Camberwell’s long abandoned railway station could be getting re-opened exactly 100 years after its closure.
Boris Johnson first revealed Transport for London’s alleged plans to re-open the station after a century of disuse during a mayoral question time between him and London Assembly Member for Lambeth and Southwark, Val Shawcross.
Following Ms Shawcross’ enquiry about improving transport in Camberwell, Mr Johnson confirmed he is “working” on plans to re-open the station.
Camberwell station 1957 channeling goods four decades after closure to passengers
Mr Johnson said, “TfL is investigating proposals to reopen the disused station with stakeholders, including the London Borough of Southwark.
Initial feasibility indicates it would be possible to construct a modern station at this location if timetable changes could be made to accommodate an extra stop.”
The remains of Camberwell station 2005
“TfL will be working with Network Rail and the London Boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth over the next few months to further develop the feasibility of this proposal.”
Ms Shawcross expressed her optimism for the plans, alongside other Southwark Council representatives, saying,
“I know that when it was announced that the Old Kent Road routing for a new Bakerloo Line extension was chosen for further study a lot of people in Camberwell, and myself were understandably disappointed. Considering its location so close to central London, the lack of transport infrastructure in Camberwell is well overdue for attention.”
Looking north towards Camberwell station 1968
“This is a positive indication that TfL do have ambition to finally tackle this problem and I’m very pleased. This kind of project is a fairly long term undertaking but the early signs are very good, so watch this space to see how the plans develop.”
Camberwell station was among the first to be opened by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) October 6 1862 as part of the company’s ambitious Metropolitan Extension. The line was billed as the “second London railway”.
Modern day aerial view of Camberwell station. There is no evidence of platforms either side and the island has become overgrown with bush
The station enjoyed initial success and was well used up until the introduction of the electric trams in 1903. This saw a decline in annual passenger receipts from £3,000 in 1905 to just £700 in 1914. The station’s slow decline led to its closure to passengers in 1916, which was also in part due to the build up to World War 1 .
However the station was still used to transport goods such as coal up until April 1964.
The residents of Camberwell have since been awaiting an extension of the Bakerloo line which was proposed about eight decades ago in the 1930’s.
