Wandsworth Town station is set to get step-free access and reopen a long-disused second entrance after the local council approved the plans at a Cabinet meeting yesterday.
The station is raised on railway arches and has four platforms, accessed via stairs from a corridor that runs through one of the arches from a street-level entrance on the south side. As it happens, the station’s main entrance, on the south side of the railway, was originally a secondary entrance, with a larger red-brick Dutch-style station building on the north side of the railway as the main entrance.
The northern entrance seems to have closed in the 1980s, when the two entrance buildings were cleared away, and a very 1980s-style entrance was built on the south side. That was, in turn, replaced by the current entrance in 2013. Even then, there were calls for step-free access, but it wasn’t until 2022 that plans were announced.
Since then, detailed design work has been underway, and following a Wandsworth Cabinet meeting yesterday afternoon, approval was granted to fund the station upgrade.
The second entrance is needed because the current one is quite small and often overcrowded, and that is likely to get worse as more housing is built nearby. The station’s current busy state is a far cry from February 1956, when British Rail had to deny reports that it planned to close the station because of a lack of passengers.
The Cabinet papers also note that most of the new housing development in the area is on the north side of the station, where the new entrance would be.
To upgrade the station, it will receive both a second entrance and step-free access, as part of a project expected to cost around £20 million in total.
The council is covering the full cost of the new entrance using developer funds and has already received £1.5 million of the estimated £4.5 million project cost, with £3.2 million expected shortly. The council is also contributing up to £2.65 million towards the cost of the step-free access, which is being delivered under a separate Department for Transport (DfT) Access for All scheme.
The DfT agreed to its side of the package last week, subject to the council funding some of the costs, which the council Cabinet approved yesterday. In total, the council is providing just over £7 million of the £20 million cost.
They are technically two separate schemes, but it’s easier and cheaper to do both at the same time, so the council pushed to have the second entrance built alongside step-free works.
The step-free access would comprise three lifts, providing step-free access to all four platforms. The final designs for the lifts and the new station entrance will be submitted as a later planning application, but the intention is to start construction work next year.
Very early concept from Network Rail, looking south with the new entrance visible next to the railway
After the funding agreement was signed, Rail Minister, Peter, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, said: “We want our railway to be truly accessible to everyone, and our Access for All programme is delivering real change across the country.
“It’s brilliant to see Wandsworth Council’s support for the Wandsworth Town upgrades, which will make a huge difference not only for disabled passengers, but everyone who uses the station, and I’m grateful to the Council for their financial contribution to a better station and a better borough.”
Stairs to platforms 2 and 3
The end of the corridor where the new entrance would go
The bricked off arch where the new entrance would be built
Possibly a relic of the original 1886 entrance?
