I don’t like stations that aren't designed by my friend and colleague, Charles Holden.

"You are the new entrance to my hidden station" Steady on there, Jago... Steady there...

Imagine how interesting it will be watch Jago's videos 50 years from now. One day they're going to an amazing historical record of transport in london

South Bermondsey was the closest station to an old warehouse used by a LARPing group of which I was a member; a group of us stepped out (in costume) one Saturday afternoon for 'supplies', to be confronted by 4k+ Millwall fans on their way to the match through which we had to pass - some of the comments were memorable 😂

The South London line hasn't run between London Bridge and Victoria (via South Bermondsey, and Clapham High Street, among others) since 2012! The route was altered when Overground services between Clapham Junction and Dalston were introduced - I caught the first train on the new service at Clapham Junction! But it meant the direct service between London Bridge and Clapham High Street was withdrawn.

5:55 I appreciate how a single cyclist uses the bridge just as you mention it…

‘Elevated Electric’ is when you keep your microwave on a high shelf

“Elevated Electricity” is quite literally “High Power”

Wonderful video on a neglected station. Ref the Brighton Elevated, it was due to the elevation of the power source. As you stated the LSWR went for low level, low power DC whilst the Brighton went overhead, hence 'elevated'. We nearly got the whole of the Southern with an overhead wire but for about an extra 2 1/2 miles of third rail owned by the LSWR. The Southern decided that it was only fair that it was best to add up all the miles of each and the highest mileage won. The extra distance was found due to a spur from the LSWR into Victoria station via the former LCDR metals. Hey, ho.....

I actually never noticed South Bermondsey on the Tube and Rail map until very recently, and I wondered what it was like there considering it was tucked so hidden on it, so this video definitely came out at the right time for me.

How we do love the visual treat of the vibrant and so-informative ' Minimalist Linear Cartography'. Banksey, eat your heart out! P.S. Abutments are not Parapets

Jago - regarding your map at the beginning - there is not a direct passenger service between London Bridge and London Victoria via Denmark HIll. Living near Crystal Palace Station, I can confirm that the direct route is via Crystal Palace - although it's a long ride! I sometimes use part of it to/from London Bridge or Victoria when I travel from/to Crystal Palace.

Oh I needed something to cheer me up after more dreadful Warhammer news (can 10th get any worse?). Thank you for being more regular than British Rail, Jago. It always warms my heart to see new videos from ya, mate.

I live 15 minutes from South Bermondsey. My least favourite part of it is that there's literally no reason for me to use it. Even if I need to get to London Bridge, it's easier for me to go via Surrey Quays and Canada Water. I've told myself I'll go to SB just to see what is like, but it's such a ballache that I never have.

Took a train from London Bridge to Victoria in the mid 1970s on one of our trainspotting trips to London. It was a 2-EPB iirc. The surroundings we travelled through in these pre- gentrification days were definitely not very salubrious.

The South London line runs to a bay platform in Battersea Park and to Clapham Junction, but not Victoria since it was cut off by a platform extension at Battersea Park in 2012.

You've made South Bermondsey look exciting and positively inviting, Jago. Are you ready to accept the challenge that is Northolt Park yet?

I remember travelling through South Bermondsey with a friend one Saturday afternoon, and the platform was packed with Millwall football supporters. Although scheduled to stop there, we sailed through to London Bridge at a fair clip, and left them all behind!! (I'm glad I wasn't one of those people on the platform at the time!!). Througb trains to Denmark Hill and Victoria ceased with the opening of the Overground line through Peckham Rye to Clapham Junction (which doesn't serve South Bermondsey) in 2012.

It’s also bang next to Millwall’s football ground, which would certainly account for the feeling of hopelessness and despair the station evokes. UPDATE Oh bugger. Having crafted this extremely witty comment before the video ended I found that you then mentioned the football ground, without any pithy remarks on it. Probably wiser than me, given that it’s Millwall!

