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Brighton to London (London Bridge)During the English Regency, and particularly after the Napoleonic Wars, Brighton rapidly became a fashionable social resort, with more than 100,000 passengers being carried there each year by coach.
The London and Brighton Railway (L&BR) was incorporated in 1837 and survived until 1846. Its railway ran from a junction with the London & Croydon Railway (L&CR) at Norwood - which gave it access from London Bridge and from Norwood to the South Coast at Brighton, together with a branch to Shoreham-by-Sea. A proposal by William James in 1823 to connect London "with the ports of Shoreham (Brighton), Rochester (Chatham) and Portsmouth by a line of Engine Railroad" was largely ignored. However, about 1825 a company called The Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Wilts & Somerset Railway employed John Rennie to survey a route to Brighton, but again the proposal came to nothing. In 1829 Rennie was commissioned to survey two possible railway routes to Brighton. The first of these was via Dorking and Horsham and Shoreham and the other, more direct route, via Croydon, Redhill and Haywards Heath. This latter route would have started at Kennington Park. However both of these schemes were abandoned due to lack of support in Parliament.
These schemes were revived in 1835, which generated further proposals so that by 1836 there were six possible routes under consideration. These were:
John Rennie's direct route via Redhill and Haywards Heath but amended to make use of the London and Croydon Railway from London Bridge.
Henry Robinson Palmer's via Woldingham, Oxted and Lindfield (with a proposed link to Dover).
Joseph Gibbs's from London Bridge via Croydon.
Nicholas Wilcox Cundy's from Nine Elms, via Mitcham Leatherhead, Dorking, Horsham and Shoreham.
Charles Vignoles' from Elephant and Castle via Croydon, Merstham and Horsham.
Robert Stephenson's from the London and Southampton Railway at Wimbledon, then via Epsom, Mickleham, Dorking, Horsham and Shoreham.
The final agreed route consisted of a new line from a junction with the London and Croydon Railway (then under construction) at Norwood to Brighton with additional branches to Lewes and Shoreham.
The London and Croydon Railway line ran from London Bridge to West Croydon and was opened in 1839. The Brighton - Shoreham branch was completed in May 1840, before the main line, as there were no significant civil engineering works on this section. Locomotives and rolling stock had to be transhipped by road for what was, in the first year, an isolated stretch of railway. The main line was opened in two sections, since major earthworks delayed completion in one piece. The Norwood Junction - Haywards Heath section was opened on 12 July 1841 and the remainder of the line from Haywards Heath to Brighton on 21 September 1841.
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR; known also as "the Brighton line", "the Brighton Railway" or "the Brighton") operated from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its apex, practically the whole coastline of Sussex as its base, and a large part of Surrey. It was bounded on its western side by the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR), which provided an alternative route to Portsmouth. On its eastern side the LB&SCR was bounded by the South Eastern Railway (SER) later one component of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR) which provided an alternative route to Bexhill, St Leonards-on-Sea, and Hastings. The LB&SCR had the most direct routes from London to the south coast seaside resorts of Brighton, Eastbourne, Worthing, Littlehampton and Bognor Regis, and to the ports of Newhaven and Shoreham-by-Sea. It served the inland towns/cities of Chichester, Horsham, East Grinstead and Lewes, and jointly served Croydon, Tunbridge Wells, Dorking and Guildford. At the London end was a complicated suburban and outer-suburban network of lines emanating from London Bridge and Victoria, and shared interests in two cross-London lines.
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) was formed in 1846, through the amalgamation of a number of railway companies:
The London and Croydon Railway (L&CR) opened in 1839. The London and Brighton Railway (L&BR) opened in 1841. The Brighton and Chichester Railway opened in stages in 1845 and 1846, with an extension to Havant and Portsmouth under construction at the time of amalgamation. The Brighton Lewes and Hastings Railway, opened in 1846. The Croydon and Epsom Railway, under construction at the time of amalgamation.
Only the first two were independent operating railways: the Brighton and Chichester and the Brighton Lewes and Hastings had been purchased by the L&BR in 1845, and the Croydon and Epsom was largely owned by the L&CR. The LB&SCR existed until 1922, when it was merged with the London and South Western Railway and the South Eastern and Chatham Railway to form the Southern Railway.
The main line to Brighton from London Bridge opened in 1841. The sections between Corbett's Lane (New Cross) and London Bridge and between Croydon and Redhill were shared with the South Eastern Railway (SER). There were two branch lines under construction at the time of the amalgamation: the Sutton & Mole Valley Lines from Croydon to Epsom, and the Arun Valley Line from Three Bridges to Horsham. The West Sussex coast line originated with a branch line from Brighton to Shoreham, opened in 1840. This was extended to Chichester by the time of the amalgamation, and a further extension to Havant and Portsmouth was under construction. The East Sussex coast line from Brighton to Lewes and St Leonards-on-Sea, with running powers over the SER to Hastings, opened in 1846 one month before the amalgamation, with branches to Newhaven, Eastbourne and Hailsham. A connecting spur from the Brighton main line at Keymer Junction near Haywards Heath to the Brighton-Lewes line was under construction at the time of amalgamation.
A short line from New Cross to Deptford Wharf, proposed by the L&CR, was opened in 1849. The use of this line for passengers would have contravened the recently negotiated agreement with the SER that the LB&SCR would not operate lines to the east of its main line, and it was restricted to goods. A short branch from this line to the nearby Surrey Commercial Docks in Rotherhithe opened in 1855.
The main London terminus was the L&CR station at London Bridge, built by the London and Greenwich Railway (L&GR) in 1836, and exchanged for the original L&CR station in 1842. For the first few years of its existence, LB&SCR trains used the L&GR lines from Corbetts Lane into London, but by 1849 the viaducts had been widened sufficiently for its own tracks. The LB&SCR inherited from the L&CR running powers to the smaller SER passenger terminus at Bricklayers' Arms. Poorly sited for passengers, it closed in 1852 and was converted into a goods station. The LB&SCR owned two stations at Croydon, later East Croydon (former L&BR) and West Croydon (former L&CR).
The L&CR had been partially operated by the atmospheric principle between Croydon and Forest Hill, as the first phase of a scheme to use this mode of operation between London and Epsom. However, following a number of technical problems, the LB&SCR abandoned atmospheric operation in 1847. This enabled it to build its own lines into London Bridge, and have its own independent station there, by 1849.
Between 1858 and 1860 the LB&SCR joined the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LC&DR), the Great Western Railway (GWR) and the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) to form the Victoria Station & Pimlico Railway Company, which constructed the Grosvenor Bridge over the River Thames at Battersea and Victoria terminus in the West End.
Season ticket revenue, particularly from Brighton to London, was the backbone of the LB&SCR's finances for most of the nineteenth century. The morning rush hour business services were among "the heaviest express services in the world" in the 1880s. Excursion trains from London to the South Coast and the Sussex countryside were introduced in 1844. The LB&SCR served important Horse racing tracks at Brighton, Epsom, Gatwick, Goodwood, Lewes, Lingfield and Plumpton. Race-day special trains were an important source of revenue.
Individual Pullman cars were introduced to Britain on the Midland Railway in 1874, followed by the Great Northern Railway soon after and the LB&SCR in 1875. The LB&SCR pioneered all-Pullman trains in England, the "Pullman Limited Express" in 1881 - it consisted of four cars. It was renamed the "Brighton Pullman Limited" in 1887, and first-class carriages were attached. A new train was built in 1888 and the "Brighton Limited" was introduced in1898. The Southern Belle, introduced in 1908, was described as "the most luxurious train in the World.".
The three longest tunnels on the line, Merstham, Balcombe and Clayton, were whitewashed and lit by gas. Small gas-works were established by the tunnels for this purpose. The lighting of the tunnels was an attempt to reduce the fears of the passengers travelling on the line but the coal-burning locomotives made it impossible to keep the whitewashed tunnels clean and the passage of the trains also constantly blew out the gas jets that lit the tunnel. The tunnels were also lined with corrugated-iron sheeting to avoid water falling on open third-class carriages but the blast from the steam locomotives and air pressure created by the passage of trains could result in the metal sheets being torn from the structure, creating a serious hazard. Thereafter drivers were warned about the hazard presented by hanging icicles.
Railway Clearing House of lines around London Bridge 1908.
Further information can be found at Wikipedia - London and Brighton Railway, and Wikipedia - London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, and Spartacus Educational.
Brighton Station, Goods Station and Yard, Locomotive Depot and Railway Works
Opened in 1840, initially connecting Brighton to Shoreham-by-Sea, westwards along the coast, and shortly afterwards connecting it to London Bridge to the north (1841), and to Lewes to the east. Built by the London & Brighton Railway which in 1846 became the London Brighton and South Coast Railway.
The station site was extended for the opening of the Brighton Lewes and Hastings Railway in 1846 (which had been purchased by the L&BR in 1845). In July 1846, the L&BR merged with other railways to form the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. Further extensions to the station occurred during the mid-19th century but only a limited number of additional platforms could be added because of the awkward sloping site. By the late 1870s the facilities were inadequate for the growing volume of traffic and so the existing platforms were lengthened to be able to accommodate two trains, and the three separate roofs were replaced by an overall roof during 1882/1883. Brighton station was listed at Grade II* in 1973.
