Kensington (Olympia) station

Kensington (Olympia)
Southbound view from Platform 2
Kensington (Olympia) Location of Kensington (Olympia) in Greater London
Location	Olympia
Local authority	Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Managed by	London Overground
Station code	KPA
DfT category	C2
Number of platforms	3
Accessible	Yes [1]
Fare zone	2
London Underground annual entry and exit
2011	1.74 million[2]
2012	1.80 million[2]
2013	1.88 million[2]
2014	1.95 million[2]
National Rail annual entry and exit
2007–08	2.203 million[3]
2008–09	1.924 million[3]
2009–10	1.834 million[3]
2010–11	2.312 million[3]
2011–12	5.227 million[3]
2012–13	5.291 million[3]
Key dates
1862	Opened
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
External links	Departures Layout Facilities Buses
London Transport portal UK Railways portalCoordinates: 51°29′55″N 0°12′39″W / 51.4986°N 0.2108°W / 51.4986; -0.2108

Kensington (Olympia) station in Kensington, West London is managed and served by London Overground and also served by Southern and London Underground. It is in Travelcard Zone 2. On the Underground it is the terminus of a short District line branch, built as part of the Middle Circle, from Earl's Court; on the main-line railway it is on the West London Line from Clapham Junction to Willesden Junction, by which many trains bypass Central London. The station's name is drawn from its location in Kensington and the adjacent Olympia exhibition centre.

History

A station was opened by the West London Railway as its southern terminus on 27 May 1844 as "Kensington", just south of Hammersmith Road; it closed at the end of November 1844 due to the losses made. A scant and erratic goods service continued, the line re-opened to passengers with a new station called "Addison Road" on 2 June 1862, to the north of Hammersmith Road. Great Western Railway trains started serving the station in 1863, with London & North Western Railway trains arriving in 1872. A link to the Hammersmith & City Railway enabled the "Middle Circle" service to operate via Paddington to the north and South Kensington to the south. From 1869, the London & South Western Railway operated trains from Richmond to London Waterloo via Addison Road, until their branch via Shepherd's Bush closed in 1916. By 1907 the Middle Circle had been replaced by four Hammersmith & City line trains an hour. The station appears on the first 'London Underground' map in 1908 with Metropolitan and District Railway services.^[4]

In 1940, Addison Road and the link to the Metropolitan line at Latimer Road closed along with the other West London Line stations, In 1946 it was renamed "Kensington (Olympia)" and became the northern terminus of a peak-hour shuttle service to Clapham Junction, which was mainly for workers at the Post Office Savings Bank (later National Savings Bank) in nearby Blythe Road.^[5][6] There was also a District line shuttle to Earl's Court. The current District line bay platform opened in 1958, but the 1872 connection between the District and the main line south of the station was not finally lifted until 1992.

The West London Line has always been a main freight route from north of London to the south-east of England, but passenger services at Kensington (Olympia) were minimal-although it was used briefly as a terminus for Western Region trains in 1967 during resignalling work at London Paddington. Until 1986, the only British Rail trains were the peak-hour shuttle service to Clapham Junction (operated by Western Region diesel trains) on the Southern Region and Motorail services; occasional inter-regional InterCity workings also ran through without stopping. London Underground ran a shuttle train from Earl's Court only when an exhibition was on at Olympia. From 12 May 1986, services at the station were greatly enhanced. The London Underground shuttle service started to run to a regular daily schedule, and the inter-regional services from the Midlands and northern England were increased in frequency and now stopped at the station. Southern Region destinations included Brighton, Newhaven Harbour and Dover Western Docks.^[7] These were operated by the InterCity division of British Rail, then after privatisation by Virgin CrossCountry and later CrossCountry. Destinations included Birmingham New Street, Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Piccadilly and Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley, but by the time these services were withdrawn in October 2008 only two daily Brighton–Manchester journeys were operated.^[8][9]

There were two bay platforms on the south-eastern side mainly used by services from Clapham Junction. In the early 1990s these were filled in and the southbound platform loop closed, with a shorter platform on the southbound main line built over the loop - longer southbound trains now cross to the northbound loop to stop. The land behind the southbound platform was sold for redevelopment.

There was an Express Dairies creamery and milk bottling plant close to the station served by milk trains from the Great Western Railway from Old Oak Common to a siding adjacent to the station.^[10]

In the event of nuclear war seeming imminent, the station was the designated London muster point for staff in transit to the Central Government War Headquarters (codenamed "Burlington").^[11][12]

In 1994, a full passenger service between Willesden Junction and Clapham Junction was reinstated after a gap of 54 years.^[13]

Before Eurostar transferred in November 2007 to St Pancras International, Eurostar trains passed through the station going from Waterloo International station to North Pole depot, and the station was a backup terminus for the services should Waterloo International have become unusable with immigration facilities were maintained there.^[14][15]

The planned Regional Eurostar and Nightstar services were to call at platform 2 to undertake border control procedures. The services to Plymouth and Swansea were scheduled to change motive power from a British Rail Class 92 to a Class 37/6 here.

