THE RAILWAYS REACH BECKENHAM
Despite the early proposals, by 1850 nothing had been built. The two dominant companies, the SER and the LB&SCR having resolved their territorial disputes settled down to consolidate their existing businesses.
However two companies did succeed in completing railways from London as far as what is today Beckenham Junction, although neither built the eventual main line heading toward Victoria that we use today.
This led to a number of smaller and independent companies producing proposals to provide the local area with a service, see the menu to the right. Many of these would have passed through Farnborough.
The lines reaching Beckenham Junction were as follows:
West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway
The West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway was a short-lived but nevertheless important company that built a line in South London connecting to both the South Western main line from Waterloo and the Brighton main line from London Bridge, They were instrumental also in extending the line through Wandsworth (Clapham Junction) to what became London Victoria station.The first part of the line, from New Wandsworth to Crystal Palace, opened 1st December 1856 and the extension to Norwood in 1857.
A further extension was immediately planned and approved to continue eastward towards Beckenham. Bromley, Farnborough and beyond.
See West End of London and Crystal PalaceBut the line was built only as far as what is now Shortlands station.
The company was sold to the LB&SCR in 1859.
Mid Kent Railway
The first proposal using this name, of 1852, had at its start the
newly built railway from London to Dartford via Lewisham. The line
would branch off at
Lewisham and then head south passing to the east of Beckenham, through
Bromley at about the location of the future station at Bromley South.
From there it would run parallel to the main turnpike road but somewhat east of
it through Farnborough onward into Kent.See Mid Kent Railway
However once it became clear that the WEL&CPR would be successful in building their line to Beckenham, the Mid Kent changed their route to also go to Beckenham.
The line from Lewisham was built and completed by 1857. It was worked by the Southeastern Railway under a ten year agreement.
The company intended to extend their line from Beckenham through to Croydon, but that never happened. However extensions were built to Addiscombe, to Selsdon south of Croydon on the Brighton main line, and to Hayes via West Wickham.
Later the Mid Kent Railway built the link from Shortlands to St. Mary Cray that completed the through route from North Kent to London, see Completing the Main Lines This line was leased to the LC&DR in 1862. The remaining interests of the Mid Kent were taken over by the SER in August 1866.
After many years of neglect and falling traffic the Selsdon link closed in 1982, and the Addiscombe branch in 1997. Parts of both lines reopened in 2000 as lines of Croydon Tramlink.
The Hayes branch is still in operation as a main line railway, although there have been proposals to convert this to be used for the southward extension of the Bakerloo Line.
BECKANHAM AND BEYOND
Lines in the Beckenham Area
This map shows the lines through Beckenham Junction, as built before the onward extension of the mid Kent line toward Addiscombe and Hayes, together with, branching off to the south, the alignments of the earlier proposals for the various lines through Farnborough.
The dotted line to the left is the proposed route for the new more direct line toward London. This is now the main line to London Victoria.