The Bricklayers Arms branch never connected to the SLL. When I was growing up I used to enjoy standing on the footpath opposite North Kent West Signals Signalbox, watching the freight trains come and go. Also, trains stopped going to Victoria years ago when they extended the platforms at Battersea Park. I think there's just one or two trains that run to Battersea Park from Wandsworth Road now.

I still say Euston Square looks and feels (and sometimes smells) like a disused public toilet.

The current station, as built, did have platform buildings including relatively long canopies. Obviously BR stripped all those away and replaced it with a shelter (I seem to remember a normal bus shelter, but I could be wrong). I think the bus shelter was then replaced with the current shelter.

"Playing with electricity." I've done that too. Scalextric and Hornby OO. 😂

Jago never fails to get my attention with these extremely interesting videos

I used to watch the steam trains here in the 1960s. There were always plenty of steam-hauled goods trains going to the Bricklayers Arms and Willow Walk sidings as well as engines running light to the Bricklayers Arms shed. I can confirm that the earlier comment is correct: there did used to be a rather nice LBSC platform canopy and a ticket hut at the top of the stairs. The ticket hut was replaced by a brick structure at the bottom of the stairs sometime in the late 1970s/ early 1980s, and I suspect the canopy was probably removed around the same time. Sad to see it looking so seedy and uninviting today. The stairs to Ilderton Road are a fairly recent addition, but they were talked about for years. As a sidebar... Sometime in the late 1980s /early 1990s I overheard a conversation between two guys who (presumably) worked for what was then London Transport talking about extending the Bakerloo Line to South Bermondsey via the then-abandoned goods depot and bridge over Rotherhithe New Road, and rebuilding the station as an interchange. Like most of the plans to extend the Bakerloo Line, nothing came of it.

This was my local station growing up. It was either this or run to Queens Road Peckham. This was decades before the overground ran through their. The walking route I used to take is now the overground route impressive I should go back and check how they made it circumnavigate the park unless the park is gone.

This raises an interesting question. While the end of Camberwell Station has been well documented, it baffles me as to why the nearby Brixton East was closed and there being no easy way to interchange from there to Brixton and the associated lines - including underground. Surely this connectivity would be valuable?

I can relate about south Bermondsey It’s the local station where I work the departure boards regularly fail the roof leaks and the ticket machine is regularly vandalised

From there to Peckham Rye used to be 3-tracked with platforms on the outside of the formation \m/

In a similar vein, I visited Wapping overground station recently. The main access to the platforms is by lift, headed by the sign "lift to platforms", except that it isn't, it's a lift to another flight of stairs which spiral down to the narrowest platforms I've ever encountered. I asked a few people what was going on behind the hoardings at the back of the platform, painted with a mural and looking fairly permanent. Nobody knew, or seemed to care. Does anyone here have any ideas?

My local station when I lived in London. I used to love the ticket office which was more like a bunker. Saturdays were a little busy but you got use to it!

I have fond memories of South Bermondsey. My friend used to live near there when we were at uni and I used to return to London Bridge to get my train home from South Bermondsey. We used to sing, drunkedly, on the platform. Good times.

I rarely travel south of the river, but funnily enough, I have fond memories of using South Bermondsey down the years. I used it to visit a warehouse on a nearby industrial estate to purchase cheap defective silk ties which I sold on, they were hardly defective at all, maybe a missed stitch or so, and of very good quality that were sold new in Jermyn Street.

It looks pleasantly bosky for that part of London. Definitely worth a visit.

Yay! I found this one really quickly. Didn't even have a chance to go into Jago-withdrawal.

One of my favourite industrial/secret/pedestrian walks is along the railway and interchanges (with views into central london) from South Bermondsey as you go up to Surrey Quays/down to Surrey Canal Road and Bridgehouse Meadows. I have a similar oblique fondness for South Bermondsey station being high up and able to see into central from a little secluded/strange (almost free-floating) island.