A goods station and yard was also constructed on the eastern side of the passenger station but on a site 30 ft lower due to the sloping site, which was initially accessed from the Shoreham line by a second tunnel under the passenger station. The tunnel entrance was filled in after new tracks were laid into the goods yard, but a portion of it was converted into offices during World War II, and these were in use until the early 21st century. (A portion of the tunnel is still used by a local rifle club.) The site of the goods yard has since been redeveloped, and much of it forms the New England Quarter.
To the north of the station, on the east side of the main line, the railway constructed its locomotive and carriage works (one of the earliest railway-owned locomotive repair works), which operated from 1841 until 1911, when the carriage works was moved to Lancing and 1957 when the locomotive works closed. More than 1200 steam locomotives were constructed there.
The London and Brighton Railway opened a small locomotive shed and servicing facility to the north west of the station for locomotives on the Shoreham line, in 1840, and another in 1841, adjacent to the locomotive works for main line locomotives. A new much enlarged motive power depot opened in 1861, replacing the two existing facilities. During the early 1930s, following the electrification of the lines the steam motive power depot was rebuilt and reduced in size. It was closed in 1961, but remained in use for stabling steam locomotives until 1964, and was demolished in 1966.
After the closure of the main works, part of the workshop was used for the building of Isetta microcars between 1957 and 1964.
Pullman Cars 1928-1963: During 1896, the Pullman Car Company was assembling its cars (carriages) in Brighton Works from parts sent from America. It had moved to Brighton from Derby 1881. In later years contractors undertook the construction of Pullman stock, but the Pullman Company continued to maintain all its own stock itself. Only 4 Pullman coaches were built at the Brighton base.
A building on the up line (built in 1898), that had been used by the LBSCR for loco maintenance was vacated in 1928 and Pullman transferred its operations to the site. This building is (for the moment, at least) situated within the triangle of the Prestonville curve and the line to Hove, adjacent to Highcroft Villas and just north of the Lovers Walk Depot. These works were closed down in 1963 and Pullman maintenance work was transferred to other railway works.
Brighton Belle: The Brighton Belle was the world's only electric all-Pullman service and ran daily between London Victoria and Brighton from 1933 until 1972.
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) began using Pullman cars in its express trains in 1875, and in 1881 they introduced the first all-Pullman train in the UK. Known as the Pullman Limited, this ran between London Victoria and Brighton via Horsham and subsequently ordinary rolling stock was added to the service. In 1888 a second all-Pullman service was instituted, using cars lit by electricity and designed by William Stroudley.
The LB&SCR was the origin of the British umber and cream Pullman livery. In 1903 R. J. Billinton changed the colour of the ordinary LB&SCR coaches to umber brown with white or cream upper panels, and in 1906 this colour scheme was also adopted by the Pullman Car Co., with the name of the car in large gilt letters on the lower panel and flanked on each side by a coloured transfer of the Pullman Company's crest.
Another all-Pullman service was introduced in 1908 under the name of the Southern Belle. Contemporary advertising by the LB&SCR claimed that this was "... the most luxurious train in the world...". In 1908 this could be experienced for a special London Victoria to Brighton day return fare of 12 shillings, a premium rate at a time when average earnings were around £1 a week. The Southern Belle was steam hauled until 1933, when electric units were introduced. In 1934 the train was renamed the Brighton Belle and it retained this title until withdrawal. A 'spare' multiple unit set was used for a Sunday Pullman service from Eastbourne, known as the Eastbourne Pullman for much of the 1950s, but this service was discontinued in 1957.
During the Second World War the service was suspended after a unit was badly damaged by aerial bombing at London Victoria; all cars were placed in safe storage at Crystal Palace (High Level) station, but the service was progressively reinstated in 1946.
The trains were refurbished and overhauled in 1955, but by 1972 the stock was old and rode poorly by contemporary standards and the service was withdrawn. Every car was preserved, in most cases to meet the ambitions of major breweries to 'bolt on' Pullman restaurants to pubs and hotels, although most were removed relatively quickly because of the high cost of maintenance and refurbishment a number were progressively acquired by the Venice Simplon Orient Express.
A campaign to return the Brighton Belle to mainline service was launched in 2009. A short train of three cars will undergo mainline proving trials in 2016, with mainline excursions with a four car unit commencing shortly afterwards. A restored fifth car will be added before the end of 2016, with the final car expected to be completed in 2017.
Further information can be found at Wikipedia, and brightonbelle.com, and this video, and the final run video.
Brighton Station map late 1800s.
Brighton Station map 1930s.
Brighton Station - New England Cutting 1800s.
Brighton Station Original Building.
Brighton Station early 1900s.
Brighton Station 1930s.
Brighton Works on top of chalk cliff 1846.
Brighton Main Shed and New Shed early 1900s.
Brighton Works Shunter.
Brighton Works - Used as a Bubble Car Factory 1950s.
Brighton Old Goods Line 2003.
Photos of Brighton Station and Works.
Brighton Loco Works
Brighton Motive Power Depots - Brighton Shed and Works
Ian Nolan - LBSC A1/A1X 0-6-0T 1960-3
Brighton Sheds - Google Images
Brighton Works - Google Images
Brighton Station - Google Images
History of Brighton Station and Works.
Brighton Loco Works
Brighton Motive Power Depots
Brighton London Road Viaduct
Built in the 1840s for the Brighton, Lewes and Hastings Railway which merged with London & Brighton Railway Company in 1846 to form the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. The sharply curving structure has 27 arches and about 10 million bricks. It is still in constant use, and is listed at Grade II* for its historical and architectural significance.
Construction took 10 months: the structure was ready in 1846. By the 1870s, dense terraced housing surrounded the viaduct.
Second World War bombing severely damaged London Road Viaduct in 1943, despite this, a temporary repair allowed trains to start using the viaduct again within 24 hours and in less than a month the service was back to normal. The wartime reconstruction used blue brick as opposed to the original red and brown, with yellow brick dressings.
Brighton London Road (Preston Road) Viaduct map late 1800s.
Brighton London Road Viaduct 1846.
Brighton London Road Viaduct Bomb Damage 1943.
Brighton London Road Viaduct today.
Brighton London Road Station
Opened in 1877, originally to be called Ditchling Rise, a more accurate name as London Road is a little way away. It was designed by David Mocatta (the designer of Brighton Station).
Until the branch closed in 1971, trains to Kemptown diverged from the Brighton Lewes line here. The Lewes-side platform building was demolished in the early 1980s. The station had a substantial refurbishment at the end of 2004 with some add on parts to the original building demolished.
Brighton London Road Station (with branch to Kemptown on right) map late 1800s.
Brighton London Road Station today.
Brighton Lewes Road Station
Opened in 1873 and was closed to passengers in 1933 but the line remained opened for goods trains until 1971. Despite its high cost the line never carried many passengers. Lewis Road Station was opened on 1st September 1873 and Hartington Road Halt was added on 1st January 1906. Passenger numbers failed to improve however and the new halt closed five years later. The branch closed completely during WW1 but was reopened to passengers on 19th August 1919 and to goods three years later. With strong competition from trams and busses the branches days were numbered and the inevitable came on 1st January 1933 when the line finally lost its passenger service for good. Freight traffic continued however and although the extensive goods depot which opened in 1970 never took the expected traffic away from Brighton it remained relatively busy for many years, finally closing on 26th June 1971. After closure the track was quickly lifted and the line was bought by Brighton Corporation. Kemp Town Station was demolished and the site is now occupied by the Freshfield Industrial; for a time the tunnel was used as a mushroom far and it is now used to store vehicles. Only the southern portal remains accessible within the fenced grounds of one of the industrial units. The northern portal has been demolished and the area landscaped at the back of a school playground. The short viaduct over Hartington Road was demolished in 1973 and the longer viaduct crossing Lewes Road and Melbourne Street was pulled down in 1976 with the last western section being cleared in 1983.
Brighton Lewes Road Station map early 1900s.
Brighton Lewes Road Station 1952.
Brighton Lewes Road Viaduct Demolition 1976.
Brighton Hartington Road Halt
Opened in 1906 and was closed in 1911.
Brighton Hartington Road Halt map early 1900s.
Site of Brighton Hartington Road Halt, to the left of the locomotive, 1953.
Brighton Kemp Town Station
The Kemp Town branch line (and Kemp Town Station) opened in 1869. Closed in 1933 to passenger service and to goods in 1971.The branch closed completely during WW1 but was reopened to passengers in 1919 and to goods in 1922.
Although only just over a mile in length it was a costly line to construct as, for most of its length, it ran through a tunnel or on a viaduct or embankment. The construction could never be financially justified but rivalries between the London Brighton & South Coast Railway who built the line and the London & Chatham & Dover Railway who wanted to build their own line into Kemp Town ensured that the fashionable suburb of Brighton got its own terminus.
