Boring of the Channel Tunnel commenced on 15th December 1987, but previously, in 1985, the specification for a new international passenger terminus in the capital was finalised. The new station had to meet the following criteria:

• Be close to Central London.
• Have the capacity to handle a total of four international train paths every hour (outbound and inbound combined).
• Have such length that its platforms could accommodate trains comprising twenty-vehicles.
• Have first-rate public transport links.

One existing site that met most of the above requirements was the country’s largest terminus, Waterloo. As a result of a rebuild completed by the London & South Western Railway in March 1922, the station was formed of two distinct sections which essentially housed standalone operations. On the north western side of the terminus were those platforms dedicated to Windsor services, Nos. 16 to 21. These were housed within a ridge-and-furrow extension added to the original Waterloo station during 1884/1885, and this was the only remnant of the pre-1922 site. All other services used platform Nos. 1 to 20 underneath the main overall roof, the latter comprising dimensions of 540-feet by 520-feet. Proposals outlined wholly abolishing platforms 16 to 21, replacing these with four new platform surfaces within the ‘’main line’’ part of the station, and re-signalling the track layout to feed the Windsor lines into the 1922 trainshed. Demolition works would be extensive and involve the following:

• Obliteration of a multitude of brick arches along the station’s north western perimeter. Many of these had been let-out to businesses, which were now required to relocate.
• Abolition of Waterloo signal box. This had been commissioned by the Southern Railway on 18th October 1936, and originally comprised 309 miniature levers.
• Removal of the electrically-operated Armstrong Lift on the northern side of the station, used to convey railway vehicles to and from the underground caverns of the Waterloo & City line. Early on in the design stage, consideration had been given for its possible retention.
• Removal of the 1885 trainshed.
• Removal of the cab road in-between platform Nos. 11 and 12.
• Abolition of the ‘’Village’’ block. This was a two-storey-high structure, separating ‘’Windsor’’ and ‘’Main Line’’ platforms, but built within the scope of the 1922 trainshed. When commissioned by the LSWR, it housed staff rooms, the Station Master’s quarters, and the lost property office.
• Widening of the railway viaduct south of the station and the building of a double-track link between Waterloo and ‘’Chatham’’ lines (Nine Elms Flyover).

Work began in 1989, first by the demolition of the aforementioned cab road and the insertion of an additional pair of platform faces serving a double-track. At the southern end of the cab road had also existed a loading dock served by a pair of short sidings. These modifications required completion before the total closure of the ‘’Windsor’’ platforms, to provide the ‘’Main Line’’ station with enough capacity to deal with the transferred services. By July 1990, the ''Windsor'' platforms had been boarded off from the rest of Waterloo station. On 30th September of the same year, Waterloo signal box closed, and control was passed to a temporary panel. Dismantling of the 1885 trainshed was already underway by November, and demolition of the supporting brick arches formally began when the then Transport Minister, Roger Freeman, ceremonially used a pneumatic drill on that side of the station on 11th December 1990. Demolition of the ‘’Village’’ block permitted the insertion of a further two platform faces underneath the extent of the main trainshed.

The project was priced at £100 million and essentially, the new terminal structure would consist of four levels: platforms; departures / arrivals; customs and immigration; car park (basement). The platforms would be protected by a distorted curved roof designed by architects ''Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners'', measuring a width of 55-metres at its widest point, reduced to 35-metres after narrowing at the ''country end''. By British standards, the international trains to be accommodated here were incredibly long, comprising no less than twenty vehicles (including power cars), thus the platform lengths were impressive:

• Platform 20: 396 metres
• Platform 21: 402 metres
• Platform 22: 411 metres
• Platform 23: 421 metres
• Platform 24: 428 metres

London Waterloo: Domestic & International

2005 track layout, complete with international station platforms. Click on the above image for a full-size version. © David Glasspool

1st November 1990

Destruction of the 1936 signal box, which had closed a month prior to this photograph, is well advanced in this view, to make way for the then new international terminal. The silhouette of a JCB digger can just be picked out within the middle of the remaining structure. © David Glasspool Collection

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November 1990

The trainshed over the "Windsor" platforms was the oldest part of Waterloo, having survived the LSWR's major rebuild of the terminus that was completed in 1922. It finally succumbed as part of the Eurostar terminal project, and the above view shows the lattice framework and ornate brackets being dismantled. © David Glasspool Collection

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April 1992

The framework of the trainshed is seen being pieced together in this north easterly view towards the buffer stops. The trainshed was designed in a way to flex in response to the movement of the trains. © David Glasspool Collection

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