Henry J Neave, 1900 - 1971 Engineers Dismantling the Roof of Cannon Street Station, London 1958-1959

Henry J Neave, 1900 - 1971

Engineers dismantling the Roof of Cannon Street Station, London 1958-1959

Signed/Inscribed:

"H.J.Neave . / 1959"

watercolour and pastel

50 x 70 cm. (20 x 28 in.)

H. J. Neave was an artist and illustrator, he worked for Penquin Books and created a number of illustrations for Royal Mail Stamps. A Set of Stamps for Bermuda. He created a number of paintings of the dismantling of the Roof of Canon Street station between 1958-1959 including this one.

Cannon Street station, also known as London Cannon Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Travelcard zone 1 located on Cannon Street in the City of London and managed by Network Rail. It is one of two London termini of the South Eastern main line, the other being Charing Cross, while the Underground station is on the Circle and District lines, between Monument and Mansion House. The station runs services by Southeastern, mostly catering for commuters in southeast London and Kent, with occasional services further into the latter.

The station was built on a site of the medieval steelyard, the trading base in England of the Hanseatic League. It was built by the South Eastern Railway in order to have a railway terminal in the City and compete with their rivals, the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. The City location of the station necessitated a new bridge across the River Thames, which was constructed between 1863 and 1866. The station was initially a stop for continental services from Charing Cross, and that route was convenient for travel between the City and the West End, until the construction of the District Railway. It remained popular with commuters, though its off-peak services were discontinued in the early 20th century, leading to it being closed on Sundays for almost 100 years. The original hotel on the station was unsuccessful, and eventually closed. The station was controversially renovated in the late 1950s by John Poulson, while further construction on top of the station building occurred during the City's 1980s property boom. The Poulson building was replaced in 2007 as part of a general renovation of the station to make it more accessible. As part of the Thameslink Programme development in the 2010s, it was re-opened on Sundays and began to offer more long-distance services in place of Charing Cross.

Cannon Street is a terminal station, approached across the River Thames by the Cannon Street Railway Bridge. Its approach by rail is by a triangular connection to both London Bridge and Charing Cross. It is one of eighteen stations in the country that are managed by Network Rail.

There were originally eight platforms; a refurbishment in the late 1990s removed the original platform 1. It has entrances on Cannon Street itself and Dowgate Hill. It is also located near the London Stone (north from station), which was once used as the place from which all distances in Roman Britain were measured.

Cannon Street Station was built on a site where the Hanseatic merchants' steelyard was based from the 10th century until 1598. The site was proposed in 1860 by the South Eastern Railway (SER) in response to their rivals, the London, Chatham & Dover Railway (LC&DR), extending a line into the City of London as far north as Ludgate Hill. The SER had already made plans to extend their line towards Charing Cross, but decided that they should complement this with a terminus in the City.

In 1861, the company obtained an act for a station in Cannon Street, a short distance from Mansion House and the Bank of England.[9] In addition to taking traffic from the LC&DR, the new station would provide a direct railway link between the City and the West End, over which a journey could be made in a fraction of the time taken travelling by road.[10] The approach was a 60-chain (4,000 ft; 1,200 m) branch