Bewildering Bulky Bridge At ...

Nine Elms

Once upon a time, Nine Elms (named after nine eponymous arboreal features along one of the old main roads) was a Ward in the Borough of Battersea. It now belongs to Wandsworth but modern maps show the boundaries as unchanged.

So out flyover is in Nine Elms but also in Battersea and in Wandsworth!

Keep up at the back there.

Patmore Estate is the terminus of bus P5 seen grazing under the ex Eurostar bridge in yesterday's blog and repeated below. 

If you proceed northwards along Stewarts Road, under the bridge and under the South Western Main line ...

... you can keep going until this happens.

The steps will take you up to Battersea Park Road. But if you turn right at the foot of the steps and walk along a left-over bit of Battersea Park Road, pre-widening and raising, you come out on the big road.

At the end, Google Streetview reveals an out of date view of the former Power Station ...

... and a step along the big road will reveal Battersea Power Station station, terminus of the new bit of the Northern Line.

The on-line aerial views of the environs of the station are unhelpful and very unfinished ...

... bit Google maps and street maps show a new circular road surrounding the building.

Streetview can take you on a full circuit tour. The view from Prospect Way is similar to the artist's impression above ...

... but with more development in progress.

Nine Elms underground station ...

... is nearer to the big city and on the Wandsworth Road.

But once there was another Nine lms station.

It was the terminus of what became the London and South Western Railway which was later extended to Waterloo.

Nine Elms railway station opened on 21 May 1838 as the London terminus of the London and Southampton Railway. The building in the neoclassical style was designed by Sir William Tite. The station was inconveniently situated for travel to central London, with the necessity to complete the journey by road or by the steam boats connecting the station to points between Vauxhall and London Bridge.

The station was closed to passengers from 11 July 1848 but remained as a goods depot. The building was demolished in 1964 ...

... to make way for the New Covent Garden Flower Market. There is nothing left of the goods depot or grand entrance building.

But after the passenger service moved to Waterloo, one passenger was most definitely not amused! Her Maj Queen Vic used to travel occasionally to Windsor from Nine Elms and did not like the idea of using Waterloo. At least the railway company wanted to continue to offer Royal travel.

So, alongside the Nine Elms Viaduct an unnamed station was created especially for the Royal Personage who probably never used it. No photographs exist only a street plan.

It was located where the tracks into Waterloo crossed the Wandsworth Road,

Due to poor passenger numbers (!) and the need to widen the viaduct, the station did not last and royalty never really became a commuter from Wandsworth Road!

Yesterday, fbb did eventually sort out flyover, bridge and viaduct all called "Nine Elms". 

But much fuss is being made of a new walk route from Ponton Road leading through to Nine Elms underground station. (map, blue dots).

At present or is a rather innocuous archway under the main lines.

But plans are afoot for a more spectacular entrance ...

... which looks as it is to be assembled from Lego.

Bit if you turn parallel to the viaduct, walking eastbound ...

... there is another smaller spooky tunnel ...

...which leads, eventually ...

... to the north side of the railway bridge over Wandsworth Road.

Oddly, there is an old road (Carnation Way) that exactly parallels the spooky tunnel and path.

Cellini Street is where the short-lived Royal Station was located and Carnation Way and the spooky tunnel lie between Cellini Street and Ace Way. 

Weird! But very much part of the fun that is Nine Elms!

 Next Buses in Nine Elms blog : Thurs 2nd May