Location Richmond Station code RMD Accessible Yes Opened 1869 Owner Network Rail | Managed by South West Trains DfT category B Fare zone 4 Phone +44 343 222 1234 Number of platforms 7 | |
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Address Kew Rd, Richmond TW9 2NA, UK Similar London Underground, Kew Gardens station, Gunnersbury station, Turnham Green tube station, Ravenscourt Park tube station | ||
Richmond, also known as Richmond (London), is a National Rail and London Underground station, managed by South West Trains, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south west London. South West Trains services on the Waterloo to Reading Line are routed through Richmond, which is between North Sheen and St. Margarets stations. Richmond is also a terminus of a branch of London Underground's District line and of the London Overground's North London Line; the next station on both these lines, to the northeast, is Kew Gardens.
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Architecture
The station building, designed by James Robb Scott in Portland stone and dating from 1937, is in Art Deco style and its facade includes a square clock. The area in front of the station main entrance was pedestrianised in 2013.
History
The Richmond and West End Railway (R&WER) opened the first station at Richmond on 27 July 1846, as the terminus of its line from Clapham Junction, on a site to the south of the present through platforms, which later became a goods yard and where a multi-storey car park now stands. The Windsor, Staines and South Western Railway (WS&SWR) extended the line westward, resiting the station to the west side of The Quadrant, on the extended tracks and slightly west of the present through platforms. Both the R&WER and WS&SWR were subsidiary companies of the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR).
On 1 January 1869, the L&SWR opened a line to Richmond from north of Addison Road station (now Kensington (Olympia) station) on the West London Joint Railway. This line ran through Hammersmith (Grove Road) station, since closed, and Turnham Green and had connection with the North & South Western Junction Railway (N&SWJR) near Gunnersbury. Most of this line is now part of the London Underground District line; the line south from Gunnersbury was also served by the North London Railway (NLR) and is now used also by London Overground. Before this line was built, services north from Richmond ran somewhat circuitously via chords at Kew Bridge and Barnes.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) briefly (1 June to 31 October 1870) ran a service from Paddington to Richmond via the Hammersmith & City Railway (now the Hammersmith & City line) tracks to Grove Road and then over the L&SWR tracks through Turnham Green.
On 1 June 1877, the District Railway (DR) linked its then terminus at Hammersmith to the nearby L&SWR tracks east of the present Ravenscourt Park station. The DR began running trains over the L&SWR tracks to Richmond. On 1 October 1877, the Metropolitan Railway (MR, now the Metropolitan line) restarted the former GWR service to Richmond via Grove Road station.
The DR route from Richmond to central London via Hammersmith was more direct than those of the NLR via Willesden Junction, of the L&SWR and the MR via Grove Road station and of the L&SWR via Clapham Junction to Waterloo. From 1 January 1894, the GWR began sharing the MR Richmond service, resulting in Gunnersbury having the services of five operators.
After electrifying its tracks north of Acton Town in 1903, the DR funded the electrification, completed on 1 August 1905, from Gunnersbury to Richmond. The DR ran electric trains on the branch, while the L&SWR, NLR, GWR and MR services continued to be steam hauled.
MR services ceased on 31 December 1906 and those of the GWR on 31 December 1910, leaving operations northwards through Kew Gardens and Gunnersbury to the DR (by then known as the District Railway), the NLR and L&SWR. On 3 June 1916, the L&SWR withdrew its service from Richmond to Addison Road through Hammersmith due to competition from the District line, leaving the District as the sole operator over that route and the NLR providing main line services via Willesden Junction.
Under the grouping of 1923, the L&SWR became part of the Southern Railway (SR) and the NLR became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS); both were subsequently nationalised into British Railways. On 1 August 1937, the SR opened its rebuilt station with the station building and the through platforms moved east to be next to the terminal platforms. At around the same time, the SR moved the goods yard from the site of the original terminus to a new location north-east of the station.
Crossrail
A Crossrail branch to Kingston upon Thames via Richmond was proposed in 2003, but was dropped in 2004 due to a combination of local opposition, uncertainty over the route, cost, and insufficient return on investment. It could have run either overland or via a tunnel to Turnham Green and on the existing track through Gunnersbury to Richmond (which would have lost the District line service) and thence to Kingston.
Platforms
The station has seven platforms:
As of September 2011, work was under way to extend platforms 1 and 2 to accept 10-car trains. The bulk of the lengthening was to be at the west (country) end; extending eastwards was deemed unviable by Network Rail as Church Road Bridge would have needed widening. As part of these works, the platform canopies were also being refurbished.
The wide gap between platforms 3 and 4 originally had a third, run-around track for steam locomotives.
Off peak service
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:
Transport links
London Buses serving nearby are:
There is a taxi rank at the front station entrance on Kew Road. There are staff-operated lifts to all platforms.
An extensive bike storage facility is located outside the back entrance from Church Road, from where 27 steps lead down into the main platform area, which includes platforms 2-7 and a set of ticket barriers.