The Next Stop Is... Trivia Quiz

Answer: Elephant & Castle

Elephant & Castle station was originally built by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway as part of the City branch extension of its Chatham Main Line. The line as originally built at its opening in October 1863 ran from Herne Hill to Elephant & Castle, with an extension onwards to Blackfriars opening the following June.

The station is located on a brick viaduct in the area with which it shares its name, a major road junction connecting Kent and the South of England with Central London. The station consists of a total of four platform faces, with two side platforms on either side of the viaduct, and an island platform in the centre.

In 2020, work began on a major redevelopment of the station, with the intention to improve connectivity between the station and new developments in the area, including better connectivity to the adjacent but unconnected Elephant & Castle tube station.

Answer: South Hampstead

South Hampstead was originally opened in June 1879 by the North London Railway as Loudon Road station, serving the increasingly prosperous area of Hampstead. The station was built as part of the quadrupling of the route out of Euston station by the NLR and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) at the western end of the Primrose Hill tunnel.

In January 1917, as an economy measure, the station was closed, remaining so until July 1922. At that point, it reopened and was renamed South Hampstead.

In the 1960s, during the electrification of the West Coast Main Line, the station's two platforms on the main line were demolished, leaving just the two platforms on the adjacent Watford Line. At the same time, the original building was also replaced with a new, smaller facility.

In 2007, along with the rest of the stations on the Watford Line, South Hampstead was transferred to the control of Transport for London as part of the new London Overground network.

Answer: Limehouse

Limehouse station is one of the oldest in London, having been opened by the Commercial Railway in 1840 as Stepney, located between a different station named Limehouse, and Shadwell. The following year, the Commercial Railway was renamed the London & Blackwall Railway (LBR) with the opening of its new terminus at Fenchurch Street.

The original station was replaced in 1856 when the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LTSR) was opened into Fenchurch Street - Stepney now featured two platforms on this route and two more on the original London & Blackwall route, built on diverging viaducts.

The station passed into ownership of the Great Eastern Railway in 1866, and the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923, when it was renamed as Stepney East.

The old LBR platforms were closed in 1926 and demolished by 1936, leaving just the LTSR platforms in service. In 1987, the station was renamed again, this time as Limehouse, while the old LBR route was resurrected and new platforms built for the Docklands Light Railway (DLR). Today, the station is a significant interchange for commuters from Essex travelling to work in the Canary Wharf area, and so, in 2009, to facilitate transferring between services, a new footbridge was opened connecting the platform for trains to Fenchurch Street and the DLR platform towards Canary Wharf.

Answer: Finsbury Park

Finsbury Park was first opened as Seven Sisters Road (Holloway) in July 1861 by the Great Northern Railway (GNR), ten years after the first tracks through the area were laid. Not long after the station opened, a new route built by the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway began construction, which included platforms at Seven Sisters Road.

These opened in August 1867, while the station was renamed as Finsbury Park in 1869. Further additions to the station were made when the Great Northern & City Railway (GNCR) opened an underground route from Moorgate to Finsbury Park in 1904, and the Great Northern, Brompton & Piccadilly Railway (GNBPR) opened its underground route as far as Finsbury Park in 1906.

This led to Finsbury Park becoming a major bottleneck, as it was an interchange of several terminating routes. So, in the 1920s, the London and North Eastern Railway, into whose ownership the station had gone in 1923, granted permission for one of the underground routes to be extended northwards - the Piccadilly Line (the old GNBPR) was extended as far as Cockfosters, opening in 1933. Following the Second World War, a new underground route was planned for London that would pass through Finsbury Park, which led to the old GNCR platforms being closed for conversion, and the terminus moved one stop further back to Drayton Park in 1964.

The new Victoria Line opened in 1968, while in 1971 the Edgware platforms, which had been closed since 1954, were demolished. The GNCR route was subsequently reinstated in 1976, when a new connection from Drayton Park to Finsbury Park was built allowing trains to run into the surface station. Today, Finsbury Park has a total of seven platforms utilised by trains originating from Kings' Cross (or Moorgate), and four underground platforms.

Answer: Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green station was opened in May 1872 as Bethnal Green Junction by the Great Eastern Railway (GER) as part of a significant expansion of its routes through east London following the opening of its new terminus at Liverpool Street. As originally built, the station had two platforms serving the newly built line towards Enfield and Chingford, and another two on the Great Eastern Main Line towards Essex and East Anglia.

