
- restoration of the 'mansard' roof to the north tower
- erection of a porte cochere entrance canopy to the front of the station building; and
- under-pinning of the North tower.
Work on Crystal Palace station was part of Railtrack's national £1 billion Station Regeneration Programme. Works were originally scheduled for completion by March 2001 but continued later into the year. At the same time, refurbishment of the South Tower offices was undertaken, the official opening ceremony for the for The Railway Consultancy Ltd being held on 19th July 2002.
[edit] East London Line Extension
Crystal Palace station is being further developed for the East London Line Extension (ELLE, ELLP, ELLX). In the first instance, this project will bring direct trains from Dalston, via Whitechapel, New Cross Gate and Sydenham. After discussion with various statutory bodies such as English Heritage, plans for the station were brought before L B Bromley in January 2009, and approved with minor amendments.
Work began during 2009, managed from a worksite off Orchard Grove. Additional platforms were constructed between platforms 3 and 4 during the Winter of 2009-10. Test running over the connection from the existing East London Line at New Cross Gate commenced during February 2010, and the picture shows one of the first trains to arrive at Crystal Palace, on 16th February, viewed across the new platform (which has yet to receive its canopy).
During the weekend of 9-10 May 2010, the station was resigned into London Overground colours, and passengers were afforded access to the newly-constructed platform on the 'Sydenham' side of the station; this platform has faces numbered 5 and 6. The track in platform 6 now has platform faces on both sides, but the far side (the old platform 4) is now out of use.
Plans are for the old ticket hall to be brought back into service as the main entrance for the station, but this will not happen before the new services due to begin on 23rd May 2010, as works had not even started with only two weeks to go. However, the aim is that the 1982 extension is to be demolished, with ticket office facilities re-located back into the old building, whilst lift facilities are also to be provided to make the station more accessible.
[edit] Freight Train Derailment, Thursday 5th July 2001
At about 2am on Thursday 5th July 2001 a freight train was derailed at Crystal Palace. Train services from Tulse Hill and Balham to Streatham Hill, West Norwood, Gipsy Hill, Crystal Palace and Norwood Junction were all affected. Virtual Norwood was told 'off the record' that the train was unloading replacement rail for engineering due to take place over the following couple of weekends. It apparently reversed out of Platform 4 whilst the points were set against it. From that direction the points would merely have been pushed open. However, when the train subsequently moved forward again, the front half of the train went back into Platform 4 whilst the rear half went the other way, towards Platform 2. This caused the train to come off the tracks.
Railtrack declined to comment on the incident saying that it was now subject to an internal review. Their press officer did confirm the time of the derailment was around 2am on Thursday 5th July 2001 and that the engineers working had 'possession of the line'. This means that no other trains would have been running on the same section of track. The press officer also said that the train was travelling slowly at about 5 miles per hour.
Connex South Central published reports on their web site, station information screens and a noticeboard in the ticket office. On the day of the derailment the web site reported that engineers had been able to re-rail the train but that it would take several days for repairs to be completed. The noticeboard didn't make any special mention of the derailment and electronic display screens showing departure details for trains to Victoria and London Bridge were simply highlighted as cancelled. Connex ran a shuttle bus between Birkbeck and Crystal Palace and Croydon Tramlink allowed Connex ticket holders on their services. On Friday afternoon a station worker said that things were getting back to normal. He seemed quite unfazed by the incident and clearly no stranger to a bit of disruption.
[edit] Links
- Live Train Departure Boards for Crystal Palace (CYP)
- Network Map of London and South East - PDF download
- Route of The East London Line (London Overground) - Crystal Palace, Sydenham, Forest Hill, Honor Oak Park, Brockley, New Cross Gate, Surrey Quays, Canada Water ... Highbury & Islington
- Virtual Norwood Forum - discussion of the latest news affecting the East London Line Extension
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