Above: Looking west at the level crossing from the lower steps of the pedestrian footbridge.
One of the curios of the railway line between Greenwich and Woolwich is the fact that it still has a level crossing at the lower end of Charlton Lane. It is the only level crossing left in Inner London. The line is a busy one with at least twenty trains per hour during peak times, not including empty stock movements or freight. The average number of trains passing across it is rated at 284.
Along with the level crossing, there is a throw-back to the past in the form of the old signal box which came into service about 40 years after the North Kent Line opened in 1849. In later years Charlton Lane signal box was reduced in status to a gate box, with the traditional level crossing gates being retained for a short time longer. Full automatic barriers, complete with warning lights, came into use during May 1973, these being controlled directly from the signal cabin. More recently, in about 2002, the cabin’s traditional four-quarter wooden window frames were replaced with double-glazing, complete with thick plastic rims.The signal box retains its original mechanical levers.
The signal box would have originally had mechanical levers but sadly they are no longer in use. The signals are now operated by switches and the barriers are controlled by a separate control panel, both worked by the signaller or crossing keeper on duty. The original lever frame was removed from the box around 2015.
Living in London, motorists tend to forget that railway trains are also running because most lines are located well away from roads with the lines using railway viaducts, embankments, deep cuttings or passing through tunnels. This level crossing on a side road is so unexpected that you almost expect Mr Perkins from the ‘Railway Children’ story to appear at any minute.
The level crossing is used by pedestrians and cars on the side road called Charlton Lane. There is a level crossing for the footpath at what is known as Angerstein Penninsula and there are about 40 level crossings on roads in Outer London. This now remains as the last survivor of its type in Inner London.
While on this subject of railways, the builders of the first railways in Inner London – of which the London and Greenwich Railway, which opened in 1836, was the first – were most concerned about the possibility of a large farm animal straying onto the line. The London and Greenwich Railway was constructed entirely on a brick-built viaduct, about three miles long, just so that no level crossings would be required. That started a trend and within the next few years dozens of railway lines were crossing what was then open land and now constitutes today’s Inner London. Not only did it prevent accidents from trains hitting stray horses of cows but it allowed roads to thread their way underneath the railway arches. Only in a very few places were level crossings required. These were, as in the case of the one at Charlton, where the line ran at ground level. The reason why the line at Charlton Lane is at road level is because the line passes through several tunnels on its way out of London.
After being in use for over 150 years, one wonders if the level crossing will still be in existence for another similar period of time. It is certainly unusual for us ‘townies’ to have such a crossing still in use. We tend to associate such crossings with rural stations in the depths of the countryside.