Inner South London Line - History

History

The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) was authorised to build the line by the South London Railway Act 1862. It re-used the existing Wandsworth Road to Brixton section which had been built as part of the LCDR main line. This existing line was quadrupled and the line extended to London Bridge. The northern pair (now known as the Chatham lines), with no stations, was used by the LCDR; the southern (now known as the Atlantic lines) was used by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR). Several stations were shared by the two companies.

The company pioneered rail electrification in the UK, authorised in 1903, and the first electric train ran on 1 December 1909. For the following three years, steam trains alternated with electrics: the latter operated a 15-minute interval service from 7.30am to midnight. In the first year of electric operation, passengers carried almost doubled, from 4 million to 7.5 million, after falling dramatically following the opening of the tramways in South London, which had led to a drop in passenger numbers of 1.25 million in only six months. The original electrification used the overhead system at 6700 V AC, supplied by the power station at Deptford. The line was converted to Southern Railway standard third-rail 660 V DC on 17 June 1928.

The South Cross Route, one side of the London Motorway Box the innermost ring road of the unbuilt 1960s London Ringways plan, would have paralleled the South London Line between Wandsworth Road and Peckham Rye stations.