*Christmas Countdown Special Day 19* - Trains at Balham, BML, 17/12/25

Balham is an interchange station located in central Balham in the London Borough of Wandsworth, South London for London Underground and National Rail services.

The station is formed of a range of underground entrances for the Underground's Northern line and a shared entrance with its National Rail station component. The tube can be accessed on each side of the Balham High Road (A24); National Rail on the south side of the road leading east, where the track is on a mixture of light-brick high viaduct and earth embankment, quadruple track and on a brief east–west axis.

On the National Rail network it is 4 miles 52 chains (7.5 km) from London Victoria.

It is in Travelcard Zone 3. The conjoined stations are owned and operated separately with different ticket machines and gatelines.

The National Rail station is on the Brighton Main Line, four stops from London Victoria. On a north–south route, the tracks pass through Balham on an approximate east–west axis, with Victoria towards the west. The station is managed by Southern. The platforms are on embankment between bridges over Balham High Road and Bedford Hill. Access to the platforms is via an underpass beneath them. There are four tracks and four platforms. The station is between Wandsworth Common and either Streatham Hill, Streatham Common or Mitcham Eastfields.

The station has a high brick wall along Balham Station Road on which four cold cast bronze reliefs are mounted and titled "Impressions of Balham". These depict local residents and everyday scenes. They were conceived and constructed by Christine Thomas and Julia Barton and installed in 1991 for Wandsworth Borough Council.

The station opened on 6 December 1926 as part of the Morden extension of the City and South London Railway south from Clapham Common. The line and other stations on the extension had opened earlier, on 13 September 1926. The station is between Clapham South and Tooting Bec stations in the Northern line.

The station has entrances on the east and west sides of Balham High Road linked by a pedestrian subway. The modernist designs of each building take the form of double-height screens clad in white Portland stone with three-part glazed screens in the centres of the façades divided by columns of which the capitals are three-dimensional versions of the Underground roundel. The central panel of the screens contain a large version of the roundel. Balham is the only station on the Morden branch of the Northern Line conjoined to a National Rail station.

Duration of the video: 10:00 - 12:37

We’ll be seeing services by Southern, Gatwick Express and possibly freight as well.

I hope you enjoyed this video if you did smash that like button and don’t forget to subscribe for more upcoming videos and feel free to leave any comments or recommendations of stations that you would like for me to do in the comments below as I’ll get back to them as soon as possible.

It’s been quite a long time since I last did any train spotting at Balham but it’s always a nice station to be doing train spotting there though plus I did manage to see some Ex Great Northern, Ex c2c & Ex Great Western Railway units which are now with Southern which was nice to see though plus it was a positive that I had freight come through as well.

My next station will be South Croydon which is situated on the Brighton Mainline it’s been a long time since I have been there but I’m sure it’ll be worth revisiting so until then thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next video.