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Spa Road railway station in Bermondsey, south-east London, was the original terminus of the capital's first railway, the London and Greenwich Railway (L&GR). It was also the first railway terminus in what is now Greater London. First opened in 1836, the station went through several changes of ownership, was rebuilt several times, changed its name and was relocated a couple of hundred yards away from its original site before it finally closed in 1915 due to cost-saving measures during the First World War. The disused station building is today part of a light industrial estate. A number of elements of the original station – including the ticket office and remnants of the platforms – are still visible. ==First station (1836–1838)== In 1833 an Act of Parliament granted the L&GR the rights to build a viaduct from the south end of London Bridge to Greenwich and to run trains along it. However, the line was partially opened to the public well before its full length had been completed in order to maximise revenue income as soon as possible. Other companies were in the process of building their own railway lines and the L&GR wished to gain the commercial advantage of being the first to open for business. Another consideration was the company's stock price, which stood high at the end of 1835 but was at risk of falling if the line was not soon opened. The board decided to open a stretch from Spa Road to Deptford. The first train left Deptford railway station for Spa Road at 8 am on 8 February 1836. Trains ran hourly on the half-hour from Spa Road, from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm, with a fare to Deptford costing 6''d''. There were no services after dark, as there were no signals on the line and it was not illuminated. Spa Road station was within the parish of Bermondsey, which was then an industrial and working class area. From there the line crossed over marshes and market gardens to reach Deptford and Greenwich.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Spa Road Temporary Terminus, London & Greenwich Railway, 1836 )〕 The station itself was very basic. It was squeezed into a narrow space on a two-track viaduct with no room for buildings of any sort. The company did not even refer to it as a station but as a "stopping place." The platforms were accessed via wooden staircases on the outside of the viaduct, the one on the south side having a small wooden hut at the bottom for issuing tickets. If the platform was full, passengers were supposed to queue on the steps to wait for the trains. In practice, though, they often queued on the track itself. The company had not originally intended to provide platforms at all and had fitted its carriages with steps to allow passengers to board from track level, but found that low platforms were more convenient. The Commissioner of Pavements required the L&GR to maintain the staircases and to provide at least two services a day from the station. Perhaps not surprisingly given the station's physical limitations, only a month after it was opened there was a fatal accident when passenger Daniel Holmes was run over by a train. The other passengers had been waiting with others on the track when the Deptford train arrived. They climbed up on to the platform but Holmes remained on the track. The engine driver, Thomas Millender, was distracted by Holmes and collided with the waiting southbound train. A number of passengers who had already boarded the southbound train were injured and Holmes was killed instantly when Millender's runaway engine struck him. The duty policeman only just escaped also being struck and was dismissed for failing to warn the passengers in time. The accident was witnessed by George Walker, the L&GR's Resident Director, who subsequently wrote of the difficulties that his staff experienced in keeping people off the tracks. The L&GR opened the line between London Bridge and Spa Road on 14 December 1836. Usage of Spa Road station dropped significantly after the opening of London Bridge railway station, and drivers began to go straight through without stopping if they had no passenger requests. This changed in March 1838 when the company's directors ordered trains to stop at Spa Road hourly throughout the day and reserved half a carriage for passengers to and from the station on Sundays and holidays. They also took steps to improve access to the station. Despite this, it was little used and in late 1838 the L&GR's directors decided to close the station. It was boarded up at the end of 1838 and remained out of use until 1842.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Spa Road railway station」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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