Construction

LC&DR's Metropolitan Extensions and neighbouring railway lines
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

On 6 August 1860, the Metropolitan Extensions Act granted the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR; the successor to the East Kent company) the powers to extend the Chatham Main Line from Beckenham Junction to Battersea and to build a branch line from the Herne Hill to the City of London.^[3][4]

A 1914 Railway Clearing House map of lines around Herne Hill

After the main extension was built, the City Branch opened on 6 October 1863 from Herne Hill as far as Elephant & Castle, via Camberwell and Walworth Road. On 1 June 1864, the line had been extended to Blackfriars Bridge railway station (on the south bank of the River Thames) via Borough Road.^[5] Blackfriars Railway Bridge was then built across the Thames and a terminus for trains from the south opened at Ludgate Hill on 1 June 1865^[6] (closed 3 March 1929).

Extensions

A 1914 Railway Clearing House map of lines around Holborn Viaduct

Original junction between the Holborn Viaduct–Herne Hill line (continuing on the right) and Snow Hill line (left) in 1953. The new transition between the lines lies 100 m south at the new portal of Snow Hill tunnel.

Snow Hill tunnel opened on 1 January 1866, enabling trains from Ludgate Hill to reach the Widened Lines at Farringdon. LCDR and Great Northern Railways (GNR) joint services from Blackfriars Bridge began operating via Snow Hill tunnel under Smithfield market to Farringdon and northwards on to the GNR.^[7]

Later that year, the LCDR completed work to widen the railway viaduct between Herne Hill and Blackfriars Bridge, which included doubling the number of lines north of Loughborough Junction from two to four.^[8]

Herne Hill–Tulse Hill
Holborn Viaduct– Herne Hill line to Holborn Viaduct   Chatham Main Line to Victoria Herne Hill Portsmouth line to South Bermondsey Jn Chatham Main Line to Ramsgate Tulse Hill Crystal Palace line to Balham Jn Crystal Palace line to Beckenham Junction Portsmouth line to Horsham

In 1868, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway opened a suburban line from London Bridge to Sutton via Tulse Hill. A 1 mi (1.6 km) connecting line from Tulse Hill to Herne Hill opened on 1 January 1869.^[9]

The platforms at Loughborough Junction between Camberwell and Herne Hill opened in 1872.^[5]

In 1874 the line was extended to Holborn Viaduct where a new terminus was built. In 1886 a second parallel bridge across River Thames opened. At the northern end of the bridge St. Paul's station (later renamed Blackfriars) was opened by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. Blackfriars Bridge station on the south bank closed at this time.

In 1900, it was suggested in The Contemporary Review that the City Branch should be replaced with an electric deep-level railway (i.e. a 'tube' line) between Herne Hill and Farringdon in order to remove Blackfriars Railway Bridge, which the author considered to be a blight on the Thames.^[10]

In 1916 passenger services through Snow Hill tunnel were discontinued, and trains from the south terminated at Holborn Viaduct.^[11][12] The tunnel remained in use for freight trains.

On 12 July 1925, a 660-volt third-rail system came into operation along the entire length of line. Electric trains ran every 20 minutes during the day ^[13]

Trains on the City Branch were affected by World War II. Services were reduced from September 1939 to once every 30 minutes during the week and hourly at weekends;^[14] and the line was cut twice during the Blitz. On the second occasion, the railway bridge over Hinton Road (immediately south of Loughborough Junction) was destroyed.^[15] The route between Holborn Viaduct and Herne Hill was disrupted by 62 incidents during the war.^[16]

Snow Hill tunnel closed in the end of the 1960s and tracks were lifted in 1971.

Thameslink Programme

St Paul's Thameslink station shortly after opening, with the remains of Holborn Viaduct railway station in the background

In 1988, Snow Hill tunnel re-opened and the former LCDR City Branch formed the basis of the new Thameslink route. Holborn Viaduct station was demolished and replaced by St Paul's Thameslink station (later renamed City Thameslink) in the tunnel. The line was dismantled between Lutgate Hill and Holborn Viaduct; instead a new section of Snow Hill tunnel was built.

Network Rail began a major upgrade of the route in 2009. A key objective of the Thameslink Programme was allowing more trains to travel between central London and Brighton, which was prevented by a bottleneck between London Bridge and Blackfriars on a viaduct through the historic Borough Market. Network Rail initially suggested widening the viaduct and demolishing part of the market, but the public backlash against this plan prompted Network Rail to consider permanently routing all Thameslink trains to/from Brighton via Herne Hill, avoiding London Bridge and the market.^[17] This would have required the grade separation of the two lines through Herne Hill, which would have been achieved by constructing a new viaduct immediately to the east of the existing viaduct and using a fly-over to connect the southern end of the new viaduct to the line between Tulse Hill and North Dulwich (taking the tracks over the Chatham Main Line and towards Tulse Hill).^[18] This proposal was rejected in 2004 because of its environmental impact on Herne Hill and the larger number of interchanges offered on the London Bridge route; the Borough Market viaduct was widened instead.^[17] From December 2008 to May 2012, Thameslink trains serving Herne Hill did not run most weekends or after 22:30 every week-night because of construction work on the Thameslink route through central London as part of the Thameslink Programme.^[19]

During the initial planning in the late 1980s for High Speed 1, British Rail considered building the line to serve a low-level station at King's Cross via south London.^[20] An option for this route was via the City Branch, which would have required quadrupling the tracks between Loughborough Junction and Herne Hill.^[21]

Early services

From July 1863, LCDR trains between London and Kent ran to continental Europe via a connecting steamboat from Dover Harbour to Calais;^[22] these boat trains left Victoria and Ludgate Hill simultaneously and were joined at Herne Hill.^[23] to give passengers easier access to the City of London and beyond. ^[24] The LCDR also began operating direct services to King's Cross and Barnet (now High Barnet Underground station) when Snow Hill tunnel opened.^[25]

A popular workmen's train (one penny per journey) ran between Ludgate Hill and Victoria via Herne Hill from 1865. Trains left from both termini at 04:55 and returned at 18:15.^[26] The LCDR was compelled to operate this service by Parliament to compensate for the large number of working-class homes destroyed in Camberwell during the construction of the line.^[27] Regular one-way fares from Herne Hill to Ludgate Hill were eightpence, sixpence and fourpence for first, second and third class respectively (or return for one shilling, ninepence and sevenpence respectively), with journey times of 15 minutes on express trains and 26 minutes when calling at all stops.^[28]

Both the Great Northern Railway (GNR) and the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) helped fund the Metropolitan Extensions (£320,000 and £310,000 respectively; £31,980,000 and £30,980,000 in 2021^[29]) in return for the right to use the LCDR's tracks. The LSWR began running trains between Ludgate Hill and Wimbledon via Herne Hill when the Tulse Hill extension was completed.^[30] Some of these services went as far as Kingston until the mid-1890s.^[31]

A late-night service from Ludgate Hill (departing 01:15) to Beckenham Junction via Herne Hill began in 1910. The intention was to satisfy journalists on Fleet Street who regularly complained in print about the poor quality of service on the line; those working on the morning papers often worked beyond midnight and missed the last train.^[32]

By 1959, the pattern of commuter services had taken the shape it held into the 21st century: all-stops trains from the City of London to Wimbledon and Sutton (but, unlike the modern Sutton Loop, via West Croydon).^[33]

Current

Passenger services are operated by Govia Thameslink Railway. Additional peak-services terminating at Blackfriars are run by Southeastern.