The line took five years to build, diverging from the Brighton - Lewes line just east of Ditchling Road Tunnel. The branch curved southwards on an embankment to Lewes Road Station. Beyond the station the line was carried on a fourteen arch viaduct over Lewes Road followed by a three arch viaduct over Hartington Road to the short lived Hartington Road Halt. From there the line entered a short cutting before entering the Kemp Town Tunnel through Race Hill. Kemp Town Station itself had a single platform with room for expansion which never happened and an extensive goods yard.
Brighton Kemp Town Station map early 1900s.
Brighton Kemp Town Station mid 1900s.
Brighton Kemp Town Station 1962.
Brighton Kemp Town Station 1960s.
The Duke of Cumberland organised the first public racing at the current site in 1783 although racing had been taking place in Brighton from before 1713. Early races were contested by members of the armed forces who were garrisoned in the town. The principle meeting took place in July or August and was timed to fit with the local Whitehawk Fair, which was discontinued by the 1820s. According to legend, George IV, when still Prince of Wales, invented hurdle racing at Brighton while out riding with aristocratic friends. They found some sheep pens which they proceeded to jump.
A grandstand was erected in 1788, but burnt down in 1796, a fire blamed on a family of paupers who had been allowed to live in it. In 1805, the races were faced with severe disruption when the farmer who leased the racecourse threatened to plough it up unless he received the complimentary gift of wine he usually got each season. He was in the process of beginning to plough when he was chased off by a press gang and the races allowed to continue.
The course was home for a while to top class racing, and was attended by fashionable society, but it drifted out of fashion when the Prince and his friends ceased to attend. By 1850 the railway had arrived in Brighton, allowing greater access for Londoners, and the course began to thrive again. A new stand was built and the Brighton Cup inaugurated. Brighton's main meeting formed part of the "Sussex Fortnight" in summer - where the Glorious Goodwood festival was followed up by big meetings at Brighton and Lewes.
A new stand was built in 1965 but attendance declined as Brighton's tourist industry did, and the facility became run down.
The track takes the form of a horseshoe one and a half miles in length. This makes it one of the few British courses not to form a complete circuit, like Epsom with which Brighton is sometimes compared. It is a left-handed course, used for flat racing only. The longest race run today is 1 1/2 miles. However, the course used to extend a further half mile across the golf course towards Roedean. This made four mile races possible, starting at the winning post and going the reverse way round the track, then looping at the two mile start and returning the conventional way. Hurdle races were also formerly held at Brighton.
Further information can be found at Wiki - Brighton Racecourse, and Brighton Racecourse History.
Brighton Racecourse map late 1800s.
Brighton Racecourse 1800s.
Black Rock Lido:
In 1936 an Art Deco Lido was constructed at beach level, but this was closed in 1978 and demolished in 1979, having been run down ever since its closure during World War II.
Black Rock Lido map 1930s.
Black Rock Lido1940s.
Volk's Electric Railway
Volk's Electric Railway (VER) is a narrow gauge heritage railway that runs along a length of the seafront at Brighton. It was built by Magnus Volk, the first section being completed in 1883, and is the oldest operating electric railway in the world. Although it was preceded by Werner von Siemens's 1879 demonstration line in Berlin and by the Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway of 1881, neither line is still operational.
In 1883 Magnus Volk opened a short, 2 ft electric railway running for 1/4 mile between Swimming Arch (opposite the main entrance to Brighton Aquarium, and adjacent to the site of the future Palace Pier) and Chain Pier. In 1884 the line was extended a further 1/2 mile beyond the Chain Pier to Paston Place (now known as Halfway), and regauged to 2 ft 8 1/2 in. Following the closure of the Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway in 1901, Volk's original electric railway was extended from Paston Place (today's Halfway) to Black Rock.
In 1930 the line was cut back 200 yards from Palace Pier to its present terminus, still known as Aquarium. In 1935 a lido was built at Black Rock, and the line was shortened by around 200 yards to accommodate it. In 1937 a new Black Rock station was opened at the end of the shortened line. In 1940, Brighton Corporation took control of the line. Only four months later, World War II defensive preparations caused the line to close. After the war, starting in 1947, the corporation rebuilt the line. At Black Rock a new station was built to replace the 1937 building which had suffered badly during the war. The line reopened for passengers in 1948. In the late 1990s the Black Rock end of the line was temporarily shortened by 211 feet to permit a storm water storage scheme to be built in the marina area. The 1948 station was demolished and replaced by a new single platform station, which opened in 1998.
Further information can be found at Wiki - Volk's Electric Railway, and Volk's Electric Railway Association, and Google Images - Volk's Electric Railway, and videos.
Volk's Electric Railway Stations maps early 1900s.
Volk's Electric Railway 1884 and 1890.
Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway
The railway was a unique coastline railway in Brighton that ran through the shallow coastal waters of the English Channel between 1896 and 1901. The railway officially opened 28 November 1896, but was nearly destroyed by a storm the night of 4 December. Volk immediately set to rebuilding the railway including the Pioneer, which had been knocked on its side, and it reopened in July 1897.
Magnus Volk, its owner, designer and engineer, had already been successful with the more conventional Volk's Electric Railway, which had then not been extended east of Paston Place. Facing unfavourable geography, Volk decided to construct a line through the surf from a pier at Paston Place to one at Rottingdean. This was also home to Volk's Seaplane Station.
The railway itself consisted of two parallel 2 ft 8 1/2 in gauge tracks, billed as 18 ft gauge, the measurement between the outermost rails. The tracks were laid on concrete sleepers mortised into the bedrock. The single car used on the railway was a pier-like building which stood on four 23 ft-long legs. It was officially named Pioneer, but many called it Daddy Long-Legs. Due to regulations then in place, a qualified sea captain was on board at all times, and the car was provided with lifeboats and other safety measures.
The railway was popular, but faced difficulties. The car was slowed considerably at high tide, but Volk could never afford to improve the motors. In 1900, groynes built near the railway were found to have led to underwater scouring under the sleepers and the railway was closed for two months while this was repaired. Immediately afterward, the council decided to build a beach protection barrier, which unfortunately required Volk to divert his line around the barrier. Without funds to do so, Volk closed the railway. In 1901 the right-of-way was broken up for construction of the barrier. The track, car and other structures were sold for scrap, but some of the concrete sleepers can still be viewed at low tide. Eventually Volk's Electric Railway was extended onshore, covering a portion of the same distance; it remains in operation. A model of the railway car is on display (along with a poster for the railway) in the foyer of the Brighton Toy and Model Museum.
Further information can be found at Urban75, and Google - Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway, and video.
Maps of abandoned Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway at Brighton and Rottingdean early 1900s.
Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway.
Royal Suspension Chain Pier
Built in 1823 and known as the Chain Pier. Destroyed in 1896. It was primarily intended as a landing stage for packet boats to Dieppe, France, but it also featured a small number of attractions including a camera obscura.
The Chain Pier co-existed with the later West Pier, but a condition to build the Palace Pier was that the builders would dismantle the Chain Pier. They were saved this task by a storm which destroyed the already closed and decrepit pier in 1896. The remains of some of the pier's oak piles, sunk ten feet into bedrock, can still be seen at the most extreme low tides. The entrance kiosks and signal cannon of the pier are still intact, and are now used as small shops on the Palace Pier.
Further information can be found at Wiki - Royal_Suspension_Chain_Pier, and Google Images - Brighton Chain Pier.
Chain Pier map late 1800s.
Chain Pier.
West Pier
Opened in 1866 and closed in 1975 and subsequently fell into disrepair. The pier gradually collapsed during the early 21st century. Major sections collapsed in late 2002, and two fires in 2003 left little of the original structure. Subsequently, English Heritage declared it to be beyond repair. Structured demolition took place in 2010 to make way for the observation tower i360; further structural damage from storms has occurred since.
The pier was the first to be Grade I listed in Britain. Designed by architect Eugenius Birch and called his "masterpiece". It was the town's second pier, joining the Royal Suspension Chain Pier of 1823. It was extended in 1893 and a pavilion added. The 19th century bandstand was demolished between 1914 and 1916 and replaced by an eight-sided grand concert hall. The concert hall was converted into a tea room and the theatre redesigned as a restaurant in the early 1950s. A funfair was added around the same time. The pier's central decking was removed during World War II to prevent enemy landings, and in 1944 a Royal Air Force fighter hit the pier.
Further information can be found at Arthur Lloyd - Brighton West Pier, and Brighton West Pier Trust, and Wiki - West Pier, and Google Images - Brighton West Pier.
West Pier map late 1800s.
West Pier early 1900s.
West Pier fire 2003.
Palace Pier
The Brighton Marine Palace and Pier was opened in 1899; built solely as an amusement and pleasure emporium. It is generally known as Palace Pier for short but was renamed Brighton Pier in 2000 and Brighton Palace Pier in 2016. A condition to be met by its builders, in exchange for permission to build, was that the first, the Royal Suspension Chain Pier of 1823, which had fallen into a state of disrepair, was to be demolished. They were saved this task by a storm which largely destroyed the Chain Pier. The Palace Pier was listed at Grade II* in 1971.
