Elephant & Castle railway station

This article is about the National Rail station. For the London Underground station, see Elephant & Castle tube station.

Elephant & Castle railway station is a National Rail station in Newington, south London. Along with the London Underground station of the same name, it is located in the London Borough of Southwark and is in both Travelcard Zone 1 and 2. The station is managed by Thameslink, with services operated by both Thameslink and Southeastern. There is out-of-station interchange with the nearby Elephant & Castle tube station.

Elephant & Castle
Elephant & Castle Location of Elephant & Castle in Central London
Location	Newington
Local authority	London Borough of Southwark
Managed by	Thameslink
Owner	Network Rail
Station code(s)	EPH
DfT category	E
Number of platforms	4
Fare zone	1 and 2
OSI	Elephant & Castle [1]
National Rail annual entry and exit
2018–19	2.920 million[2]
– interchange	0.569 million[2]
2019–20	2.878 million[2]
– interchange	0.274 million[2]
2020–21	0.667 million[2]
– interchange	49,497[2]
2021–22	1.316 million[2]
– interchange	0.101 million[2]
2022–23	1.681 million[2]
– interchange	0.439 million[2]
Railway companies
Original company	London, Chatham and Dover Railway
Key dates
6 October 1862	Temporary station opened
February 1863	Replaced with permanent structure
Other information
External links	Departures Layout Facilities Buses
Coordinates	51.4944°N 0.0998°W / 51.4944; -0.0998
London transport portal

v t e LC&DR's Metropolitan Extensions and neighbouring railway lines
Legend
To St Pancras Farringdon 1866 2009 Barbican Moorgate 1866 2009 1874 1990 Holborn Viaduct Holborn Viaduct (low) 1874 1916 Victoria City Thameslink 1867 1911 Grosvenor Road Ludgate Hill 1865 1929 Charing Cross Blackfriars River Thames 1867 1916 Battersea Park Road Blackfriars Bridge 1864 1964 Waterloo East To London Bridge Vauxhall Waterloo To Clapham Jct Borough Road 1864 1907 Wandsworth Road Elephant & Castle Clapham High Street Walworth Road 1862 1916 Camberwell 1862 1916 Loughborough Junction Brixton Denmark Hill Catford loop 1866 1976 East Brixton South London Line Herne Hill sidings 1885 1966 North Junction Herne Hill South Junction To Sutton Tulse Hill North Dulwich To L. Bridge West Dulwich Chatham Main Line to Kent

v t e Mainline railways around the South Bank
Legend
South West Main Line to Weymouth Hungerford Bridge over River Thames Waterloo Charing Cross Waterloo East ( 1864– 1868 ) Blackfriars Elephant & Castle Blackfriars Holborn Viaduct–Herne Hill line to Herne Hill (and e.g. to Sutton) Snow Hill tunnel/City Widened Lines to St Pancras (and to MML & ECML) ( 1864– 1885 ) Blackfriars Bridge City Thameslink Brighton Main Line to Brighton London Bridge Cannon Street South Eastern Main Line to SE London and Kent River Thames

History

The London, Chatham and Dover Railway built the Metropolitan Extension north from Herne Hill and reached a temporary terminus at Elephant and Castle on 6 October 1862. The next station to the south was Camberwell that opened on the same day. The line was extended north to Blackfriars Bridge station on 1 June 1864.

2021 fire

Smoke from the 2021 fire

On 28 June 2021, a fire broke out under the station.^[3] The London Fire Brigade dispatched 15 fire engines.^[4] The fire is thought to be accidental and believed to have been caused by an electrical fault within a car in a spray booth^[5] at T.R. Autos, a garage in the arches of the railway viaduct,^[6] then spread to the surrounding commercial units, six cars and a telephone box.^[5] Six people were treated for minor injuries at the scene and one person was taken to hospital.^[7]

The surface station was undamaged, but became engulfed in smoke. The station and railway line were closed, leading to the cancellation of several services. Some nearby residents were evacuated from their homes. Access to the underground tube station was restricted, with one entrance being briefly closed as a precaution.^[8] Many roads in the area were closed.^[4]

Design

Platforms 1 and 2

The station is located on a brick viaduct. It currently has one entrance on Elephant Road.^[9] There are four platforms, two being on the island between the lines. Three staircases provide the only access to the platforms, as there are no lifts or escalators.

