See also David E. Coke’s essay on two 19th-century lantern-slides, one of which depicts Vauxhall Station.
Vauxhall Bridge station, a wooden structure, was opened on 11 July 1848 when the main line was extended from Nine Elms to Waterloo, then known as Waterloo Bridge Station.
On 13 April 1856, the station caught fire and was almost totally destroyed. It was rebuilt and renamed Vauxhall in 1863.
In 1921, United Dairies opened a major creamery and milk bottling plant opposite the station. Subsequently, milk trains regularly stopped at the station. A discharge pipe was provided to the creamery on the other side of the road and pedestrian access from below the station, under the road to the depot.
The tube station opened in 1971 as part of the Victoria line extension towards Brixton, while the bus station opened in 2004.
Vauxhall Station Mural (removed 2002)
Many visitors to this page will recall the ingenious design painted on to the long curved vault beneath the railway platforms. It consisted of four different anamorphic images, which needed to be viewed from four different locations, marked in the floor. The main image, was a version of the classic ‘bent stick’ British Rail (BR) logo. The mural was created by William Pye in 1986 but destroyed around 2002.
With grateful thanks to Dr Phillip Kent and his very interesting Art of Anamorphosis website.