A concert hall opened in 1901 and by 1911 this had become a theatre where summer shows were held until the 1970s. The pier was extended in 1938 but was sectioned as a war precaution two years later. In 1973 when it was decided to demolish the unused landing stage at the pier head. During the work on the landing stage and a storm in 1973, a 70-ton barge moored at the pier's landing stage broke loose and began to damage the pier head, particularly the theatre. Despite fears that the pier would be destroyed, the storm eased and the barge was removed.The damaged theatre was never used again. In 1986 the theatre was removed, on the understanding that it would be replaced, this has not happened. The present seaward end building looks fairly modern in comparison with the rest of the structure, supporting a domed amusement arcade and several fairground rides.
The Pier suffered a large fire in 2003 but the damage was limited and most of the pier was able to reopen the next day.
Further information can be found at Arthur Lloyd - Brighton Palace Pier, and Wiki - Brighton Palace Pier, and Google Images - Brighton Palace Pier.
Palace Pier map early 1900s.
Palace Pier early 1900s.
Palace Pier today.
Cliftonville/Preston Park Spur
Opened in 1879. Cliftonville Spur or the Preston Park Spur (and known also as the Cliftonville Curve) is a short railway that links the West Coastway Line to the Brighton Main Line between Hove and Preston Park. The line was named in reference to Cliftonville station (now called Hove) which had opened in 1865.
Cliftonville/Preston Park Spur map early 1900s.
Preston Park Station
Opened as "Preston" in 1869. The station was enlarged, and renamed "Preston Park", and remodelled to its present design in 1879 during the construction of the Cliftonville Curve spur line.
Preston Park Station map early 1900s.
Preston Park Station 1911.
Hassocks Station
Opened in 1841 as "Hassocks Gate", designed by David Mocatta and renamed "Hassocks" in 1881. It was one of the few intermediate stations on the line with four tracks, to allow express trains to overtake those stopping at the station. However, the number of tracks was later reduced to two, although the additional width is still apparent from the siting of the station buildings.
In 1881 a new station building was constructed to the designs of Thomas Myres as the prototype for those later built in the same style on the Bluebell and Cuckoo line. The station was demolished in 1973 by British Rail and replaced with a CLASP structure which has been described as "truly awful". In 2006 the local community announced that it was hoping to raise £2.5m to rebuild the station to the previous design, this fell through.
For many years Hassocks Gate station was used by excursion trains for passengers visiting the nearby South Downs and suffered as a result as it became a meeting place for prostitutes.
Hassocks Station, Goods Yard and Sand Pit map early 1900s.
Hassocks Station early 1900s.
Hassocks Stonepound Sand Pit line 1921.
Burgess Hill Station
The first station at Burgess Hill was opened in 1841. The original facilities were all in the small wooden hut (which still stands on platform 1) and wooden platforms set beside the main line. A completely new station was built in 1877 and in the 1860s a goods shed.
Burgess Hill Station and Goods Yard map early 1900s.
Burgess Hill Station 1962 and original hut.
Keymer Junction and Keymer Station
Keymer Junction, opened in 1847, is where the Keymer and Lewes Branch joins the Brighton to London line.
A station called "Keymer Junction" on the Lewes line, just beyond the junction, opened in 1854, although, it appears that some trains may have called at "Keymer Crossing". The station was closed in 1883 to allow for the proposed remodelling of the junction. However, when the railway later sought Parliamentary authority to abandon their planned changes, they were required to provide a replacement station to the north of the junction on the present site. The second Keymer Junction station was opened in 1886 and retained that name until 1896 when it was renamed "Wivelsfield".
On 23 December 1899, a serious accident happened at Keymer Junction, when a red signal was obscured by thick fog. A train from Brighton collided with a boat train from Newhaven Harbour at 40 miles per hour, and six passengers were killed and twenty seriously injured.
Keymer Junction and Keymer Station map late 1800s.
Wivelsfield Station
Opened in 1886 as "Keymer Junction", changed to "Wivelsfield" in 1896.
Wivelsfield Station map early 1900s.
Wivelsfield Station.
Haywards Heath Station
Opened on 12 July 1841, a coach service was provided to take passengers on the remainder of their journey towards Brighton until the line was extended on 21 September.
The original station was designed by the architect David Mocatta and totally rebuilt in the 1930s .The station retained its importance as a junction following the construction of the line to Lewes from Keymer 3 miles to the south. In 1883 the Lewes and East Grinstead Railway opened a branch line from Copyhold Junction, just north of the station, as a result, Haywards Heath station was enlarged by the provision of two bay platforms. Until 1912, there was no physical connection between the tracks of the branch line and those of the main line; they ran parallel all the way to Haywards Heath station. This double-track branch line was closed to passengers in 1963, but a single-track section remains to serve a freight and aggregates terminal at Ardingly.
Haywards Heath station was the site of the first use of the practice of "slipping" coaches from the rear of express trains, at intermediate junctions, for onward transmission to smaller stations. The earliest recorded example was in February 1858, when coaches for Hastings were slipped from a London Bridge to Brighton express. This practice was a regular feature at the station until the electrification of the line during 1932/3.
Haywards Heath Station map early 1900s.
Haywards Heath Station early 1900s and today.
Further information can be found at Google - 175th anniversary of haywards heath station.
Copyhold Junction
In 1883 the Lewes and East Grinstead Railway opened a branch line from Copyhold Junction, just north of the station. The double-track branch line was closed to passengers in 1963, but a single-track section remains to serve a freight and aggregates terminal at Ardingly.
In the map below can be seen the remains of the Ouse Valley Railway (Skew Bridge across the B2036 between Haywards Heath and Balcombe has extended abutments where the railway would have passed over the road) which was to have been part of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway (LBSCR). It was authorised by an Act of Parliament and construction of the 20 miles long line was begun, but not completed. It never opened to traffic.
In the 1860s, the South Eastern Railway and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway were proposing to build railways to Brighton and Eastbourne. To counter this threat, the LBSCR proposed to build a 20 miles long railway linking Haywards Heath, Uckfield, and Hailsham. It accepted that the line would not be profitable but it wanted to keep other companies out of its territory, one tactic to be employed by the LBSCR was to build the line as slowly as possible, delaying its opening to force other companies to look elsewhere to build their lines. Construction of the line between Haywards Heath and Uckfield began in May 1866, the month in which Overend & Gurney's Bank collapsed, major financiers of railway construction projects at the time. Work stopped in February 1867 and was not resumed.
Copyhold Junction map early 1900s.
Copyhold Junction Crash 1972.
Ouse Valley Viaduct
Built in 1841, also called Balcombe Viaduct, over the River Ouse, has been described as "probably the most elegant viaduct in Britain." The structure is a Grade II* listed building and the 11 million bricks needed for its construction were shipped up the Ouse River (via Newhaven and Lewes) from the Netherlands.
Ouse Valley Viaduct map early 1900s.
Ouse Valley Viaduct and view through the supporting brick piers.
Balcombe Station
The original station was opened in 1841and resited to its present position in 1848 or 1849.
Balcombe Station map early 1900s.
Balcombe Station 1961.
Three Bridges Junction
The branch to Horsham was opened in 1848 (the Arun Valley Line, also known as the Mid Sussex Line) and the branch to East Grinstead in 1855 (the Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells Central Line).
The single-track branch line to East Grinstead was never electrified. It remained steam operated and after the end of steam operation in 1964 it was briefly operated by diesel-electric multiple units but closed in 1967.
Three Bridges Junction map early 1900s.
Three Bridges Station, Goods Yard and Engine Shed
The original Italianate style railway station, designed by David Mocatta, on the East side of the line was opened in 1841. It was enlarged in 1855 and again in 1906/9 at the time of the quadrupling of the main line. This building was demolished in 1985. Mocatta's plans for the station indicate that it was originally going to be known as "Crawley" but according to The London and Brighton railway guide, of 1841 and the 1846 timetable it was named "Three Bridges" from the time it was opened.
An engine shed was opened in 1848, and rebuilt in 1860 probably in the area of the junction, on a site to the west of the station. This was closed in 1909 to make way for the enlargement of the station and a new depot was established in the fork between the Brighton and Horsham lines in 1911, which remained open until 1964.
The original small goods yard to the south of the station was greatly extended during the First World War and was used as a marshalling yard for munitions trains heading for the Continent.
In the early 2000s, Virgin CrossCountry built a depot at Three Bridges which closed in 2008.
Further information can be found at The Sussex Motive Power Depots - History of 75e , and The Sussex Motive Power Depots - Three Bridges Loco, and Google Images.
Three Bridges Station, Goods Yard and Engine Shed map early 1900s.
Three Bridges Station pre 1909 and post 1909.
Three Bridges Shed early 1900s.
Gatwick and Tinsley Green Stations
There have been two Gatwick stations sited approximately 0.85 miles from each other.
The station, originally named "Gatwick", was built on the present site in 1891 to serve the Gatwick Racecourse, and originally operated only on race days. The facilities included passing loops and sidings to hold race trains. The sidings were extended during World War I to be able to accommodate munitions trains heading for Newhaven.
