The Camberwell Society attended a meeting at Network Rail's (NR) offices in Southwark on Monday 3rd June to hear about the intentions for improved station access. NR say they have completed their studies and have selected a preferred scheme.

They confirm that the growth in footfall (footfall per year up from 2M in 2005 to over 7M in 2018) means that the station has a high priority for upgrade. Projections on further growth through to 2038 show people queuing across Champion Park to access the station. Clearly an untenable position.

The proposed solution is a new ticket (unmanned) ticket office and entrance on Windsor Walk, primarily to serve the high volumes of people accessing the hospitals. The entrance will have 4 entrance gates plus two wide ones, 6 in all to add to the 4 entrance gates and one wide one in the existing entrance. This will mean a more than doubling of the entrance gates at the station. The new entrance is arranged to be closer to the walking route to the hospitals and is thus expected to become the most convenient exit line for those passengers. It will feed onto the newer footbridge to thus even out footfall between the two bridges and stair systems. All access points will revert to being 2 way throughout the day.

The scheme looks good and looks to be a much needed development at the station. NR is keen to introduce theming related to local Camberwell identity and have invited ideas.

NR now have to present the business case to the Department for Transport and get approval for the budget to undertake the detailed design. The design and consents process is time consuming and NR project a completion date of December 2021 if all hurdles are passed straightforwardly.

As part of the scheme NR are talking to the Maudsley about improvements to the walking route to Kings and to Southwark Council about relocation of the Denmark Hill pedestrian crossing to facilitate access from the station.

NR also have a scheme to rationalise the platform furniture and increase the canopy length to reduce over-crowding improve the experience of those on the platforms. This will form a second phase.

In the longer term future the platforms are expected to be extended to take longer trains and other access options may open up as a result.