Visitors to the South Bank caught a glimpse of history this weekend, as work began to reinstall renovated railway cartouches at Blackfriars station.
Two 16-tonne cartouches – giant iron plates bearing the insignia of the London, Dover & Chatham Railway that once served Blackfriars – were removed in 2011 to allow for the construction of a new southern entrance for Blackfriars station.
The cartouches have been dismantled, restored and this weekend work began to reassemble them on site.
Network Rail is rebuilding Blackfriars station to span the river Thames, making way for longer trains and more frequent services on the Thameslink route from Bedford to Brighton, through central London.
A new entrance on the south bank of the river, the first to be built here for 120 years, makes cultural attractions such as Tate Modern, the National Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe directly accessible from Blackfriars.