From 1946 until 1958, Gatwick station was renamed "Gatwick Racecourse", even though racing had been abandoned in 1940 and not reinstated after World War II. In fact the station had fallen out of use following the opening of the nearby Tinsley Green/Gatwick Airport Station (see below). However, during the early 1950s the airport was expanded and took over the land occupied by the racecourse, and the station was entirely rebuilt and integrated with the new airport terminal. The new buildings opened in 1958 and the station took over the name "Gatwick Airport"
The Tinsley Green/Gatwick Airport Station was opened in 1935 and was sited 0.85 miles south of the present station. It was originally named "Tinsley Green" but within a year became "Gatwick Airport" following the completion of the Beehive airport terminal which had a direct connection to the station. The station continued in operation until 1958 when the present "Gatwick Airport" station opened. The station was later demolished and the only visible remains of the old station are sections of the former up slow line platform. Sections of the connecting subway between the station and the original terminal building (The Beehive) also survive.
Gatwick and Tinsley Green Stations map early 1900s, 1930s and 1950s.
Gatwick Station 1956 and 1960.
The Private Aerodrome License for Gatwick was granted to Home Counties Aircraft Services (John Mockford and Ronald Waters) in 1930; it was valid for six months initially and offered pleasure and stunt flying. A small hangar followed and the creation of the Surrey Aero Club. The proximity of the new aerodrome to the racecourse allowed wealthier race goers to arrive at Gatwick by air, this suited both businesses and was soon being jointly promoted.
In 1932 Gatwick Aerodrome was sold to the Redwing Aircraft Company (Mr Frederick O. Benzer), and it was sold again in 1933 to Alfred Charles Morris Jackaman. Southern Railway undertook aerial surveys of their railway lines and the land around them looking for possible locations to set up airfields. In 1934 it highlighted Gatwicks closer position to Continental Europe and ease of rail access - an option mooted was for Southern Railways to buy Gatwick and develop it as their own London airport.
In 1934 Morris Jackaman succeeded in getting a Public Aerodrome license for Gatwick. Around the same time, Jackaman bought a controlling interest in Gravesend Aerodrome and the combined Gatwick / Gravesend company was called Airports Ltd. Gravesend was to be London (East) and Gatwick was London (South). Both were on air routes to Croydon and finally the Air Ministry became interested in paying for both to be 24hour a day diversionary airports for Croydon. To help run the business, Andre Marcel Desoutter was brought on-board by Jackaman. With a shortage of money for their plans, Airports Limited was successfully floated in 1935. Also in 1935 Jackaman convinced Southern Railway to build another station at Gatwick to be called Tinsley Green. It was about 800 metres south of Gatwick Racecourse station. Tinsley Green Station opened in 1935 and renamed Gatwick Airport Station in 1936. Most notable on the airport new construction was the art deco Martello tower type terminal building "The Beehive". This was positioned near the new station and there was an underground subway between the station and the new terminal for passengers to walk through. On 17 May 1936, having moved their entire operation to Gatwick, British Airways began operations. But the landing area drainage started collapsing and the passenger subway was flooding again, British Airways served notice on Gatwick and headed to Croydon in February 1937 to re-commence operations there.
In the run up to WW2 Gatwicks role was set as primarily a military training school and military aircraft servicing base and when war was declared in 1939 Gatwick was requisitioned by the RAF and this order included a large section of the adjacent Gatwick Racecourse for a second landing strip when needed. Gatwick was eventually handed back by the RAF to the Ministry in 1946 and it fell straight into some uncertainty over its future. The Air Ministry had lost interest and were now focusing on Heathrow. Airports Limited were told they could dispose of Gatwick as they saw fit when it was handed back as it was not needed. The racecourse owners expected to get their land back from the military after the war so they could resume racing.
Gatwick started to grow busier as more airlines came to operate from there. The Daily Express Air Pageants on 1948 and 1949 saw Gatwick Racecourse Station back in use as thousands travelled to watch the air shows from the racecourse site. In April 1948 what would be the last ever meeting was held on the Gatwick Racecourse; it was still missing a large area of land but the local Surrey & Burstow Hunt used the available land for their Point to Point Meeting.
Despite the land requisition being extended for another year to 1949, it was announced in Parliament that Gatwick was to be de-requisitioned in March 1949 so that Stansted could become Londons diversionary airport, but the decision over Gatwick was pushed back to 1950. It in fact took until 1952 for the Government to give approval for the proposed development of Gatwick as an alternative to Heathrow Airport. Gatwick airport was then closed in 1956 and building commenced for the new airport. The Queen officially opened Gatwick Airport on 9 June 1958.
Gatwick Airport map 1960s.
Gatwick Airport WW2.
Gatwick Airport - opening in 1958 and Beehive today.
Further information can be found at British Caledonian Airways - History of Gatwick Airport.
Gatwick Racecourse:
In 1890, the descendants of the de Gatwick family sold the area to the newly established Gatwick Race Course Company. A farmhouse was built around 1890, with extensive stabling. In 1891, Gatwick Racecourse opened beside the LondonBrighton railway, and a dedicated station including sidings for horse boxes.
The course held steeplechase and flat races. After the Grand National had been held in 1915, Aintree racecourse was taken over by the war office and the race moved to Gatwick in 1916, 1917 and 1918. A special course was constructed at the Gatwick course and the 29 fences were constructed under the supervision of five leading jumps trainers but they were not to be of the same difficulty as the fences at Aintree but the course was to be the same distance as the Grand National of 4 miles and 856 yards. The 1916 race was actually not named The Grand National but was called "The Racecourse Association Steeple chase" and the following year's race was renamed "The War Steeplechase" and the fences were stiffened up so that it was a better test of jumping. The final 'National ' to be held at Gatwick was in 1918 and the winner was ridden by Ernie Piggott the grandfather of Lester Piggott.
A small airport was built at the southeastern edge of the property, with a circular terminal building called "The Beehive". In 1940 the racecourse was closed at the start of the Second World War. In April 1948 what would be the last ever meeting was held on the Gatwick Racecourse; it was still missing a large area of land but the local Surrey & Burstow Hunt used the available land for their Point to Point Meeting. After the Second World War, the stables and defunct racecourse were used for training. In 1957, the racecourse was chosen as the site of Gatwick Airport, and the stables and house were demolished around 1960.
Gatwick Racecourse map early 1900s.
Gatwick Racecourse.
Gatwick Racecourse - last point-to-point meeting 1948.
Further information can be found at British Caledonian Airways - History of Gatwick Airport, and Greyhound Derby.
Horley Station
The original station opened in 1841, was located 301 yards north of the present site. The first station was designed by David Mocatta and was on a larger scale than other intermediate stations on the line. Horley was situated almost midway between London and Brighton, and was chosen for the erection of the London and Brighton Railway carriage sheds and repair workshops. These were later moved to Brighton railway works. The station was enlarged in 1862 by addition of a second storey to the building. A canopy and footbridge were added in 1884. In the 1870s William Stroudley considered moving the locomotive works to Horley but was persuaded to keep them in Brighton. Nevertheless, the sidings at Horley were used for storing withdrawn locomotives and those awaiting repair until the First World War.
The current Horley station opened in 1905, to coincide with the quadrupling of the railway line. The original station then became the Station Master's house and survived until the 1960s.
Horley Station maps late 1800s and early 1900s.
Horley Station 1903 and Goods Shed today.
Salfords Station
Salfords station was originally built in 1915 for workers at the Monotype Corporation, which had constructed a factory next to the railway line in 1899. From its opening the train service was not advertised and sparse to meet the needs of Monotype Corporation staff. In 1932 the line was electrified and the station was served by a regular advertised train service.
The station name originally "Salfords Halt" was changed to "Salfords" in 1935.
Day Aggregates made use of the open land beside the station to store and transport their loose stones for construction in the area for some time. The sidings used still exist, including a bay platform at the station and most of the machinery used to expel and fill the wagons that transported the stone at the site.
Salfords Station and works map 1950s.
Salfords Station.
Earlswood Station
Opened in 1868 and rebuilt with four platforms in 1906 at the time of the quadrupling of the main line. The platforms on the fast lines were closed in the 1980s.
Earlswood Station and Goods Shed map late 1800s.
Earlswood Station and Goods Shed map and 1930s. Showing the Redhill by-pass Quarry Line joining at the top.
Earlswood Station.
Redhill Aerodrome: Redhill Aerodrome commenced operations in 1934 to accommodate the original Redhill Flying Club. Imperial Airways started to use it as an alternate to the then London airport at Croydon. In 1941 Redhill became a satellite aerodrome for RAF Kenley. At the end of WW2 Redhill was used for the storage of unused bombs, which were finally cleared by the end of 1946. Today Redhill is a busy airfield with light aircraft and helicopters.
Redhill Aerodrome map 1950s.
Redhill Aerodrome 1939.
Further information can be found at Wings Museum - RAF Redhill.
Redhill Station
The local topography determined that it was cheaper to build and operate a railway line between London and Brighton which by-passed the parliamentary borough and long-established market town of Reigate and instead passed through the nearby Redstone or Red Hill gap in the Reigate Foreign (countryside) parish. According to the Acts of Parliament establishing railways between London and Brighton, and London and Dover, the line was to be shared between Croydon and Red Hill after which these two would deviate. The London and Brighton Railway (L&BR) constructed the new line during 1840 and 1841, with the South Eastern Railway (SER) contributing half of the construction cost and taking ownership of the section between Croydon and Red Hill. The inevitable and continuing conflict between the two railway companies over the use of this joint line gave rise to the construction of four railway stations at the site of what was then a hamlet on the eastern side of Reigate.
