Great Western Coffee Shop

from Get Surrey (https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/11-unusual-things-waterloo-station-17567994) - a list of "11 unusual things about Waterloo station you probably didn’t know".  I am sufficiently sad, old and fully read to rarely be surprised by things in these lists - but in this case 4 were new to me ... so sharing in case there are some new to you too.

Hmm - item 9 "The name has been a sticking point"

It is said that when Winston Churchill was plannning his own funeral arrangements, he insisted that his funeral train would leave London from Waterloo, despite the insistence of railway managers that, as the eventual destination was to be Blenheim Palace and Bladon churchyard, Paddington would make much more sense. Churchill was adamant that the train should leave from Waterloo.

When  pressed even harder he said:

"If De Gaulle dies before me, it can leave from whatever damn station you like. But if I die before De Gaulle, it leaves from Waterloo"

 ;)

After the closure of the old "news cinema" a moving message display board was installed at high level at the platform 1 end of the concourse.
The distinctive curved steel work for this was still in place until recently and might still exist.
This was long before the LED age, and the display contained thousands of small incandescent bulbs. It displayed news headlines, stock market prices and adverts.

Other trivia, the Duke of Wellington PH just outside the station was at one time operated by Travellers fare.

Until its demise in a German bombing raid in WWII, London Necropolis Company's trains (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Necropolis_Railway) to the cemetery at Brookwood ran from their own terminus just south of the main station, and whose post-war ruined remains can be seen here (https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18.60333333333333&lat=51.4988&lon=-0.1138&layers=170&b=1) (The entrance - still there today - is at 121 Westminster Bridge Road (https://goo.gl/maps/3bDnWzLoQsePxzBA8)). Trains bringing mourners back to London terminated at Waterloo itself.

I see the section about it being the last terminus to use steam is illustrated by a Bulleid Pacific. Note to sub-editors: this is incorrect, next time use a Class 91. 🙂

Our mirror also has an article http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/mirror/FINAL-Parsons-Coffins-by-Train.pdf

Made the BBC - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66507599

In another context could be some the services to Weymouth you report.