Charing Cross railway station

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This article is about the station in London. For the station in Glasgow, see Charing Cross (Glasgow) railway station.

Template:Infobox UK major railway station

Image:Ch cross stn fct 020709 036.jpg Image:Charing Cross in the 19th century.jpg

Image:Charing X.gif Charing Cross railway station is a central London railway terminus. It is unusual among London's railway termini in that its services connect it to two of the others, namely Waterloo and London Bridge. It is one of seventeen UK stations managed by Network Rail, while trains serving it are operated by Southeastern and Southern.

The station takes its name from the Charing Cross district of London where it is situated, which itself is named after the twelfth Eleanor cross. The front of the station faces onto The Strand, while at the other end is the northern end of Hungerford Bridge, which all trains serving the station must cross.

1 History
2 Services
3 Connections
4 References
5 External links

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History

The original station building was built on the site of the Hungerford Market by the South Eastern Railway and opened on 11 January 1864. The station was designed by Sir John Hawkshaw, with a single span wrought iron roof arching over the six platforms on its relatively cramped site. A year later the Charing Cross Hotel, designed by Edward Middleton Barry, opened on 15 May 1865 and gave the station an ornate frontage in the French Renaissance style. At the same time, the replica Eleanor Cross was erected, based on the original 13th Century Whitehall Cross which had been demolished in 1647.

More recently, in 1990, most of the rear of the station was covered by Embankment Place, a post-modern office and shopping complex designed by Terry Farrell and Partners.

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