Oh, Jago, you must see the joy of Ravensthorpe! To be honest, it's going to be made better by provision of platforms on the Huddersfield - Wakefield line soonish, but no. It isn't very scenic and is very utilitarian. You'll have to see it after the 20th because there is an engineers possession until then. Oh, yes, Jago, it's in the north and you owe me four pints in the West Riding Refreshment Rooms in Dewsbury railway station!

I use this station every so often for football. Its long overdue a rebuild, especially for the numbers it gets once a week. We can only hope for a future Surrey Canal station.

Unless I'm going crazy the south london line service you describe (London Bridge to Victoria via Denmark Hill) hasn't existed for many years, having been replaced by overground services from Rotherhithe

While, admittedly, waiting for a train late at night at South Bermondsey is a bit 'iffy', the panoramic view of south London from the central platform is quite impressive.

The third track through South Bermondsey, Queens Road and Peckham Rye was there to serve the electric train sheds at Peckham Rye, which handled the spare capacity of commuter stock out of London Bridge, to be stabled during the day. I think there were there right up until the early 60's being removed to make way for the island platforms at all 3 stations mentioned, when the sheds were no longer used. As a youngster I certainly remember a very forlorn Queens Road Peckham station, platforms each side of the up and down lines with a rather large gap between the two running lines were the third line once was. That dates me dunnit!

A funny tale if you will too, my Bermondsey born and bred friend, her eldest also born and bred there decided to support the "other" team and he had just bought a flat opp our new ground... well one fateful day he was catching the train into town to go see his own team as a ton of Millwall fans alighted and well they spotted his scarf and he gave them a ton of attitude and it is said they chased him virtually all the way to Rotherhithe on foot and within a week he had put his flat on the market and moved down here in Dorset to live with his mother lol So somewhat emasculated no doubt he wanders in to our local and to be fair he is a big bloke but a bully with it. He's at the bar loudly slagging off our team not knowing that in this small Dorset town are 25 of us ahem "players" so one of the chaps whispers in his ear to calm it down sort of thing as we are all down here for the quiet life and well, red rag to a bull and a few minutes later ambulance called and the lads went back to drinking their beers. So when he came out, he had one thing left up his sleeve to regain his manliness... He starts on my youngest daughter, who is tiny in build and stature but her provenance is a mix of London, Irish and Scots, her mothers family grew up next door to Lenny McLean in Hoxton and her uncle Wally Hanmore was one of the "firm" and the chap who used to own the black Ford Galaxie you always see in the Kray films... so another ambulance was called and I had to seriously calm my little girl down. Incidentally she was the last girl to be born in the now gone Greenwich hospital before they moved to the hospital that was the armys place next door to Woolwich barracks.

it reminds me a bit of Darnall station in Sheffield, which is similarly high up, bare and desolate, and the city's last remaining surburban station (unless you count Meadowhall) during the few months I used it regularly, in late autumn and early winter, the one shelter on the platform was closed for rebuilding, so the only place you could shelter from the rain was in the underpass, making it hard to hear the trains coming, and impossible to see them, without getting drenched - happy days

This is my local station as I live on Ilderton Road! So presently surprised by the dedicated video for this non-TfL station!!

There is a separate exit and entrance for away fans visiting the den, they leave the ground from the North Stand take a five minute walk fully separated from the home fans and then put onto trains to London Bridge at South Bermondsey Station. Jago if you need anymore Millwall FC info let me know, it’s more interesting than shifty Americans and West Ham.

Thanks for such a well-researched video into this station! Further to my earlier comments, I'd like to say that I agree indeed that South Bermondsey indeed IS a very bleak station! Before redundancy at lockdown then retirement, I'd often commute home from London Bridge to Crystal Palace via South Bermondsey. That route terminates at Beckenham Junction. Also really good to hear about the Bricklayers Arms marshalling yard! As a child in the 1960’s, it was in operation. And I used to love standing at Patterson Park fence, watching the diesel shunters pushing the old freight wagons around. And what were the other children doing? Playing football! Well, that shows where MY real interest was! And yes, the bridge site you showed at 5:50 had the original one rusting away for many years, until replaced by that cycle bridge recently.