The link to the Great Western Main Line at North Pole Junction, 3 miles (4.8 km) to the north, avoiding Paddington station, meant that the station was to play an important role in the Cold War should a nuclear exchange have seemed likely.^[16] Secret plans entailed use of the station, in the prelude to a nuclear war, to evacuate several thousand civil servants to the Central Government War Headquarters underground bunker in Wiltshire.^[17]

The ticket office was refurbished in 2011 with the upholstered seating, plants and lighting removed. A new double door entrance directly from the ticket office to the platform was installed and the old adjoining covered entrance was bricked up. People were still able to reach the footbridge from the alleyway by the side of the building and through the metal gate adjacent to it, avoiding a longer walk via the platforms. In 2012 the refurbished ticket office was closed and the entrance to the toilets from there blocked off. A new ticket office resembling a small Portakabin was built on the platform opposite the District line platform and the gate to the footbrige padlocked. The public toilets were made accessible from the doors to platform 2.

In summer 2012, Transport for London said they wanted to introduce ticket gates at the station to combat fare dodgers, which would remove access to the footbridge used by local residents for years.^[18] Both the councils within whose boundaries this station falls have stated that they intend to challenge this loss of an established right of way.^[19] The plan to remove access to the footbridge was abandoned in April 2013 and instead, ticket gates would be introduced to divide the station and bridge into two separate lanes.^[20]

Motorail

The former Motorail terminal, seen here in 2009. Since Motorail services here ceased, the building has been designated "Olympia Motorail Car Park P4".

Motorail trains, which carried passengers to many parts of the country, used to terminate here.^[21] In the London Midland Region timetable for 1970-71 services are shown to Perth, Stirling, Carlisle, St Austell, Totnes, Newton Abbot and Fishguard (connecting with the ferry for Rosslare).^[22]

The car park for the service is now used by Earls Court Olympia for exhibition vehicles, & Europcar for car rental and is called "Olympia Motorail Car Park P4".^[23][24]

Charter trains

In September 1999 the Kosovo Train for Life that had been loaded at Butterley had its formal send-off event at Kensington Olympia railway station, before continuing via the Channel Tunnel, to Kosovo in conjunction with the Kosovo Force peace-keeping efforts.

Location

The railway forms a borough boundary, with the southbound platform in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the northbound and London Underground platforms in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.

Name

The station appears in some National Rail maps and timetables as Kensington Olympia but on London Underground and London Overground maps and station signage as Kensington (Olympia) (also used on the latest National Rail "London Connections" map).^[25] The variant with brackets is in the London Railway Atlas, published by Ian Allan in 2009.^[13] On the automated announcements^[26] and the dot matrix indicators on District line trains, the station is shown as Olympia. Although painted over, 'Addison Road Station' appears sculpted into a wall on the eastern pedestrian exit from the station.

Services

London Overground Class 378 at Kensington Olympia

National Rail services are provided by London Overground and Southern.

The London Overground services in trains per hour are:

• 4 northbound to Willesden Junction, of which 2 continue to Stratford during the off-peak and all 4 during the peak.
• 4 southbound to Clapham Junction.^[27]

Southern operate between Milton Keynes Central and South Croydon, typically once an hour.

The shuttle to Earl's Court and High Street Kensington runs at weekends and a very limited service also operates during the early morning and evening each weekday. There is no service New Year's Eve or New Year's Day when these days fall on or partly on a weekend.^[28]

For a period before December 2011 the District line had an irregular short shuttle service of two or three trains per hour to High Street Kensington via Earl's Court. One late evening train ran daily to Upminster.

Connections

London Buses routes 9, 10, 27, 28, 49, 391, C1 and night routes N9, N28 and National Express coach routes 701/702 serve and pass the station.

Gallery

• 

  Post Office workers' train from Clapham Jct, 1968

• 

  Looking north 1968

• 

  London Underground work train heads south to Lillie Bridge, 1968

• 

  Former station entrance sign, showing the original Addison Road name

• 

  Kensington Olympia in 1988

• 

  Silverlink EMUs 313122 and 313123 at Olympia

• 

  Aerial view

• 

  Current (right) and former (left) southbound platforms

• 

  Main-line platforms

• 

  Overground platform signage, installed 2007.

• 

  Underground platform signage

• 

  Overground station roundel

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kensington Olympia station.

• Train times and station information for Kensington (Olympia) station from National Rail
• Kensington Olympia, Subterranea Britannica disused station project. Extensive history of the station, and the West London Line.
• Kensington station 1st site (never used) and 2nd site (1844, 1862-4). From SubBrit.

Preceding station		London Overground		Following station
Shepherd's Bush towards Willesden Junction or Stratford		West London Line		West Brompton towards Clapham Junction
	National Rail
Shepherd's Bush		Southern West London Route		West Brompton or Terminus
Terminus		Southern Olympia to Wandsworth Road Limited Service		West Brompton
Preceding station		London Underground		Following station
Terminus		District line		Earl's Court towards High Street Kensington
	Disused Railways
	National Rail
Uxbridge Road Line open, station closed		West London Line		West Brompton Line and station open
Shepherd's Bush Line and station closed		L&SWR		West Brompton Line and station open
Preceding station		London Underground		Following station
Uxbridge Road towards Barking		Metropolitan line		Terminus