Marylebone station
Marylebone station is a Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network, it is also known as London Marylebone and is the southern terminus of the Chiltern Main Line to Birmingham. The London Underground station is on the Bakerloo line between Edgware Road and stations, in London fare zone 1.
The station opened on 15 March 1899 as the London terminus of the Great Central Main Line, the last major railway to open in Britain for 100 years, linking the capital to the cities of Leicester, Sheffield and Manchester. Marylebone was the last of London's main line termini to be built and is one of the smallest, opening with half of the platforms originally planned. There has been an interchange with the Bakerloo line since 1907, but not with any other lines.
Traffic declined at Marylebone from the mid-20th century, particularly after the GCML closed. By the 1980s, the station was threatened with closure, but was reprieved because of commuter traffic on the London to Aylesbury Line and from. In 1993, the station found a new role as the terminus of the Chiltern Main Line. Following the privatisation of British Rail, the station was expanded with two additional platforms in 2006 and improved services to. In 2015, services began between Marylebone and, via a new chord connecting the main line to the Oxford to Bicester Line and an extension to following in 2016. As of 2020, it is the only main London terminus to host only diesel trains, as none of the National Rail lines into it are electrified.
Marylebone is one of the four station squares on the British Monopoly board and is a popular film-making location because of its relative quietness compared to other London termini.
Location
The station stands on Melcombe Place just north of Marylebone Road, a straight west-to-east thoroughfare through Marylebone in Central London; Baker Street is close by to the east and south-east. It is in the northern, Lisson Grove, neighbourhood of the district, in a northern projection of the Bryanston and Dorset Square ward immediately south of St John's Wood. North-east is Regent's Park, north in a network of mostly residential streets is Lord's Cricket Ground and south, south-west and south-east are a mixed-use network of streets. Other nearby London termini are and.A number of TfL bus routes serve the station.
National Rail
The main line National Rail station has six platforms: two built in 1899, two inserted into the former carriage road in the 1980s and two added in September 2006. It is the only non-electrified railway terminus in London. Marylebone is operated by Chiltern Railways, making it one of the few London terminus stations not to be managed by Network Rail.Chiltern Railways operates all services at the station, accessing the Chiltern Main Line and London to Aylesbury Line routes; these serve,, Bicester,,,,, Birmingham Moor Street, Birmingham Snow Hill, and . There are services to, via the Oxford to Bicester Line, and some services to, via the Leamington to Stratford branch line.
History
GCR and LNER
The early history of Marylebone is tied into the Great Central Railway 's Great Central Main Line extension into London. When Sir Edward Watkin became chairman of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in 1864, the line was not particularly lucrative as it had no direct connection to London. Watkin was unhappy about transferring traffic to the Great Northern Railway and, when he became chairman of the Metropolitan Railway in 1872, he decided to build a dedicated line between the MS&LR and Central London.The approach to Marylebone was the last section of the Great Central Main Line to be built. Progress was delayed in the 1890s because of objections, particularly as the line would pass through Lord's, the principal cricket ground in London and home of Marylebone Cricket Club. Watkin promised that Lord's would not be disrupted by the railway construction and an act of Parliament to complete the line was passed on 28 March 1893. The station was built on a site around Blandford and Harewood Squares, west of Regent's Park. More than 4,000 working-class people were evicted from their homes to turn Harewood Avenue and Rossmore Road into approach roads; around 2,600 of them were rehomed in new apartments near St. John's Wood Road. Watkin resigned the chairmanship in 1894, following ill-health, and was replaced by Lord Wharncliffe. The approach to the station through Lord's was achieved by a cut-and-cover tunnel constructed between September 1896 and May 1897, avoiding the cancellation of any cricket.
The station opened to coal traffic on 27 July 1898 and to passengers on 15 March 1899. It was the terminus of the GCR's London extension main line – the last major railway line to be built into London until High Speed 1. The Great Central Railway linked London to stations in,, Rugby, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester. Local services from north-west Middlesex, High Wycombe and Aylesbury also terminated at Marylebone. The GCR moved its headquarters to Marylebone from Manchester in 1905.
