Cannon Street station,
also known as
London Cannon Street,
is a
National Rail and
London Underground station complex in the
City of London, the financial district of
London in
England. It is built on the site of the medieval
Steelyard, the trading base in England of the
Hanseatic League. It is in
Travelcard Zone 1.
National Rail
This is a terminal station approached across the
River Thames by the
Cannon Street Railway Bridge and having entrances from
Cannon Street and Dowgate Hill. Its approach by rail is by a triangular connection to both
London Bridge and
Charing Cross. There were originally eight platforms: a refurbishment in the late 1990s removed the original Platform 1.
Cannon Street is one of seventeen UK railway stations managed by
Network Rail.
History
Original structure
Front of Original Station Building, c1910
Opened by the
South Eastern Railway on
1 September 1866, the original station building was designed by
Sir John Hawkshaw and
J.W. Barry and was characterised by its two Wren-style towers, square and high, which faced on to the
River Thames. The towers supported a long iron train shed crowned by a high single arch, almost semicircular, of glass and iron. To this was joined in 1867 an
Italianate style hotel and forecourt designed by
E.M. Barry which provided much of the station's passenger facilities as well as an impressive architectural frontispiece to the street. This arrangement was very similar to that put in place at
Charing Cross. The station is carried on a brick viaduct over Upper Thames Street. Below this viaduct there are remains of a number of Roman buildings, which form a scheduled ancient monument. Barry's five-storey
City Terminus Hotel underwent two changes of name: first to
Cannon Street Hotel, and later, as an office block, to
Southern House.
War years
Original station viewed from railway bridge, c1910
From 5-
28 June 1926 the
Southern Railway carried out various works, including the rebuilding of the platforms, relaying of the tracks and installation of a new system of electrical signalling - the four-aspect colour light scheme. The station was also renovated and the glass roof cleaned. The number of platforms was reduced from nine to eight, with five set aside for the new electric trains. The signal box spanning the width of the railway bridge was removed.
The station, which had been subject to structural neglect prior to the
Second World War, suffered extensive bomb damage and was hit by several incendiary devices which damaged the roof. A high explosive also hit no. 8 platform. The original glass roof had been removed before the war in an attempt to save it. Unfortunately the factory in which the roof was stored was itself badly bombed, destroying the roof.
Redevelopment
The station's prime location coupled with the property boom of the 1950s and the need for British Rail to seek alternative revenue streams made war-damaged Cannon Street a prime target for property developers.
Various plans were mooted for the reconstruction of Cannon Street Station, from the installation of a new ticket hall and concourse under Southern House in 1955 as part of
British Rail's
Modernisation Plan, to the construction of a car park and even a helipad. In 1962 the
British Transport Commission entered into an agreement with Town & Country Properties for the construction of a multi-storey office building above the station totalling . The cost of the development was £2.35 million and it was scheduled for completion by June 1965.
Poulson's Office Block in 2007 prior to redevelopment
In preparation for redevelopment the remains of the once magnificent train shed roof had been demolished in 1958, and Barry's hotel (which had been used as offices since 1931) soon followed in 1960. The architect selected to design the new building was
John Poulson who was good friends with Graham Tunbridge, a British Rail surveyor whom he had met during the war. Poulson took advantage of this friendship to win contracts for the redevelopment of various British Rail termini. He paid Tunbridge a weekly income of £25 and received in return building contracts, including the rebuilding of
Waterloo and
East Croydon. At his trial in 1974 he admitted that shortly before receiving the Cannon Street building contract, he had given Tunbridge a cheque for £200 and a suit worth £80. Poulson was later found guilty of corruption charges and was given a seven-year concurrent sentence; Tunbridge received a 15-month suspended sentence and £4,000 fine for his role in the affair.
All that now remains of the original station architecture are the twin red-brick towers at the country end and parts of the low flanking walls.
Modern era
In 1974 the station closed for five weeks from
2 August-
9 September to enable alterations to be made to the track and the approaches to London Bridge to be resignalled. Traffic was diverted to London Bridge, Charing Cross and
Blackfriars. On
4 March 1976 a
Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb of about 10 lb (4.5 kg) exploded on an empty commuter train leaving Cannon Street, injuring eight people on another train travelling alongside. Had the bomb exploded 13 minutes earlier it would have caused widespread carnage as the train had been carrying commuters on the 7.49 from Sevenoaks.
