Clapham Junction

• (UK) IPA^(key): /klæpəm d͡ʒʌŋkʃən/

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

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.