The station was designed by Henry William Braddock, a civil engineer for the GCR. It has a modest design owing to the GCR's lack of money. The main booking hall is by. It is a domestic version of the Wrenaissance revival style that fits in with the residential surroundings with Dutch gables, employing warm brick and cream-coloured stone. The GCR crest was worked into the wrought iron railings in numerous places.
The original plan was for eight platforms, but half were designated as a "possible future extension" and the cost of building the GCML was greater than expected. The line leading to the station cut through of middle-class housing, including the Eyre Estate in St John's Wood and the area around Lord's, drawing protests and requiring a relocation of the track and station facilities. There was never enough money for the extra platforms and only four were built: three inside the train shed and one to its west. As a result, the concourse is unusually long and had three walls for most of the 20th century. The northern wall was missing, as the GCR anticipated that the other four platforms, under an extended train shed, would be built later on. An office block was later built on the vacant site. The cost of the London Extension meant that the adjoining Great Central Hotel, designed by Sir Robert William Ellis, was built by a different company. The hotel operated for a relatively short time and was converted to offices in 1945, becoming the headquarters of British Rail from 1948 to 1986. The offices were restored as a hotel in 1993.
The GCR constructed an engine shed at the site in 1897, but it was short lived. A locomotive servicing area, consisting of a turntable and coaling stage remained in use until the end of steam traction at the station in 1966.
Passenger traffic on the GCR was never heavy because it was the last main line to be built; it therefore had difficulty competing against longer-established rivals, especially the Midland Railway from its terminal at St Pancras, for the lucrative inter-city passenger business. Low passenger traffic meant Marylebone was the quietest and most pleasant of London's termini. The GCR was unhappy about having to use part of the Metropolitan Railway's route to reach Marylebone and opened a new line to High Wycombe on 2 April 1906. The additional suburban services generated traffic for the station, which had previously been so empty on occasion that the staff outnumbered passengers. While passenger traffic remained relatively sparse, the line was heavily used for freight, especially coal; in 1914, 67% of traffic was goods-related. Trains ran from the north and East Midlands to the freight depot adjoining the station, which was marginally the largest in London.
The heyday of the line was between 1923, when the GCR was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway and 1948, when the LNER was nationalised to form the British Rail Eastern Region. As a result, many prestigious locomotives were frequent visitors to the line; these included Flying Scotsman, Sir Nigel Gresley and Mallard which ran on the East Coast Main Line. Special trains ran on the line to destinations such as Scotland. The station's busiest use came after the construction of Wembley Stadium in 1923, when it was used to contain large crowds wishing to see the FA Cup Final. Special services ran from Marylebone to the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park the following year.
Unlike other London termini, Marylebone saw little direct damage during the Blitz. It was closed between 5 October and 26 November 1940, after the approach tunnels were breached and the goods depot was bombed on 16 April 1941.
British Rail
After the nationalisation of British Railways in 1948, Marylebone was initially kept open as a long-distance station. New services were introduced, including the Master Cutler service to Sheffield and the South Yorkshireman to Bradford, but they were not well-used. From 1949, all local services towards High Wycombe and Princes Risborough were routed into Marylebone, although the frequency of trains was reduced two years later.The Great Central Main Line duplicated the route of the Midland Main Line and long-distance trains from Marylebone were scaled back from 1958, leading to the closure of the Great Central Main Line north of Aylesbury on 4 September 1966 in the Beeching Axe.
The rundown of services began after the line was transferred from British Railways' Eastern Region to the London Midland Region, although the station and the first few miles of its route had been part of the Western Region from 1950. In 1958, the Master Cutler was diverted to and the East Coast Main Line. In 1960, all express services were discontinued, followed by freight in 1965. From then until closure, only a few daily long-distance semi-fast services to Nottingham remained. Marylebone's large goods yard was closed and sold to the Greater London Council for housing. The last long-distance service ran on 4 September 1966, except for a brief reprieve the following year when Paddington was undergoing signal works.
Marylebone was then the terminus for local services to Aylesbury and High Wycombe only, with some services extended to. They were switched to diesel multiple unit operation following the phasing out of steam. British Rail Class 115 DMUs were introduced to local services in 1962. The station was transferred from the Western Region to the London Midland Region in 1973.