Clapham Junction

English

Railway lines around Clapham Junction

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /klæpəm d͡ʒʌŋkʃən/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Proper noun

Clapham Junction

1. (rail transport) A major rail transport hub in south-west London, England, which has the distinction of being the busiest railway station in Britain.
   • 1951 March, M. D. Greville, “The Nomenclature of Railway Stations”, in Railway Magazine, page 193:

     It has never been satisfactorily explained how Clapham Junction came by its name. It is in Mid-Battersea, and is so indicated in Bradshaw.

2. The surrounding area in the London Borough of Wandsworth (OS grid ref TQ2775).

Noun

Clapham Junction (uncountable)

1. (figurative) Somewhere where many paths – either literal routes of travel or metaphorical lines – cross.
   • 1896, Grant Allen, Under Sealed Orders: A Novel, page 49:

     When they had reached this Clapham Junction of the local highway system, Mr. Hayward halted a moment in doubt , and pointed ahead inquiringly to one out of the three main routes that branched off in various directions .

   • 1948, The Lancet, page 114:

     Dr. F. W. BUNTING favours more rigid isolation of actual cases and avoidance of large assemblies - particularly children's film matinées which he described as a Clapham Junction for virus dissemination.

   • 1953, Investors Chronicle and Money Market Review:

     The mouth of the Atlantic, between Ushant and the South of Ireland, is a Clapham Junction of the ocean trade routes.

   • 1967, New Society:

     All these can be grasped in half an hour by those who want to understand more clearly this Clapham Junction of the sciences that we call the digital computer.

   • 2007, Miranda Miller, Loving Mephistopheles, Peter Owen Publishers:

     Lizzie's face is a Clapham Junction of lines, wrinkles, shadows and tunnelling dirt.