Fenchurch Street is a railway station in the south eastern corner of the City of London close by the Tower of London. Uniquely for a rail terminus in central London, it does not have a direct link to the London Underground, but it is close to Aldgate tube station, Tower Hill tube station and Tower Gateway DLR station. It is one of seventeen UK railway stations managed by Network Rail.
History
The station, designed by George Berkeley, was the first to be constructed inside the City, and was opened in April 1854 for the London and Blackwall Railway replacing a nearby terminus at Minories opened in July 1841 and designed by William Tite. The station also became the London terminus of the London Tilbury & Southend Railway. Until the opening of Broad Street station in 1865 it was also the City terminus of the North London Railway.
Design
The station facade is of grey stock brick and has a rounded gable roof. In the 1960s a flat awning over the entrance was replaced with the zig-zag canopy seen today. Above, the first floor facade has 11 round-arched windows, and above these is the station clock, which has recently been returned to working order. The station has four platforms and operates at capacity, especially during peak hours.
Destinations
Today Fenchurch Street is served by c2c services to east London and south Essex which call at stations including Limehouse, West Ham, Barking, Basildon, Chafford Hundred (for Lakeside Shopping Centre), Tilbury, Westcliff, Southend and Shoeburyness.
Trivia
Fenchurch Street is one of the four stations whose names are used in the standard UK edition of the game of Monopoly.
The character Fenchurch in Douglas Adams' So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish was named after Fenchurch Street station, where she was conceived.
Notes
- Stations managed by Network Rail, Network Rail, retrieved 2005-04-01.
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