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Charing Cross railway station (also known as London Charing Cross) is a central London railway terminus between the Strand and Hungerford Bridge in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the Southeastern Main Lines to Dover via Ashford and Hastings via Tunbridge Wells. All trains are operated by Southeastern, which provides the majority of commuter and regional services to south-east London and Kent. It is connected to Charing Cross Underground station and is near to Embankment Underground station and Embankment Pier. The station was originally opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1864. It takes its name from its proximity to the road junction Charing Cross, the notional "centre of London" from which distances from the city are measured. During the 19th century the station became the main London terminus for continental traffic via boat trains, and served several prestigious international services. It was badly damaged by a roof collapse in 1905 and extensively rebuilt, subsequently becoming an important meeting point for military and government traffic during World War I. By this time, Charing Cross station was seen as out of date by some politicians and proposals were made to replace Hungerford Bridge with a road bridge or road/rail combination, with the station moving to the south bank of the River Thames in the case of a road-only replacement. The station was bombed several times during World War II, and was rebuilt afterwards, re-opening in 1951. In the late 1980s, the station complex was redesigned by Terry Farrell and rebuilt to accommodate a modern office block, now known as Embankment Place. Location Charing Cross station is located at the western end of the Strand in the City of Westminster, east of Trafalgar Square and northeast of Whitehall. It is close to the Embankment Pier, providing river services along the River Thames. The railway leads directly out onto Hungerford Bridge and across the river towards the London Borough of Lambeth. The station code is CHX. It is one of twenty stations in Great Britain that are managed by Network Rail and is the 15th busiest station in the country. A number of key bus routes run in the area, and are designated "Trafalgar Square for Charing Cross". History The station was planned as the London terminus of the South Eastern Railway (SER). They had wanted to extend the line from Bricklayers Arms towards Hungerford Bridge, but a bill presented in 1846 was unsuccessful. In 1857, they proposed to Parliament that they would build a railway terminus in the West End, hoping to use Victoria, before reaching an agreement with the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway to build a line west from London Bridge. Later in the year, the SER secretary Samuel Smiles looked for potential routes and decided the best location would be on the site of the former Hungerford Market adjacent to The Strand, and that the line should be directly connected to Waterloo, allowing a link with London and South Western Railway services. The Charing Cross Railway Company was formed in 1859 in order to build the extension, and the SER paid £300,000 (now £32,000,000) in capital to help build this. The line towards Charing Cross was expensive to build as it traversed a heavily built-up area, which was exacerbated in 1862 when the company chose to upgrade the two running lines to three, and doubled the capacity over the bridge to four tracks. The bridge replaced the original suspension bridge designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel which opened in 1845. Work began in June 1860 and took around three years. The old suspension bridge remained open until the new bridge was suitable to carry foot traffic. A trial run over the new line took place on 1 December 1863. The station was designed by Sir John Hawkshaw, and featured a single span wrought iron roof, 510 feet (155 m) long and 164 feet (50 m) wide, arching over the six platforms on its relatively cramped site. It was built on a brick arched viaduct, the level of the rails above the ground varying up to 30 feet (9 m). The space underneath the line was used as wine cellars. The roof above the tracks is a single 164-foot (50 m) wide great arch, rising to 102 feet (31 m) at its highest point. The station was built by Lucas Brothers. Charing Cross station opened on 11 January 1864. The Charing Cross Railway was absorbed into the SER on 1 September, shortly after the station opened. The Charing Cross Hotel, designed by Edward Middleton Barry, and built by Lucas Brothers, opened on 15 May 1865 and gave the station an ornate frontage in the French Renaissance style. It had 250 bedrooms spread over seven floors and extended along Villiers Street as well as the front of the Strand. The public rooms had balconies overlooking the main station concourse. It quickly became popular and was profitable, leading to a 90-bedroom annexe on the other side of Villiers Street opening in 1878. A bridge over the street connected the two parts of the hotel together. In 1887, Hungerford Bridge was widened to 48 feet 9 inches (14.86 m) in order to provide three more tracks into the station. On 1 January 1899, the SER merged with the London, Chatham & Dover Railway to form the South Eastern & Chatham Railway (SECR), which took over operations at Charing Cross. Eleanor Cross Contemporary with the Charing Cross Hotel was a replica of the Eleanor Cross in Red Mansfield stone, also designed by Edward Middleton Barry, that was erected in the station forecourt. It was based on the original Whitehall Cross built in 1291, that had been demolished in 1647 by order of Parliament. Distances in London are officially measured from the original site of the cross, now the statue of Charles I facing Whitehall, and not from this replica. The cross deteriorated over time until it was in such a vulnerable condition that it was placed on English Heritage's "Heritage At Risk Register" in 2008. A ten-month project to repair and restore the cross was completed in August 2010. This work included recreating and attaching almost 100 missing ornamental features including heraldic shields, an angel, pinnacles, crockets and finials; securing weak or fractured masonry with stainless steel pins and rods and re-attaching decorative items which had previously been removed after becoming loose. International services After opening, Charing Cross became the main terminus of all SER services instead of London Bridge, including boat trains to Continental Europe. Along with Victoria, it became the main departure point from London to abroad, and was called "the Gates of the World" by Percy Fitzgerald. Thomas Cook established a travel office on the corner of the station forecourt. The SER route became the shortest from London to Dover after a diversion at Sevenoaks was built in 1868, and by 1913 it was possible to travel from Charing Cross to Paris in six and a half hours. Owing to its international connections, Charing Cross played an importa.... Discover the Charly Wilde popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Charly Wilde books.