Red Hill and Reigate Road railway station: Opened in 1841 on a site to the south of the proposed junction with the South Eastern Main Line to Dover. This station was designed by David Mocatta, and was one of a series of standardised modular buildings used by the railway. It closed in 1844, when the LBR began to share the SER Redhill and Reigate station and was demolished soon afterwards.
Redhill/Reigate (SER) stations: In 1842 the SER opened what was originally called "Redhill", but later misleadingly renamed "Reigate" station, on their own stretch of line just beyond the junction. Passengers transferring between the two railways did so at the old Merstham station further up the line. The SER wanted to replace their "Reigate" station with a joint station immediately before the junction, but the L&BR opposed the plan. As a result, the SER forced the issue by ending the arrangements at Merstham, thereby forcing passengers to transfer between the two stations at Redhill by foot. The stations closed in 1844.
Redhill and Reigate station: In 1844 the SER built a new station at the present site, named "Redhill and Reigate" which was to be used by both railways as the interchange station. On the same day the two existing stations were closed. The branch line to Reigate was opened in 1849 with a new station called "Reigate Town". Nevertheless, the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (the successor of the L&BR) continued to operate the omnibus service for its own passengers.
Redhill Junction station: The SER "Redhill and Reigate" station was rebuilt and enlarged on the same site in 1858 when it was renamed "Redhill Junction". The chronic congestion at the station was however eased after 1868 when Redhill ceased to be on the South Eastern Main Line to Dover following the opening of the 'Sevenoaks cut off' line between St Johns and Tonbridge railway station.
The Quarry Line: A ten-year agreement between the SER and the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR the successor to the L&BR after July 1846) over the use of the station and lines to Coulsdon was signed in 1869 and renewed ten years later. However, during the 1880s, as traffic increased the disputes over the use of line and Redhill station re-occurred. This became known as the 'Southern Lines Controversy' and ultimately led to the construction of the Quarry Line by the LB&SCR in 1899, which bypassed the SER stations of Coulsdon South, Merstham and Redhill. This involved the construction of a second tunnel to the east of the original tunnel at Merstham. The LB&SCR diverted many of its Brighton main line trains to the new line, but retained running powers over the original line and the use of Redhill station. These were continued until both the SER and the LBSCR came under the ownership of the Southern Railway in 1923 and the name of the joint station was changed to "Redhill" in 1929.
The Brighton main line and the line from Redhill to Reigate were both electrified in 1933. The Redhill to Tonbridge Line was electrified in 1993.
Further information can be found at Youtube - Redhill railway station during World War Two, 1940's - Film 4233, and History of Redhill, and Google Images of Redhill Engine Sheds.
Redhill Station map early 1900s.
Showing the by-pass Quarry Line to the right, the Reading Branch to the left of the junction and the Old Main Line to Dover to the right of the junction.
Redhill Station 1841 and 1853.
Redhill Station 1940s.
Redhill Sheds 1950s.
Redhill Station 1980s.
Holmethorpe Sidings
Holmethorpe Sidings were used by various brick companies over time such as the British Industrial Sand Ltd, a subsidiary company being the Standard Brick and Sand Co Ltd at Redhill.
Holmethorpe Sidings map early 1900s.
Holmethorpe Sidings with the bridge under the "Quarry Line" in the background.
Merstham Station
Merstham was on a stretch of line between Croydon and Redhill which Parliament insisted should be shared by the London and Brighton Railway (L&BR) route to Brighton, and the South Eastern Railway (SER) route to Dover. As a result, there have been two railway stations at Merstham.
London and Brighton Railway station: The original station was located 3/4 mile south of the current station. It was opened by the L&BR in 1841, and from 1842 it was also used by SER and was the point at which travellers between the two railways exchanged trains. The section of line between Coulsdon and Redhill was transferred to SER operation, and the new owners decided to close Merstham station in 1843, thereby forcing passengers wishing to change trains to walk between the two stations at Redhill. This was a tactic to force the L&BR to share the new SER Reigate station at Redhill. Once the L&BR had given way and closed their existing station at Reigate Road, Redhill, the SER opened a new station at Merstham on the present site.
South Eastern Railway station: This station was opened in 1844 with a rebuilding in 1905. Despite being on the Brighton line, this station, along with Coulsdon South and Redhill, was owned by the South Eastern Railway (later South Eastern & Chatham Railway), and was not used by L&BR (later London Brighton and South Coast Railway) trains. It was not until the creation of the Southern Railway in 1923 that trains from the Brighton line called at the station.
The Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) and the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway: The Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) was a horse-drawn plateway that linked Wandsworth and Croydon via Mitcham. Opened in 1802 and 1803 it was a toll railway on which carriers used horse traction. The Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway was built as an extension of the railway but by a separate company. It was extended to Merstham in 1805 but not to Godstone. It closed in 1838. In 1809 or 1811 a short branch was built at Pitlake to the south side of the Croydon Canal basin.
The original plan for a transport connection between Wandsworth, on the River Thames, and the industries of the Wandle Valley had been a canal scheme, put forward in 1799, but doubts about the availability of water led to the adoption of a plateway. The line started at a wharf on the Thames at Wandsworth, and ascended gently through Tooting and Mitcham to Pitlake Mead in Croydon. There was a branch from near the site of the Mitcham Junction to oil-cake mills at Hackbridge, and a number of spurs to mills and works. Horses were the motive power, and passengers were never contemplated.
The Surrey Iron Railway was only briefly successful financially. It lost much traffic after the Croydon Canal opened in 1809, though the full effect was not felt until the canal acquired a rail link to the two railways in 1811. Later it suffered from the closure of the underground stone quarries at Merstham in the 1820s. It covered its costs, but was unable to update its technology or to keep the track in good repair. It closed in1846. It was a public toll railway, providing a track for independent goods hauliers to use their own horses and wagons. The company did not operate its own trains. Sometimes it leased out the track and the dock, and sometimes it collected tolls and kept the line in repair itself. It was double-track plateway with a spacing of about five feet between the centres of the stone blocks. The gauge was recorded as 4 ft 2in, the same as on the Croydon Merstham and Godstone Railway.
The nine-mile route followed the shallow valley of the River Wandle, then heavily industrialised with numerous factories and mills, from the River Thames at Wandsworth southwards to Croydon, at what is now Reeves Corner. A short branch ran from Mitcham to Hackbridge and Carshalton. The railway was extended by a separate company as the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway through Purley and Coulsdon to quarries near Merstham, opened in 1805 and closed in 1838. The Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Iron Railway commenced at an end-on junction with the Surrey Iron Railway at its terminus at Pitlake, and ran southeastwards to join and follow the line of the present Church Road. There was no depot, but there was a toll house, apparently situated on the west side of the railway about 60 yards north of its crossing of Church Street. Opposite this was the Y-junction of the Croydon Canal Company's Pitlake railway, running along the course of the present Tamworth Road.
In 1823, William James, a shareholder in the railway, tried to persuade George Stephenson to supply a locomotive. Stephenson realised that the cast-iron plateway could not support the weight of a locomotive and declined. In 1844 the proprietors sold the railway to the L&SWR, which sold it to the London and Brighton Railway so that the L&BR could use the trackbed to extend from Croydon to Earlsfield and then join the L&SWR line into Nine Elms and eventually Waterloo. However, the sale did not proceed, and in 1846 the Surrey Iron Railway applied for closure.
The Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) and the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway maps.
A typical plateway scene from the The Derby Canal Railway.
Further information can be found at Wiki - Surrey Iron Railway, and Wandle - Surrey Iron Railway (double click route plans for detail), and Croydon History - Surrey Iron Railway.
Merstham Station map 1930s.
Merstham Station early 1900s.
Coulsdon South Station
Coulsdon is on a stretch of line between Croydon and Redhill which the UK Parliament insisted should be shared by the London and Brighton Railway (L&BR) route to Brighton, and the South Eastern Railway (SER) route to Dover. As a result, there have been a number of railway stations at Coulsdon.
Coulsdon South station was opened by the South Eastern Railway (SER) in 1889. It was originally called "Coulsdon" and "Coulsdon and Cane Hill", referring to the nearby psychiatric hospital.
Coulsdon South Station map early 1900s.
Coulsdon South Station.
Coulsdon Quarry
In 1864 the Hall family closed their quarries at Merstham and increased their quarrying for chalk and flints and use of Lime kilns in Coulsdon. This quarry at Coulsdon (Marlpit Lane) was named the 'Stoats Nest Quarry'. The works had its own internal railway system which connected to nearby main lines. The limeworks closed in 1961.
Coulsdon Quarry map early 1900s.
Coulsdon Quarry 1955.
