Bricklayers Arms northern extensions

[Sad Sprinter]

As I was thinking about yet more fantastical rail routes for modelling the other day, it occurred to me that a northern extension of the line from Bricklayers Arms towards Blackfriars, would have served as a useful freight London Bridge avoiding line. Or even as an inner London passenger route. What were the reasons this line was never extended northwards and would it have had much benefits if it had?

 

[30907]

Wiki... says there were a couple of proposals in the Mania period.

Bricklayers Arms as a passenger station lasted only long enough to force the London and Greenwich to bring its tariffs down, after which the SER extensions naturally went from London Br.

As for cross-river freight traffic, remember that Blackfriars Bridge was LCDR not SER - and that most of the freight over it was run by "northern" companies to their depots south of the river; not sure how much used the link to the SER, though some certainly did.

 

[Taunton]

Bricklayers Arms was where it was because that was the extent of built up London. The Greenwich line into London Bridge had been done wholly on viaduct, still with a lot of demolition, and going on from Bricklayers Arms would have been very disruptive and expensive. Incrementally taking a bit more of the London Bridge viaduct, just a line or two at a time, was more practical than a whole new urban alignment - of course, it ended up very wide.

 

[MaxB]

BA