Waterloo Station

London Waterloo station is a central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex in the London Borough of Lambeth. The current building was opened in 1922, but there has been a railway station on this site since 1848.

With approximately 91 million passenger entries each year Waterloo is currently Britain's busiest railway station by that measure, the 15th busiest in Europe and the 91st busiest in the world. It has more platforms and a greater floor area than any other station in the United Kingdom (though Clapham Junction, just under 4 miles down the line, has the largest number of trains).

The tube station below also has the most escalators of any station in the UK with 23, plus two travelators, this helps to cater for the 57,000 or so people who enter the underground there every weekday morning during the peak 3-hour period from 0700-1000.

The original station, designed by William Tite for the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR), was raised above marshy ground on a series of arches. The unfulfilled intention was for a through service to the City of London. In 1886, having originally been called "Waterloo Bridge Station" after the nearby Thames crossing (which in turn was named after the Duke of Wellington's famous victory over the French under Napoleon Bonaparte at the battle of Waterloo in 1815), it officially became "Waterloo Station", reflecting long-standing common usage, even in some L&SWR timetables.

Features

The Victory Arch details the names of the employees of the station and L&SWR company who gave their lives in the 1914-18 War. This is one of the key reasons other than observing rail travel that schools visit the station.

Two of the most famous images of the station are the two Southern Railway posters "Waterloo Station - War" and "Waterloo Station - Peace", painted by Helen McKie for the 1948 centenary of the station. The two pictures show hundreds of busy travellers all in exactly the same positions and poses, but with altered clothing and roles.

Other famous paintings of the station include the huge 1967 work by Terence Cuneo, in the collection of the National Railway Museum. A statue of Cuneo by Philip Jackson was installed on the concourse in 2004.

Famously, a large four-faced clock hangs in the middle of the main concourse. Meeting "under the clock at Waterloo" is a traditional rendezvous.

The station has also featured in many films and TV programmes, some of which include: 

• The opening scene of the 1943 film Miss London Ltd features Anne Shelton as a singing track announcer who works for the Southern Railway at Waterloo station.
• Several scenes in the 1945 film Waterloo Road were filmed at Waterloo.
• The station is the subject of John Schlesinger's 1961 documentary film Terminus.
• The 1970 British Transport film Rush Hour includes several scenes filmed in the station.
• Several scenes in The Bourne Ultimatum, starring Matt Damon, were filmed between October 2006 and April 2007.
• Bollywood film Jhoom Barabar Jhoom was filmed extensively within Waterloo and the storyline was set around two people awaiting passengers arriving at the station.
• Waterloo has frequently appeared in television productions, including Waking the Dead, Spooks, The Apprentice, Top Gear and Only Fools and Horses. It was also the target of a failed terrorist attack in 24: Live Another Day.

​Waterloo also features in many books including Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat (during which the protaganists get lost) and in Robert Louis Stevenson's The Wrong Box.

The Kinks famously sang about a Waterloo Sunset and The Who had their picture taken at Waterloo station to feature on the album artwork for seminal Mod album of the 1970s Quadrophenia. The Pet Shop Boys filmed their video to West End Girls in part at the station (although Waterloo is not in the West End), while perhaps most famously Abba held a photo shoot at the station as part of the promotion of their first hit Waterloo, which won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 and launched them into stardom.