Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for LONDON AND SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY

LONDON AND SOUTHWESTERN RAILWAY, a railway system from London to the southwestern counties. It was authorized, in 183 4, as a line from London to Southampton, under the name of the London and Southampton railway; it renounced that name, and took its present one, in 1839; it commences near Waterloo bridge, proceeds southwestward to Basingstoke, then goes in a southerly direction to Southampton; it was extended, by the incorporation of the Southampton and. Dorchester, along the coast to Dorchester; it also has branches to Hampton-Court, Chertsey, Guildford, Farnham, and Alton, -and, by Andover, to Salisbury, Exeter, and Exmouth,-also from Bishopstoke to Romsey and Salisbury, and to Gosport; it is connected by a short branch from Fareham, with the London, Brighton, and South Coast; it has an interest, jointly with the London, Brighton, and South Coast, in the portion from the junction of the two lines at Cosham into Portsmouth; and, by the incorporation of the Windsor, Staines, and Southwestern, it possesses a branch through Richmond to Windsor, with a loop at Barnes, crossing the Thames to Kew, Brentford, and the main line beyond Hounslow. Its aggregate productive extent, in 1866, was 493¾ miles. The company was authorized, in 1858, to lease the Salisbury and Yeovil; in 1856, to construct a line of 50 miles from Yeovil to Exeter; in 1859, to arrange with the Brighton and South Coast respecting the through traffic between London and Portsmouth, and to form a branch in the neighbourhood of Kingston; in 1860, to extend the Exeter line, to connect that line with the Bristol and Exeter, to lease the Exeter and Crediton, the North Devon, and the Bideford, and to wield permanent powers for working steam-vessels between English and French ports and the Channel islands; in 1862, to lease or purchase the Wimbledon and Dorking; in 1864, to construct a line, 2¾ miles long, from Chertsey to the Staines and Wokingham, -and a line, 6¾ miles long, from the Hammersmith and City, and the North and Southwestern Junction at Kensington to Richmond; and,. in 1865, to amalgamate the Salisbury and Yeovil and the Exeter and Exmouth, -the Salisbury and Yeovil and the Thames Valley,-and to construct new lines of 6½ miles in Surrey, a line of 5½ miles from Bideford to Great Torrington, and a line of 9 miles from Pirbright, by Aldershot, to Farnham. The Southwestern system also, by amalgamation, purchase, lease, or agreement, comprehends, in its working, the Wimbledon and Croydon, the Wimbledon and Epsom, the Salisbury market-branch line, the Stokes Bay, the Staines and Wokingham, the Exeter and Crediton, the Lymington, the Epsom and Leatherhead, the Wimbledon and Dorking, the Portsmouth, the Andover and Redbridge, the Petersfield, the Chard, the Southampton and Netley, the Ilfracombe, and the Mid-Hants, and, jointly with the London, Brighton, and South Coast, the Tooting, Merton, and Wimbledon. The total receipts, on the capital account, at 30 June 1865, were £14,583,765.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a railway system"   (ADL Feature Type: "railroad features")
Administrative units: London AncC

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