St. Paul's railway station was opened by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LC&DR) on 10 May 1886 when the company opened the St. Paul's Railway Bridge across the River Thames. The bridge was constructed parallel to the LC&DR's existing Blackfriars Railway Bridge, which had opened on 21 December 1864 and served to carry trains on the LC&DR's busy City Line from south London into the LC&DR stations at Ludgate Hill, Holborn Viaduct and, via the Snow Hill tunnel and a connection to the Metropolitan Railway near Farringdon, on to King's Cross and St Pancras stations. St. Paul's station was renamed by the Southern Railway as Blackfriars on 1 February 1937, in order to avoid confusion with the recently renamed St Paul's tube station on the Central line of the London Underground. The underground station was opened on 30 May 1870 by the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR) as the railway's new eastern terminus when the line was extended from Westminster. The construction of the new section of the MDR was planned in conjunction with the building of the Victoria Embankment and was achieved by the cut and cover method of roofing over a shallow trench.
There are station entrances on both the North bank and the South bank, the station extends the length of the bridge. Blackfriars station was significantly renovated between 2009 and 2012, with the terminal platforms at the station being closed from 20 March 2009. The office building above was demolished and replaced as part of the Thameslink programme. The new station is the same height and houses a shared National Rail and London Underground ticket hall and ventilation shaft together with escalators and lifts between a mezzanine level for mainline railway services and the sub-surface level for London Underground services. The Underground station also received major enhancements, with a new roof of glazed north lights and partial-height glazed side panels installed along the entire length of the bridge. In January 2014 the Blackfriars Railway Bridge became the world's largest solar-powered bridge having been covered with 4,400 photovoltaic panels providing up to half of the energy for the station. The station has escalators, lifts, wi-fi and help points.
Connections: National Rail. Circle Line. London Buses routes 45, 63, 100, 388 and night routes N63, N89 and N550 serve the station.