Coulsdon North Station
The first station in Coulsdon known as "Stoats Nest" was opened by the L&BR in 1841, named after a nearby settlement. It stood approximately at the junction of present-day Windermere Road and Stoat's Nest Road. There are no remains of this station today. It was one mile south of Godstone Road (later called Caterham Junction and then Purley), and was the first station to serve Epsom Downs Racecourse, some eight miles distant. It was in service until 1856, when Godstone Road station reopened and the L&BR successor, the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) had its own route from Croydon to Epsom.
Coulsdon North station was opened as "Stoats Nest and Cane Hill" in 1899 by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR). It took its name partly from the nearby Cane Hill asylum and partly from the nearby Stoats Nest village. The station kept its name until 1911 when, following a serious accident, it became known as "Coulsdon and Smitham Downs".
The LBSCR equipped the new Stoats Nest station with 4 platforms: two on the Quarry Line and two terminal platforms with through access only to sidings beyond the station. It served as a through station for services from London Victoria to Brighton, as well as a terminus for services from Victoria via Streatham Common or Crystal Palace. The station also had a six- road carriage storage area just to its south. A two-road engine shed, initially called Stoats Nest, was opened amongst the sidings to the south of the station in 1900. The Coulsdon North engine shed was closed in June 1929.
The name of the station was changed to "Coulsdon West" with effect from 9 July 1923 and "Coulsdon North" on 1 August 1923.
The situation of Coulsdon North on the so-called 'fast lane' of the Quarry Line posed pathing problems, as the route had to give priority to services heading for the South Coast. Accordingly, through services to the coast were withdrawn, and the fast platforms saw only occasional use for special trains. Furthermore, the opening of Smitham (Coulsdon Town) in 1904 had created 3 stations in the same area and, by the 1960s, the decline had begun to set in. Only the terminal platforms were regularly used, for stopping trains from Victoria or London Bridge. The goods yard was closed in 1968, and the station and sidings were finally closed in 1983.
Stoats Nest/Coulsdon North Station map early 1900s.
Original Stoats Nest Station (north of the Stoats Nest/Coulsdon North Station) map late 1800s.
Coulsdon North Station early 1900s and 1983.
Coulsdon North Sheds 1925 and 1928.
Coulsdon Town Station
Coulsdon Town station is on the Tattenham Corner Line and opened in 1904 named "Smitham". It was briefly closed (between 1 January 1917 and 1 January 1919) during the First World War. In 2011 it was renamed "Coulsdon Town".
It is immediately adjacent to the closed Coulsdon North station on the main line, whose passenger traffic was diverted here when the latter closed in 1983.
Coulsdon Town Station map early 1900s.
Coulsdon Town Station 2008.
Purley Station and Engine Shed
The station was opened by the London and Brighton Railway in 1841 as "Godstone Road". Due to low passenger traffic, this was closed in 1847 by the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR), which had opened the new Stoat's Nest station 1 mile away at Coulsdon.
In 1855 a proposal by a local company to connect the sandstone quarries at Caterham to the main line railway became embroiled in a long-running dispute between the LB&SCR and the rival South Eastern Railway (SER), which resulted in the reopening of the station. The proposed line was in the territory of the SER, and was to be operated by that company. It would have to join the railway system on a section of the LB&SCR, where the SER had running powers but no stations. The new railway had to sue the LB&SCR to force it to allow the junction with its line and to reopen the station. In 1856 the station reopened as "Caterham Junction" with the opening of the single track Caterham branch.
The station was renamed Purley in 1888 (but referrred to as "Purley Junction" on maps), and rebuilt between 1896 and 1899 during the widening of the main line between East Croydon and the beginning of the new Quarry Line at Coulsdon North in 1899. The SER built a line from Purley to Kingswood railway station, extended to Tattenham Corner railway station between 1897 and 1901. By the latter date it had become the South Eastern and Chatham Railway.
Purley engine shed was built in 1898 by the South-Eastern Railway and the initials SER can be seen over the central arch. After electrification in the 1920s it was apparently used to stable the Royal Train (traditionally the royal family attended the Derby race meeting at Epsom by taking a train to Tattenham Corner, along the line that passes this shed). It was closed as an engine shed in 1928.
A 1905 Railway Clearing House map of lines around Purley railway station.
Purley Station (as Caterham Junction) and Caterham branch map 1860s.
Purley Station 1930s.
Purley Station 1955 and Today.
Purley Crash 1989.
Purley Shed 1926.
Purley Oaks Station
The station was opened by the London Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1899 as part of the improvements to the main line and the opening of the Quarry Line.
Purley Oaks Station map 1930s.
Purley Oaks Station.
CROYDON
Croydon Canal: Opened in 1809 the canal was originally intended to extend northwards to Rotherhithe, but the simultaneous construction of the Grand Surrey Canal provided a convenient access route. The canal was never a success and closed in 1836, the first canal to be abandoned by an Act of Parliament.
The Croydon Canal linked to the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway (itself connected to the Surrey Iron Railway), enabling the canal to be used to transport stone and lime from workings at Merstham. The canal was never extended further south-west, as was initially intended, to reach Epsom. The canal was originally planned with two inclined planes but 28 locks, arranged in two flights, were used instead. To keep the canal supplied with water, reservoirs were constructed at Sydenham and South Norwood; the latter still exists as South Norwood Lake in a public park.
After the canal closed, sections were retained for leisure use, and some remained in water for a considerable time. The section at Betts Park in Anerley was used as a boating lake, and the area was called Anerley Tea Rooms. The canal was turned into a concrete trough in 1934, and can be seen at the northern corner of Betts Park. Another section exists as a long curved pond in the Dacres Wood Nature Reserve in Dacres Road, Forest Hill. The Norwood reservoir is now preserved as South Norwood Lake.
Further information can be found at Wiki - Croydon Canal, and Map of the Canal, and Croydon Canal Talk.
Plateway - The Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) and the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway: Before the coming of the railways the River Wandle was very heavily industrialised with 38 water mills and factories along its short length between Wandsworth and Croydon. As the river was not navigable, the mill owners required a means of transport for their goods so the Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) was built between Wandsworth and Croydon. This was the earliest public railway in the London area and the first railway to receive parliamentary sanction in 1801. The 4' gauge double track horse drawn iron plateway was built by William Jessop and opened in 1803. The line was later extended south as the Croydon Merstham and Godstone Railway terminating at underground stone quarries at Merstham.
The line was never profitable as much of the traffic from Croydon used the Croydon Canal which opened in 1809 terminating at a basin adjacent to the Surrey Iron Railway at what is now West Croydon station. After 1825, the company paid no dividend. Early in 1844 there was a proposal by the London and Brighton to use the former track bed of the Surrey Iron Railway and the CM & GR to reach a new terminus at Waterloo Bridge from its existing Brighton line at Purley and in August that year the London & South Western Railway took an option to buy the SIR track bed but neither scheme was proceeded with and the SIR was eventually dissolved in 1846 and the track bed reverted to agricultural use.
The Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) was a horse-drawn plateway that linked Wandsworth and Croydon via Mitcham. Opened in 1802 and 1803 it was a toll railway on which carriers used horse traction. The Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway was built as an extension of the railway but by a separate company. It was extended to Merstham in 1805 but not to Godstone. It closed in 1838. In 1809 or 1811 a short branch was built at Pitlake to the south side of the Croydon Canal basin.
The original plan for a transport connection between Wandsworth, on the River Thames, and the industries of the Wandle Valley had been a canal scheme, put forward in 1799, but doubts about the availability of water led to the adoption of a plateway. The line started at a wharf on the Thames at Wandsworth, and ascended gently through Tooting and Mitcham to Pitlake Mead in Croydon. There was a branch from near the site of the Mitcham Junction to oil-cake mills at Hackbridge, and a number of spurs to mills and works. Horses were the motive power, and passengers were never contemplated.
The Surrey Iron Railway was only briefly successful financially. It lost much traffic after the Croydon Canal opened in 1809, though the full effect was not felt until the canal acquired a rail link to the two railways in 1811. Later it suffered from the closure of the underground stone quarries at Merstham in the 1820s. It covered its costs, but was unable to update its technology or to keep the track in good repair. It closed in1846. It was a public toll railway, providing a track for independent goods hauliers to use their own horses and wagons. The company did not operate its own trains. Sometimes it leased out the track and the dock, and sometimes it collected tolls and kept the line in repair itself. It was double-track plateway with a spacing of about five feet between the centres of the stone blocks. The gauge was recorded as 4 ft 2in, the same as on the Croydon Merstham and Godstone Railway.
The nine-mile route followed the shallow valley of the River Wandle, then heavily industrialised with numerous factories and mills, from the River Thames at Wandsworth southwards to Croydon, at what is now Reeves Corner. A short branch ran from Mitcham to Hackbridge and Carshalton. The railway was extended by a separate company as the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway through Purley and Coulsdon to quarries near Merstham, opened in 1805 and closed in 1838. The Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Iron Railway commenced at an end-on junction with the Surrey Iron Railway at its terminus at Pitlake, and ran southeastwards to join and follow the line of the present Church Road. There was no depot, but there was a toll house, apparently situated on the west side of the railway about 60 yards north of its crossing of Church Street. Opposite this was the Y-junction of the Croydon Canal Company's Pitlake railway, running along the course of the present Tamworth Road.