On
15 February 1984 it was reported in
The Times that Cannon Street would close. At the time, the station had been closed for weekends and evenings, and the publication of British Rail's new timetable for 1984-1985 revealed that it would lose all its direct off-peak services to the south-east. Services from
Sevenoaks,
Orpington,
Hayes, Dartford, Sidcup, Bexleyheath,
Woolwich,
Lewisham and
Greenwich would instead terminate at
London Bridge except during peak hours. This was denied by British Rail which pointed out that it had invested £10m in redecking the railway bridge, and that passengers travelling from the south-east during off-peak hours would most likely be visiting the West End and not the
City.
In 1986 the station's twin towers, which had been Grade II listed in 1972, were restored in a £242,000 project. The works revealed that the east tower still contained a large water tank which was used during the days of steam to replenish locomotives and to power the station hydraulic systems. The brickwork was repaired, cleaned and repointed, and the
weathervanes gilded to complement the dome of nearby
St Paul's Cathedral. This work was one of the Railway Heritage Trust's first projects and coincided with an exhibition held in the station in August of the same year to mark its 150th anniversary.
The 1980s also saw another property boom and British Rail again began looking into further commercial uses of the Cannon Street landspace. The
air rights over the platforms to the rear of Poulson's office were sold to Speyhawk which appointed
Bovis Construction to build a free-standing structure comprising two office blocks on a 6,000 tonne steel deck constructed over the station's eight platforms and above Cannon Sports Centre, a sports club which opened beneath Cannon Street's arches in 1981. The works involved complex piling operations whereby 450 tripod piles were bored to depths of 30 metres below the station in order to support the steel deck.
The larger office block, the "Atrium building", provides . of office space on six floors and is linked to the smaller building, the "River building", via a glazed link raised through a central glazed atrium. The River building, which has two storeys, is built on the steel deck and contained within the two station flank walls, which were rebuilt, providing . of office space. This building would project slightly beyond the restored twin towers which form the riverside boundary to the development. The Atrium building was later let to
Liffe. The River building has a roof garden which was designed, constructed and still maintained by CC Cousins Ltd a facilities solutions provider based in Rochester, Kent. Covering about an acre, the project cost about £500,000 and was laid in order to comply with planning restrictions which required the building to be low and flat in order to maintain the sight lines from St Pauls to
Tower Bridge.
Cannon Street was the scene of the
Cannon Street rail incident on
8 January 1991 when a train hit the buffers leaving 2 dead and 248 injured.
Future
Planning permission was granted in March 2007 to replace the Poulson building, with a new air rights building designed by Foggo Associates.
Hines, the US developer, will lead a £360 million project involving the demolition of Poulson's office block, replacing it with a mixed-use development containing more than of office space alongside . of station retail space. The redevelopment is part of a larger regeneration programme undertaken by
Network Rail to modernise and "unlock the commercial potential" of the main London termini; both
Euston and
London Bridge will also be redeveloped. Network Rail's director of commercial property said that "the finished station will be less congested and more accessible for passengers."
Services
The station connects the south side of the City to south and south east London via
London Bridge rail station. Some services run directly into Cannon Street from
Kent and
East Sussex, but only during rush hours. Occasionally during the weekends when track maintenance is in progress, the station serves as an intermediate station between London Bridge and Charing Cross. Either trains reverse at the station or rail passengers change trains here. The station is closed on Sundays, except when engineering works close Charing Cross station and services are diverted to Cannon Street instead.
The typical off-peak service from the station is:
London Underground
The London Underground station is a sub-surface station, situated immediately below the mainline station. It is served by the
District and
Circle lines. Entrances are located on Cannon Street, Dowgate Hill, and on the main-line concourse upstairs at the mainline station, providing an interconnection for commuters. A station here was part of the unrealised phase two expansion of the
Fleet Line.
The Underground station is open Mondays to Fridays until 20:58 each day and Saturdays from 07:31 to 19:29. It is closed all day on Sundays.
History
By 1876, the
Metropolitan Railway (MR) and
Metropolitan District Railway (MDR) had constructed the majority of the Inner Circle (now the Circle Line), reaching
Aldgate and
Mansion House respectively. The companies were in dispute over the completion of the route as the MDR was struggling financially and the MR was concerned that completion would affect its revenues through increased competition from the MDR in the City area. City financiers keen to see the line completed, established the Metropolitan Inner Circle Completion Railway in 1874 to link Mansion House to Aldgate. Forced into action, the MR bought-out the company and it and the MDR began construction of the final section of the Inner Circle in 1879.
On
6 October 1884, the final section of the Inner Circle was opened along with Cannon Street station. Initially the station was served by trains from both companies as part of circular Inner Circle service but various operational patterns have been used during the station's life. The Inner Circle service achieved a separate identity as the Circle Line in 1949 although its trains were still provided by the District or Metropolitan Lines.
The station was reconstructed at the same time as the main line station above.
Abandoned plansSee also
