Trains at: Clapham Junction, SWML/BML, 22/12/23
215A windy but enjoyable time spent at the always busy station of Clapham Junction on the South Western Mainline and Brighton Mainline where we see plenty of services from South Western Railway, Southern, Gatwick Express, London Overground and freight from GBRF and DB Cargo UK
There's a rich and varied history to come with this station and even though there were lines passing through the site there wasn't a physical station here for a good few years. Before the railway reached Clapham the area was rural and oddly enough specialised in Lavender. Hence why you have Lavender Hill in the area. In 1838 the London and Southampton Railway became the London and South Western Railway which then proceeded to open a line from Nine Elms to Woking. That was the first railway line through the area. The next line to operate was the line from Nine Elms to Richmond which opened in 1846. Two years later Waterloo was opened which then made Nine Elms redundant. In 1860 the line to Victoria was opened and three years later Clapham Junction was opened and was done as a joint venture between the London and South Western Railway, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the West London Extension Railway as an interchange for all of their lines.
When the station was built much of the Battersea area was heavily industrial and the Clapham area was fashionable (insert joke here) this actually worked in the railway companies favour as they all wanted to try and get the more upper and middle class people from the surrounding areas to come to Clapham. Which did work for a while, unfortunately there was a negative that was to come with all this. Because of the fact that the Battersea area was heavily industrial it meant that a lot of under privileged people at the time came into the area for work. Because of this the local population sky rocketed and went through the roof. In 1840 the local population was just touching 6000 and by the time 1910 decided to say hello the population was knocking on the door of 168,000. The area was full of slums which was eventually replaced with council housing by 1975.
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