The best thing about this station is walking street level either side of the track back towards London Bridge. Otherwise known as the Bermondsey beer mile, with multiple beer places under the arches.

One thing - trains don't go to Victoria any more. I think that changed as part of Thameslink 2000/Thameslink programme. Is the Bermondsey dive under connected? It looks like they go to Beckenham Junction (via Crystal Palace) or East Croydon via Norbury. They obviously go to London Bridge, as there's nowhere else to go!

The entrance to South Bermondsey is down a really long path from the road and this has actually been made longer than it was when the station first opened. I used to think that there was originally a second low-level island platform on the Bricklayers' Arms branch line and that the current entrance was actually the former interchange corridor between the 2 lines, but I did some research & it turns out this was never the case.

I like south Bermondsey because it’s on my favourite line , “London’s Elevated Electric Railway “ I was even beginning a layout based on East Brixton , which I was thrilled to see on the map you used .

South bermondsey is also the start/ end of the Bermondsey beer mile! Great video too.

The only times I ever used South Bermondsey was when Jubilee line was closed and I needed to come home from Maltby Street market and didn't feel like going back to London Bridge.

I kinda knew you would like South Bermondsey it has a charm all of its own :)

I absolutely love South Bermondsey as it was an old local stop for me, but for the love of god it has a lot of issues. I do remember the 455s and 456s stoping there and then the 377s and sometimes a 171 or two passing through it, just a lot of neat memories

Hi Jago. I love the concept of a destination being a pub (The Bricklayer's Arms); I'd vote for that!

My old station! I lived there for a year, and rather handily my road connected to the long path up to the station (seen at 5:20). Not South Bermondsey’s fault, but I moved there during a horrible time in my life and only having rail access to central London via the train to London Bridge didn’t really help. It wasn’t worth the 20 minute walk to Bermondsey station to catch the Jubilee line, as that didn’t take me near to where I worked in Holborn. I would walk 5 minutes to South Bermondsey, get the train to London Bridge (which is very speedy to be fair), then change and get a Thameslink to Farringdon (also fairly speedy). This video brought back some funny old memories! I did wonder “how and why have you managed to make a whole video about this station”, as I recalled nothing being there - no station building, bare platform, and with only one useful route (to London Bridge). It gave me a laugh that the video was triggered by your request for bad stations! Makes sense… I agree it’s not the worst station, I guess it’s not actively horrendous, just more ‘nothing-y’. Hope you enjoyed your visit anyway!

There was still a rather spindly looking LBSCR canopy at South Bermondsey until about 25 years ago. After that, it really did become bleak.

Hi Jago, yes South Bermondsey is a weird little station, not very far from my partner and son's home. Apart from match days, it's a pretty quiet station. It's so out of the way from the street, you can easily miss it!

The South London Line no longer goes to Victoria - or South Bermondsey for that matter. Since the opening of the Overground route the only trains through South Bermondsey turn left at Peckham Rye towrads Tulse Hill and Sutton. The Overground joins between S Bermonsey and Queens Road Peckham, and follows the SL route as far as Wandsworth Road where it turns left for Clapham Junction, except for a handful of services that go to Battersea park but cab no longr reach Victoria because an extended platform on the main line route has blocked the SL branch

I did some surveying work round here in the late 90’s as part of the planning for the London Overground. I have to say the area around South Bermondsey Station including around Surrey Canal Road was the only area I genuinely felt unsafe at any point during that piece of work. I’d visited various areas in Hoxton and Dalston too, long before gentrification, so that’s saying something! The footpaths to and from the station, as mentioned by others, I found particularly intimidating. Even though it was a sunny weekday afternoon, the whole area was virtually deserted.

