Spa Road railway station

Spa Road
Spa Road Location of Spa Road in Greater London
Location	Bermondsey
Local authority	London Borough of Southwark
Owner	London and Greenwich Railway
Number of platforms	2
Key dates
1836	Opened
1838	Closed
1842	Rebuilt & reopened
1845	Rebuilt again
1867	Relocated
1877	Renamed Spa Road & Bermondsey
1915	Closed to passengers
1925	Closed to railway staff
Replaced by	None
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
WGS84	51°29′44″N 0°04′02″W / 51.4956°N 0.0671°W / 51.4956; -0.0671Coordinates: 51°29′44″N 0°04′02″W / 51.4956°N 0.0671°W / 51.4956; -0.0671

Spa Road railway station in Bermondsey, south-east London, was the original terminus of the capital's first railway, the London and Greenwich Railway (L&GR).

It was also the first railway terminus in what is now Greater London. First opened in 1836, the station went through several changes of ownership, was rebuilt several times, changed its name and was relocated a couple of hundred yards away from its original site before it closed in 1915 due to cost-saving measures during the First World War. The disused station building is today part of a light industrial estate. A number of elements of the original station – including the ticket office and remnants of the platforms – are still visible.

In 1833 an Act of Parliament granted the L&GR the rights to build a 4 miles (6.4 km) viaduct from the south end of London Bridge to Greenwich and to run trains along it. However, the line was partially opened to the public well before its full length had been completed in order to maximise revenue income as soon as possible. Other companies were in the process of building their own railway lines and the L&GR wished to gain the commercial advantage of being the first to open for business. Another consideration was the company's stock price, which stood high at the end of 1835 but was at risk of falling if the line was not soon opened.

The board decided to open a 2.5 miles (4.0 km) stretch from Spa Road to Deptford. The first train left Deptford railway station for Spa Road at 8 am on 8 February 1836. Trains ran hourly on the half-hour from Spa Road, from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, with a fare to Deptford costing 6d. There were no services after dark, as there were no signals on the line and it was not illuminated.

Spa Road station was within the parish of Bermondsey, which was then an industrial and working class area. From there the line crossed over marshes and market gardens to reach Deptford and Greenwich. The station itself was very basic. It was squeezed into a narrow space on a two-track viaduct with no room for buildings of any sort. The company did not even refer to it as a station but as a "stopping place." The platforms were accessed via wooden staircases on the outside of the viaduct, the one on the south side having a small wooden hut at the bottom for issuing tickets. If the platform was full, passengers were supposed to queue on the steps to wait for the trains. In practice, though, they often queued on the track itself. The company had not originally intended to provide platforms at all and had fitted its carriages with steps to allow passengers to board from track level, but found that low platforms were more convenient. The Commissioner of Pavements required the L&GR to maintain the staircases and to provide at least two services a day from the station.