page_title: Blackfriars station
section_title: Station rebuild
hierarchical_section_title: Blackfriars station / History / Station rebuild
caption_attribution_description: English: The new London Blackfriars Station stretches across the Thames with entrances on both the south and north banks. The roof is covered with solar panels to generate electricity.
context_page_description: Blackfriars, also known as London Blackfriars, is a central London railway station and connected London Underground station in the City of London. It provides Thameslink services: local, and regional and limited Southeastern commuter services to South East London and Kent. Its platforms span the River Thames, the only one in London to do so, along the length of Blackfriars Railway Bridge, a short distance downstream from Blackfriars Bridge. There are two station entrances either side of the Thames, along with a connection to the London Underground District and Circle lines.
  The main line station was opened by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway with the name St. Paul's in 1886, as a replacement for the earlier Blackfriars Bridge station and the earlier Blackfriars railway bridge. This increased capacity of rail traffic through the Snow Hill Tunnel to the rest of the rail network. The Underground station opened in 1870 with the arrival of the Metropolitan District Railway. The station was renamed Blackfriars in 1937 to avoid confusion with St Paul's tube station.
context_section_description: Blackfriars station was significantly renovated between 2009 and 2012 in a £500m redevelopment programme to modernise the station and increase capacity. The terminal platforms at the station were closed on 20 March 2009 in order for work to begin. The original concept for the project was designed by Pascall+Watson architects, with execution by Jacobs and Tony Gee and Partners; it was built by Balfour Beatty. The office building above the station was demolished and replaced as part of the Thameslink programme. The new station is the same height and has a combined National Rail and London Underground ticket hall and ventilation shaft together with escalators and lifts between a mezzanine level for main line railway services and the sub-surface level for London Underground services. The Underground station also received major enhancements, with a new roof of glazed north lights and partial-height glazed side panels installed along the entire length of the bridge.
  On the south bank of the river a new station entrance was built at Bankside, containing a second ticket hall. The through platforms were moved to the east side and extended along Blackfriars Railway Bridge to accommodate 12-carriage trains (in place of the previous eight). The layout has been altered by building new bay platforms on the west side, avoiding the need for through trains between City Thameslink and London Bridge crossing the paths of terminating ones.
  The works exploited the disused piers west of the existing railway bridge which once supported the former West Blackfriars and St. Paul's Railway Bridge. The easternmost row of disused piers was strengthened, tied into the existing bridge and clad in stone. The longer platforms allow longer trains on the Thameslink route to pass through London. Thameslink services began using the newly constructed platforms in early 2011. The station's new entrance and ticket hall on the south side of the river opened on 5 December. The tube station reopened on 20 February 2012. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, visited the works on the same day, saying "the rebirth of this central London station will improve the journeys of thousands of passengers every single day". The reconstruction work provided jobs for around 13,000 people, with a maximum of 2000 per day at the busiest times. The Thameslink redevelopment work at Blackfriars has been well received. In January 2014 the Blackfriars Railway Bridge became the world's largest solar-powered bridge having been covered with 4,400 photovoltaic panels providing up to half of the energy for the station. In 2017, the station won a Major Station of the Year award at the National Rail Awards.
  The Waterloo & City line, a deep-level tube line which runs non-stop between Waterloo and Bank, runs almost directly under Blackfriars station and there have been suggestions to construct an interchange station for the line at Blackfriars. The Department for Transport considers this to have "no significant transport benefit".
caption: Blackfriars' roof is covered with solar panels to generate electricity.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Elephone", "Image Model": "P9000", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "MediaTek Camera Application", "Image DateTime": "2016:07:05 14:00:25", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Tag 0x0220": "0", "Image Tag 0x0221": "0", "Image Tag 0x0222": "0", "Image Tag 0x0223": "0", "Image Tag 0x0224": "1", "Image Tag 0x0225": "", "Image ExifOffset": "414", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1268", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "16116", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "757/1000000", "EXIF FNumber": "2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "79", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:07:05 14:00:25", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:07:05 14:00:25", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "other light source", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "7/2", "EXIF SubSecTime": "74", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "74", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "74", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4160", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3120", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "918", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "2", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}