Elephant and Castle redevelopment

An entrance directly connected to the upper level of the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre closed in September 2020, as part of the redevelopment of the area.^[9] A new entrance to the railway station will be built, connecting to the new town centre. Existing railway arches will be opened up, providing access for pedestrians to Elephant Park.^[10] Interchange with the Underground will also improve, with a direct route through the new town centre to a new Underground ticket hall.^[11][12] However, local press have criticised the omission of step-free access to the National Rail platforms.^[9]

Location

The station is not directly connected to the London Underground station, both entrances of which are some distance away.^[1] There is an out-of-station interchange facility with Elephant & Castle London Underground station.^[1]

Local bus connections are provided by bus stops at New Kent Road and Walworth Road. London Buses routes 1, 53, 63, 68, 168, 172, 188, 363, 415, 453, N1 and N63 stop near the station at New Kent Road. Routes 12, 35, 40, 45, 68, 136, 148, 171, 176, 343, 468, P5 and night routes N68, N89, N171 and N343 stop near the station at Walworth Road.

There is also a coach stop at New Kent Road; National Express coaches towards Kent stop near the station.

Services

Off-peak, all services at Elephant & Castle are operated by Thameslink using Class 700 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:^[13]

• 2 tph to London Blackfriars
• 4 tph to St Albans City
• 4 tph to Sutton (2 of these run via Mitcham Junction and 2 run via Wimbledon)
• 2 tph to Sevenoaks via Catford

During the peak hours, additional services between Orpington, Kentish Town and Luton call at the station. In addition, the service to London Blackfriars is extended to and from Welwyn Garden City via Finsbury Park.

In addition, a small number of Southeastern services call at the station during the peak hours. The station is served by a number of services between London Blackfriars and Beckenham Junction, as well as a morning service to London Blackfriars from Crayford.

A small number of late evening Thameslink services are extended beyond St Albans City to Bedford. On Sundays, there are also direct services beyond St Albans City to Luton.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
London Blackfriars		Thameslink Thameslink		Loughborough Junction
				Denmark Hill
		Southeastern Chatham Main Line Peak Hours Only		Loughborough Junction

References

1. "Out-of-Station Interchanges" (Microsoft Excel). Transport for London. 2 January 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
2. "Estimates of station usage". Rail statistics. Office of Rail Regulation. Please note: Some methodology may vary year on year.
3. Wadell, Lily; Dunne, John (28 June 2021). "London fire: Blaze breaks out at Elephant and Castle station as plume of smoke rises over capital's skyline". Evening Standard. London. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
4. "Elephant and Castle fire: Two hurt in huge blaze at railway arches". BBC News. 28 June 2021.
5. "Railway arches alight - Elephant and Castle". London Fire Brigade. 29 June 2021.
6. Giordano, Chiara; Tidman, Zoe; Bulman, May (28 June 2021). "Six treated for injures after major fire near Elephant and Castle station in London". The Independent. London.
7. @Ldn_Ambulance (28 June 2021). "We can confirm we treated six people at the scene in #ElephantandCastle and took one of them to hospital" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
8. @LondonFire (28 June 2021). "Three commercial units underneath the railway arches are completely alight and four cars and a telephone box are also alight near #ElephantandCastle Railway Station. Road closures are in place and people are advised to avoid the area and keep windows and doors closed" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
9. "Elephant rail station: Thameslink urges passengers to prepare for shopping centre closure". London SE1. 8 September 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
10. "New Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre redevelopment plans on show". London SE1. 9 July 2015. Archived from the original on 25 July 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
11. "Have your say on the Bakerloo line extension - Elephant & Castle Combined Station Entrance" (PDF). Transport for London. 14 October 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 October 2021.
12. "Elephant and Castle shopping centre demolition gets final approval". BBC News. 11 December 2018. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
13. Table 52, 179, 180, 195, 196, 197, 212 National Rail timetable, December 2023

External links

• Train times and station information for Elephant & Castle railway station from National Rail