Balham Station - History

History

The West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway opened a station nearby named Balham Hill on 1 December 1856, when the line ran from Crystal Palace to Wandsworth Common. From the outset the line was worked by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway which purchased the line in 1859, after it had been extended to Battersea Wharf. Balham Hill station was resited by the LB&SCR to its present location during 1863 as part of works to widen the line, and improve the route between East Croydon and Victoria. It was known initially as Balham and Upper Tooting. Further remodelling of the line and was undertaken in 1890 and 1897 to increase capacity.

The lines through the station to Crystal Palace were electrified in 1910, by means of the LB&SCR 'Elevated Electric' overhead system. Work on electrifing the remaining services through the station had begun in 1913 but was interrupted by the First World War and not completed until 1925. By this time the LB&SCR was absorbed into the Southern Railway following the 1921 Railways Act.

In 1925 the Southern Railway decided to adopt a third rail electrification system and the lines through the station were converted between June 1928 and September 1929.

When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the national rail lines were served by Network SouthEast until the privatisation of the British Railways.

Upon privatisation in the 1990s, the national rail lines came under the Connex South Central franchise, which was replaced by the current operator in 2000.