Waterloo(WAT)
About Waterloo
London Waterloo is one of the UK’s most important railway stations, located in the Borough of Lambeth and linked directly with the London Underground and nearby Waterloo East. It serves as the terminus of the South West Main Line to Weymouth, the West of England line to Exeter, and the Portsmouth Direct line, alongside extensive commuter services across south-west London, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire. The station is the largest in the UK by floor space and number of platforms, and in the year to March 2023 it handled nearly 58 million passengers, making it the third busiest in the country.
Opened in 1848 by the London and South Western Railway to replace Nine Elms, Waterloo developed into a sprawling terminus after original plans to extend the line into the City were abandoned. It was rebuilt in the early 20th century, reopening in 1922 with the Victory Arch as a World War I memorial. Steam services continued here until 1967, and from 1994 to 2007 it was also the London home of Eurostar before services moved to St Pancras International.
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History
London Waterloo station first opened in 1848, replacing the earlier terminus at Nine Elms to provide a more central hub for the South West Main Line. What was meant to be a temporary stop quickly grew into a major interchange, but its development was piecemeal. Over time, extra platforms were added without an overall plan, creating a sprawling and confusing layout that became notorious for its complexity.
In the early 20th century, Waterloo was completely rebuilt to address these problems. The project, completed in 1922, gave the station a much larger concourse and more coherent design. One of its most distinctive features from this time is the Victory Arch, the grand entrance built to commemorate railway staff who lost their lives during the First World War. The rebuild marked Waterloo’s transformation into a modern, unified terminus.
The station continued to adapt throughout the 20th century. From 1994 it served as the London base for Eurostar, with trains running through the Channel Tunnel to Europe until the move to St Pancras in 2007. Waterloo also has some unusual history, once hosting the London Necropolis Railway, which transported coffins and mourners to Brookwood Cemetery between the mid-19th century and the Second World War. These layers of history have helped make it one of Britain’s best-known and busiest stations.
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