I think my and two colleagues tried to catch a slam door train from those sleeerr platforms after a night in bermondsey. Cannot remember what happened other than I still got home to Bexleyheath

In the spirit of the Hex/HC debacle, there miight be room for a video on the different approaches to the New Den. Close inspection from the island platform would reveal a fenced-off matchday-only path to what I believe are the visitor stands. IIRC home fans usually use Surrey Quays and walk along Bluebell Path to the home end. Surrey Canal Road would eventually serve their needs \m/

"You are the new entrance to my hidden station" sounds like a double-entendre lead-in to something very X-rated. You might want to rethink that one!

I go through it quite often, will get out and have a look next time. One of my least favourites is its neighbour at Queens Road Peckham. High up and exposed, not much seating and only one tiny shelter accomodating two or three people depending on girth. The platform at the top of the stairs is dangerously narrow, one has to step outside the ominous Yellow Line in order to get past other passengers.

69th! I live fairly close to the station but it is nearly always pretty empty (except on match days), and I wouldn’t want to wait there late at night!

There is a fair bit of open land either side of the railway, at the moment. I think that this island platform station should be replaced by a new side-platform station, slightly further to the south, and that the replacement station should have entrances at Bolina Road, Stockholm Road and Surrey Canal Road, so that the station can cope with football crowds. The existing station could then be demolished and the third set of tracks could be put back, so that there is a place to turn back trains short of London Bridge. This would allow the line to South Bermondsey to continue to operate, whenever engineering works are needed at London Bridge Station or whenever there is an emergency closure of London Bridge. There is poor resilience in the railways in South East London and when one stops working, they all tend to chug up. So the investment to make it possible to isolate various bits of South East London track and keep some of the trains moving would be repaid the next time a major problem happens. It's a real shame that this line had overhead electrification that was ripped out to replace it with inferior third rail. At some point the third rail in South London needs to go. I can imagine that this line would not be a major priority. However London Overground operates trains that switch between third rail and overhead electrification and so does Thameslink and the unnamed-but-awesome railway that goes between Clapham Junction and Watford Junction. So the time will come when it makes sense to get this swapped back to overhead electrification, as part of a project involving the West London Line, East London Line and Thameslink.

I think that we all have a least favourite station..but this one certainly would be in the top (or bottom) ten! still..its better than walking!

I used this station in the 1990s to get to and from Peckham Rye station and Southwark Model Railway Club. At that time the station was downright creepy; It was reached by a long footpath that passed through the site of the old tracks leading to the Bricklayers' Arms depot and the area was deserted - no buildings at all. There was no other way off this path except up to the station so if someone was following you, you would be trapped. The island platform was not even tarmac, it was wooden planks. There was nothing on the platform except for a few lamps and on at least one occasion these were not working. The fact that it was an island platform made it feel more intimidating, there was no way to get off it. I would have thought that having a large number of people on an island platform would be dangerous under any circumstances, there being a high risk of people being pushed off one side onto the track.

Jago, please do a video about either the Sutton-Belmont-Banstead-Epsom Downs branchline or the Reedham-Coulsdon Town-Woodmansterne-Chipstead-Kingswood-Tadworth-Tattenham Corner please thank you! I grew up in that area and never hear them mentioned, even locally!

Top video as always!Would love to see more of the South London line! And not just cos it's my local line 😅

I use South Bermondsey Station when I have to travel to areas in London where the parking is non existent (parking permit only) or limited. The Southern trains are very comfortable unlike the ironing board seats on the horrific Thameslink trains. Free parking as it sits just outside of Southwarks Parking Zone. There is a Gregg's if you need a cup of coffee or a bit to eat and also the Famous Mel's Cafe for a great English Breakfast.

