page_title: Lawrence Hill railway station
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Lawrence Hill railway station / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Cardiff - Portsmouth express passing Lawrence Hill. View northward on the ex-GW main lines out of Bristol, towards Filton Junction, Severn Tunnel and South Wales, also Birmingham via Cheltenham and London via Badminton and Swindon. The 12.50 Cardiff - Portsmouth, which has called at Stapleton Road, will turn east to Bath, Westbury and Salisbury to reach Portsmouth Harbour (due 14.18).
context_page_description: Lawrence Hill railway station is on the Severn Beach Line and Cross Country Route, serving the inner-city districts of Easton and Lawrence Hill in Bristol, England. It is 1.0 mile from Bristol Temple Meads. Its three letter station code is LWH. As of 2018, the station has two platforms, four running lines and minimal facilities. It is managed by Great Western Railway, the seventh company to be responsible for the station and the third franchise since privatisation in 1997. They provide all train services at the station, the standard service being a train every 40 minutes along the Severn Beach Line, an hourly service to Bristol Parkway and another hourly service to Westbury.
  The station was opened in 1863 by the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway, with a single track and platform. The line was doubled in 1874 when the Clifton Extension Railway opened, then expanded to four tracks and platforms in 1891. There were buildings on all platforms and a goods yard to the west. Service levels reduced significantly over the second half of the twentieth century.
context_section_description: Lawrence Hill opened on 8 September 1863 when services began on the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway (BSWUR), which ran from Bristol Temple Meads to New Passage Pier, north of the city on the banks of the River Severn. At New Passage, passengers were transferred to a ferry to cross the Severn to continue on into Wales. In 1874, the Clifton Extension Railway opened, connecting the Bristol Port Railway and Pier to the Great Western Railway at Narroways Hill Junction, north of Stapleton Road. To cope with the expected increase in traffic, the line was doubled, and a second platform was added to the east of the two tracks. Two more tracks were added in 1891, giving a layout of two sets of two tracks, with platforms on the outside and on an island in the middle. Trains to and from Clifton Down and Avonmouth used the western platforms while trains to and from South Wales used the eastern platforms. There were buildings on all the platforms, which were linked by a large covered footbridge. There was a goods yard to the west of the station and a signal box on the central platform.
  In 1886, the daily Great Western service along the Clifton Extension Railway was 6 trains each way between Avonmouth and Temple Meads, 24 trains from Clifton Down to Temple Meads and 26 the other direction. By 1910 there were 17 services daily from Avonmouth to Temple Meads and 15 the other way, a further 20 trains each day operating between Clifton Down and Temple Meads. From 1924, many trains to Avonmouth were extended to Severn Beach, a growing seaside resort, and some on to Pilning, then back to Temple Meads via Patchway. Circular trips via Henbury were also common. The station was also used by excursion trains, and by trains of evacuees during the Second World War. By 1947, just before the start of the British Rail era, there were 33 daily services each direction between Avonmouth and Temple Meads, and 18 on Sundays. Many trains would pass through Lawrence Hill non-stop - in 1930, 350 trains would pass the station each day, of which roughly 40% would stop.
  When the railways were nationalised in 1948, Lawrence Hill came under the control of the Western Region of British Railways, which oversaw a gradual decline of services at Lawrence Hill. Passenger numbers along the Clifton Extension Railway, now known as the Severn Beach Line, also dropped, and in 1963 the Beeching report suggested that all services along the line be withdrawn. In the end, services continued to Severn Beach but were discontinued via Henbury and Pilning. Staff were withdrawn from the station from 17 July 1967 as a cost-saving measure. The footbridge was demolished by 1970, forcing passengers to change platform via the steps to Church Road at the south end of the station. Most of the station buildings were demolished in August 1970, but there were still some on the westernmost platform in 1979. By 1974 the platforms serving the eastern tracks had been removed, with the tracks themselves removed in 1984. Plans to use the disused trackbed as part of a light rail scheme linking the city centre to the northern suburbs were formed in the late 1990s, with the aim of an operational scheme by 2008, but the plans had been shelved by 2004. It was suggested in 2008 that the trackbed could be used as a cycle path to join together communities which had been separated by the construction of the M32 motorway, however this was dropped due to Network Rail asserting that the trackbed might be necessary for future rail expansion.
  British Rail was split into business-led sectors in the 1980s, at which time operations at Stapleton Road passed to Regional Railways. All trains along the Severn Beach Line ran to Severn Beach, but the service pattern was irregular. This was changed in the mid-1990s, with a more frequent service to Avonmouth but very few on to Severn Beach and no Sunday services. When the railway was privatised in 1997, local services were franchised to Wales & West, which was succeeded by Wessex Trains, an arm of National Express, in 2001. Services along the Severn Beach Line were in
caption: A Cardiff-Portsmouth express passes through Lawrence Hill in 1962. The signal box is visible on the left.
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