Waterloo Station

Waterloo Station in London first opened in 1848 as a terminus of the London and South Western Railway, and it was substantially rebuilt between 1900 and 1922 into the grand station that survives today, its Portland stone facade and central Victory Arch entrance dedicated in 1922 as a memorial to the railway's employees killed in the First World War. By floor area it is the largest railway station in the United Kingdom, and its main concourse, roofed in a series of wide steel-ribbed spans, was designed to handle the very high passenger volumes generated by London's southwestern commuter lines. From 1994 until 2007 the station also housed a dedicated international terminal for Eurostar services to continental Europe through the Channel Tunnel, before that service relocated to a rebuilt St Pancras station. The station's name, like the nearby Waterloo Bridge, commemorates the 1815 battle at which British and allied forces defeated Napoleon.