Although further lines were built through the area, the four platforms were retained through the amalgamation of the GER into the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923, until the main line platforms were closed in 1946.

At this time, the station was renamed as simply Bethnal Green. Since privatisation of the railway network in 1994, Bethnal Green has seen services operated by a number of different operators until 2015, when it was passed to the control of Transport for London as part of London Overground.

Answer: Wembley Stadium

Wembley Stadium was originally opened in March 1906 as Wembley Hill, one of three new stations built by the Great Central Railway on a new route originating from Marylebone. Upon the opening of the new Empire Stadium at Wembley in 1923, the station became one of the closest railway station to the new facility.

As originally built, the station featured two platforms with four lines running through - two outer lines serving the station itself, with the two lines in the centre serving non-stopping trains.

This layout was rationalised in the 1960s as services were reduced, and the current layout of just two lines with two platforms was installed. In 1978, the station was renamed as Wembley Complex, to indicate its proximity to the facilities at Wembley, which included the stadium, Wembley Arena (opened in 1934) and Wembley Conference Centre (opened in 1977).

It gained its current name in 1987. As part of the redevelopment of Wembley Stadium itself in the early 2000s, the station also received a major redevelopment to accommodate the projected increase in passengers, with the major element, a new footbridge over the station, opening in 2008.

Answer: Acton Main Line

Acton Main Line was originally opened by the Great Western Railway (GWR) in February 1868 as Acton. The station was one of a number that were built to serve the burgeoning suburban area of Acton, which included the nearby GWR Garden Estate, which was developed by the railway for its own staff.

At its greatest extent, by 1947, the station had a total of four platforms, plus a siding next to Platform 1. The station was renamed as Acton Main Line in 1949, while it began to be cut back with the closure and demolition of Platform 1 in the 1960s, and the demolition of the station building in 1974, which was replaced by a small ticket office.

A new station building was completed in 1996, while in 2018 work began to extend the platforms and begin work on another new station building.

At the same time, the station was transferred to the control of Transport for London as part of its new TfL Rail service, which will eventually form part of the Crossrail route.

Answer: Kentish Town

Kentish Town station opened in October 1868 as part of the Midland Railway's (MR) extension to its new London terminus at St Pancras. The station was primarily used for trains from St Pancras northwards, but for two years between 1878 and 1880 formed part of the so-called "Super Outer Circle" service that ran between St Pancras and Earl's Court.

In 1907, the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR) opened a new station adjacent to the MR station for its deep-level underground service, for which a new building by architect Leslie Green was built.

The main line station was redeveloped in 1983, which saw the station building demolished, with access transferred to the underground station building. Today, the main line station, which has a total of four platforms, is served primarily by trains on the Thameslink route, which run into the sub-surface platforms at St Pancras and onwards south. Trains that originate to and from the terminal platforms at St Pancras run fast through Kentish Town.

Answer: Battersea Park

Battersea Park was opened by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) as York Road (Battersea) in May 1867 at a point between Battersea Pier Junction and Pouparts Junction, which served as a way of reducing congestion at the Stewarts Lane maintenance facility located just outside Victoria.

The station was renamed Battersea Park and York Road in January 1877, and Battersea Park in June 1885. The station has a total of five platforms, although, in 2012, Platform 1 was taken out of service when the only service it accommodated was withdrawn.

At the same time, the connection between the Brighton Main Line and South London Line was severed when Platform 3 was extended. The station building, which is Grade 2 listed, received a significant restoration in 1986.

Answer: Vauxhall

Vauxhall station was opened by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) as Vauxhall Bridge in July 1848, following the extension of its main line from the original terminus at Nine Elms to the new facility at Waterloo. The extension was built on a new brick viaduct, with the station occupying its width.

In April 1856, Vauxhall Bridge station was destroyed by fire, necessitating a complete rebuild. The new station was subsequently renamed as Vauxhall in 1862. Following the transfer of ownership to the Southern Railway in 1923, Vauxhall underwent a remodelling in 1936, as part of an overall upgrade of the signalling in the area.

At the time, Vauxhall was used as a stopping point for milk trains delivering to the adjacent United Dairies plant - trains would unload the unprocessed milk into a pipe located on one of the platforms that ran into the plant across the road.

The last milk train ran in 1978. Vauxhall became an interchange in 1971 when the Victoria Line was opened, while a new bus station was also opened in 2004. Today, Vauxhall's main line station has a total of eight platforms straddling the width of the viaduct, with a majority of local trains serving south-west London from Waterloo stopping there.