Today I alighted at a station which was not on my itinery in order to take a survey of platform facilities before continuing my journey 15 minutes later. This was, of course, South Bermondsey. It's a sort of mirror of Queens Road Peckham with fewer outside seats (6 to QRP's 9) but two decent sized shelters compared to the tiny booth at QRP. No ominously narrow platform sections. Not a bad view of the "Eastern Cluster" - the skyscrapers in the City of London. I also wonder if this is the innermost station with no ticket barriers.

Try looking at Basildon station horrible 70s nastiness - also part of the platform collapsed down the embankment two years ago, they haven't started to replace it yet, this means long trains can't stop there.

I find the high, relatively narrow island platform unnerving.

When I lived in London itsed to also get a lot of traffic from people attempting the 'Bermondsey Beer Mile' although I'm not sure quite how many of those (excellent) breweries survived the UKs decision to arbitrarily close the economy for several years, but a map shows a few of them and some pubs. It's a great little beer walk, spending the afternoon walking back from there to London Bridge via some nice railway arches and excellent ales dotted along the way

When I went to this station, there were dead pigeons under the railway bridge.

Reminds me of Old Roan Station on the Merseyrail Northern Line. Home to a bridge which seemed to get hit by double deck buses with alarming regularity. Come to think of it, its about due one.

Personally I just don't like how the stairs slope downwards at a weird angle that makes you feel like you're about to fall.

The London station offering ultimate grimth would have to be Wembley Central main-line....compared with which S Bermondsey is an oasis of welcoming luxury.

Are there really parts of the railway system without complicated history? 🤔🤔🤔

The very route that became popular due to the LBCSR Terrier class steam locos.

I passed through S Bermondsey with the Den kicking out. Crowded but not too uncomfortable

I live near South Bermondsey station and I'm in a theatre group that stages its shows in the Greenwood Theatre in London Bridge, so I make heavy use of the station during show week, it's very convenient 😁 and that's about all I have to say about it 😂

Not far from South Bermondsey station is where London Overground are planning to build a new station on Surrey Canal Road that would be very much close to Millwall FC The Den stadium. And could possibly replace South Bermondsey station.

I did my apprenticeship nearby so I got to know and used the station fairly often - grim but functional was my verdict. Best avoided when Millwall were playing.

I always felt the same way about New Southgate station: desolate, isolated, plus all those intercity trains thundering past....

I always enjoy your saucy endings!

Is there some kind of flyover between the old and present sites of South Bermondsey station? I'm struggling otherwise to imagine how a double track station can end up with both tracks heading in the same direction.

I like it lots... the height, the views, the slightly desolate feeling.

What a woeful excuse for a platform shelter. 6:33 The yellow bin in front looks more inviting.

Loved this vid history aspect spot on 👍

Reminds me of Pollokshaws East in Glasgow which would make a great location for a zombie film

Well I'm certainly not going to visit this station - it's the wrong side of the river for this N London resident !! 🤣🤣

reminds me somewhat of St Johns on the southeastern line

“South Bermondsey just can’t catch a break in wartime” oh it caught a break, lots of them: broken windows, broken bricks, broken rafters…none of those breaks wanted!

I used to feel sorry for commuters that I'd see at South Bermondsey in the morning. It's not too far from London Bridge and connections with the Tube etc. but it probably would take a while to walk from there (and maybe on into the City) rather than catch a train. Many of the services coming through were already full as it's the last stop before London Bridge. Also, as said in the video, it is a bit up in the air and looks exposed to the elements.

It just needs a little help from its friends… at Surrey Canal Road.

The escalator is broken.

To quote Elvis Costello: Somehow I found myself down at the dockside Thinking about the old days of Liverpool and Rotherhithe The transparent people who live on the other side Living a life that is almost like suicide Going to watch Millwall as an away fan is not joyous either. Less life threatening than walking to the Old Den, with its multiple car crushers ready for any random murder victim; but the World would still be a better place if Millwall FC just stopped existing: hence a possible explanation of why so many hate South Bermondsey Station.

i literally just went on this station. the thameslink i was on made a random stop to it when it was going to London bridge. no clue why, id never heard of the station before.