Pudding Mill Lane DLR station

Island platform at the original station

The plans for the DLR to Stratford included an option for a station at Pudding Mill Lane. Funding was not available to build the station, but the location was one of two places safeguarded for future development, the other being Langdon Park.[6]

Pudding Mill Lane was opened on 15 January 1996. Previously this location had been a simple passing point for trains on the otherwise single-tracked section between Stratford and Bow Church.

The name of the station is taken from the nearby Pudding Mill Lane which, in turn, takes its name from the former Pudding Mill River, a minor tributary of the River Lea. This is believed to have taken its name from St. Thomas's Mill, a local water mill shaped like a pudding and commonly known as Pudding Mill.[7] The area had also been called Knob Hill up until the 1890s.[8]

When all the other platforms on the DLR's Stratford branch were extended to accommodate three-car trains, Pudding Mill Lane remained with a two-car platform, instead using selective door operation.[9] The lack of platform extensions in this case was due to the pending rebuild of the station.

During the 2012 Olympic Games, Pudding Mill Lane station was temporarily closed for safety reasons as, while ideally situated to serve the Olympic site, it was far too small to cope with the probable passenger numbers.[10]

The original station closed after the final service of 17 April 2014 (though actually the final train departed the station at 00:47 18 April) and the replacement opened on 28 April.[11][12][13]

New station platforms

Crossrail, which is under construction, has a tunnel portal to the east of the original Pudding Mill Lane site. The ramp from the portal to track level at Stratford station will pass directly through the original Pudding Mill lane station site, thus requiring a replacement station to be built on a new viaduct nearby.[14] The original station was demolished to make way for the new ramp, funded as part of the Crossrail project.[15] This work also permitted the upgrade of the only significant stretch of single track left on the DLR to be doubled.[16]

In July 2011, Newham Council's Strategic Development Committee approved plans by architect Weston Williamson for the new station. Sited just to the south of the old station, between the River Lea and City Mill River, it was built with a higher capacity to cope for new developments in the area. It has three-car platforms, better pedestrian links and access to buses, improved step-free access, and provision for escalators.[15][17][18]