In 1823, William James, a shareholder in the railway, tried to persuade George Stephenson to supply a locomotive. Stephenson realised that the cast-iron plateway could not support the weight of a locomotive and declined. In 1844 the proprietors sold the railway to the L&SWR, which sold it to the London and Brighton Railway so that the L&BR could use the trackbed to extend from Croydon to Earlsfield and then join the L&SWR line into Nine Elms and eventually Waterloo. However, the sale did not proceed, and in 1846 the Surrey Iron Railway applied for closure.
The Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) and the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway maps.
A typical plateway scene from the The Derby Canal Railway.
Further information can be found at Wiki - Surrey Iron Railway, and Wandle - Surrey Iron Railway (double click route plans for detail), and Croydon History - Surrey Iron Railway, and Disused Stations - West Croydon Station.
Railway Stations: There have been a number of stations in Croydon -
West Croydon 1839
East Croydon 1841
New Croydon 1862
South Croydon 1865
Central Croydon/Katharine Street 1868
A 1908 Railway Clearing House map of Brighton Main Line between South Croydon and Selhurst / Forest Hill.
Croydon Airport: It was the first major international airport constructed in the UK and has been known under a variety of names - "Royal Flying Corps Station Beddington", "Waddon Aerodrome", "RAF Station Beddington", "Croydon Aerodrome", "Air Port of London", "London Terminal Aerodrome", "RAF Croydon" and finally "Croydon Airport". At the dawn of air travel at the beginning of the 20th Century, London Croydon Airport was a hotbed for technical innovations and developments. It achieved much global media attention and was the focal point for many world record breaking flights. A journey by air today still uses the innovations from the Air Port of London, Croydon.
In response to Zeppelin bombing raids on London and Croydon, the site was selected as part of the Royal Flying Corps Home Defence in 1915. Aircraft were involved in a number of defensive sorties against Zeppelin and Gotha bombers raids through 1916 and 1917. Adjacent to the RAF airfield was National Aircraft Factory No.1. Rapidly constructed in 1918, it was the first of three National Aircraft Factories built to mass produce aircraft for the war effort.
In 1920 Londons airport was moved from Hounslow Heath to the much larger and better equipped airfield of Croydon Aerodrome. Croydon Aerodrome was then an amalgamation of RAF Station Beddington and Waddon Aerodrome. It was here that Britains fledging airlines sought to establish regular intercontinental passenger services. Croydon was the major innovator in the development of Air Traffic Control (ATC). G.J.H Jimmy Jeffs, Croydon Civilian Air Traffic Officer, was one of the great innovators in developing the new discipline.
To better compete against the continental competition the British Government looked to merge British airlines into a single commercial entity. In 1924 Imperial Airways, the forerunner of todays British Airways, was born and the London Terminal Aerodrome, Croydon was its home base. Imperial Airways was the government's "chosen instrument" to connect Britain with it's extensive overseas interests. Privately owned but government sponsored, Imperial Airways grew an extensive network of international routes across the globe that orignated from the London Croydon Airport.
In the 1930s Amy Johnnie Johnson gained global recognition through her numerous world record-breaking flights achieved at London Airport, Croydon.
In 1939 Croydon reverted back to its original role of defending Britain from aerial attack. The civil airlines moved out and London Airport was now known as RAF Croydon. The 15th August 1940 saw a massive Luftwaffe attack on Britain. RAF Croydon was a prime target and the attack involved multiple hits on the surrounding factories, airfield, airport terminal and a direct hit of the armoury. The factories around the airfield were heavily targeted with much destruction and loss of life. 62 people lost their lives and over 200 were injured.
In 1946 Croydon returned to its civil use but the role of Londons international airport now passed to Heathrow. Croydon with its grass runways and lack of room for expansion was not suitable for the new generation of large airliners. Croydon continued as a major regional airport for a number of years but finally closed in 1959. The former control tower now houses a visitors' centre.
Further information can be found at Croydon Airport - The History, and Wiki - Croydon Airport, and Control Towers - Croydon.
Croydon Airport map 1930s and 1945.
Croydon Airport 1925.
Croydon Airport 1930s and Airport House today.
Photos of Croydon Airport.
Getty Images - London Croydon Airport
Getty Images - Croydon Airport
Google Images - Croydon Airport
Horse Racecourse: The earliest reference to racing in Croydon dates from 1286, when Lord William de Warrenne, son and heir of the Earl of Surrey and Sussex, was killed in a tournament held at Duppas Hill. Races were a popular feature at such tournaments and these were commemorated locally by an inn at the bottom of the hill called the Running Horse.
In 1585 Queen Elizabeth 1 visited Croydon and a special stand was constructed at the race ground to accommodate the Royal party. For the following year a much larger stand was erected and records show that the Queen attended subsequent meetings in 1587 and 1588.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries maps show the race course occupying a stretch of todays Brighton Road, running just south of Croydon through Purley and ending after Stoats Nest, where Coulsdon now exists.
The first steeplechase meeting was held in 1858, at Selhurst Farm, between the Jolly Sailor and Selhurst Wood. In 1860 the races moved to Weavers farm in the Upper Addiscombe Road, and were staged on land now occupied by Park Hill Road and Park Hill Rise, the grandstand being built on the high ground in a meadow now covered by houses in Chichester Road. Following the sale of the Park Hill course in 1866 for suburban development the race committee took over farmland at Stroud Green, Woodside, on which they laid out a new racecourse.
The race meetings were boisterous affairs and attracted huge crowds. By the 1880s Croydon races had acquired a bad reputation among local residents because of the large crowds of undesirable people they attracted and the numerous incidents of petty crime and drunkenness which occurred there. Local inhabitants repeatedly opposed the renewal of the licence due to the avalanche of moral sewage the races brought to the area and they eventually succeeded in their campaign. The meetings were often blighted by the weather. In 1867, and again in 1869, meetings had to be constantly postponed due to snow and frost. The final meeting was held in 1890.
Woodside station was built to serve visitors to the racecourse in 1871.
Further information can be found at The Norwood Society, and Greyhound Derby - Croydon Racecourse.
Croydon Racecourse map 1860s.
Croydon Racecourse.
South Croydon Station
Originally South Croydon was a terminus next to the through lines of the Brighton Line but without any platforms on them, the end of a 1 mile extension of the local lines from New Croydon, opened by the London Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1865. The aim was to provide more space for reversing local trains than could be afforded at busy New Croydon. In 1894 the railway obtained authority to extend the local lines to Coulsdon, where they connected with the new Quarry line. The station was rebuilt as a through station with platform faces on all lines prior to the opening of the line in 1899.
In 1947 a train crash about 550 yards south of the station killed 32 people, the worst accident in the history of the Southern Railway.
South Croydon Station (showing terminus) map 1860s.
South Croydon Station map early 1900s.
South Croydon Station.
East Croydon Station
In 1841 the London & Brighton Railway (L&BR) opened the station as "Croydon" station on the Brighton Line from London Bridge to Haywards Heath. The station was designed by David Mocatta It was the second station in the town since the London and Croydon Railway (L&CR) had opened its "Croydon" station (now "West Croydon") in 1839. After 1842 the station was jointly administered by the L&BR and the South Eastern Railway (SER), which shared the Brighton main line as far as Redhill. In 1846 The L&BR and the L&CR amalgamated to form the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR), and the two stations were shortly renamed "Croydon East" and "West Croydon" to avoid confusion. In 1862 the station was renamed "East Croydon", in 1909 "East Croydon Main" and in 1924 "East Croydon". The present station building opened in 1992.
New Croydon: With the completion of the line to Victoria between 1860 and 1862, extra platforms were needed to provide a terminal for LB&SCR suburban services to and from the West End of London whilst London Bridge trains continued to use the existing lines. The new platforms adjoined "East Croydon" but were treated by the LB&SCR as a separate station named "New Croydon", with its own ticket office, and which ran exclusively LBSCR services. This device enabled the railway to avoid breaking an agreement with the SER, whilst offering cheaper fares than the SER from the original station. The terminal platforms at "New Croydon" proved difficult to operate as there was limited space for locomotives to run round their trains. As a result, in 1863 the LB&SCR obtained Parliamentary authority to build a one-mile (1.6 km) extension to a new terminus at "South Croydon", which provided the additional operating room.
By the late 1880s the station was again congested due to the growth of traffic on the main lines, the expansion of the suburban network in South London and the new line from Croydon to Oxted. As a result, the station was rebuilt and the tracks remodelled during 1894/5. At the same time the suburban lines were extended from South Croydon to Coulsdon North, where they joined the new Quarry line. In 189798, "East Croydon" and "New Croydon" were merged into a single station with the three island platforms that remain. The two stations kept separate booking accounts until the formation of the Southern Railway.
The small goods yard on the down side had soon been superseded by a much larger acreage to the west. By 1868 this had a fan of fifteen sidings and a goods shed. The site was rearranged in the late 1870s when the coal yard was moved from east to west and a cattle dock had appeared by the northern boundary. A larger goods shed was later built slightly to the west of its original site.
East Croydon Station map 1860s.
East Croydon Station early 1900s.
East Croydon Station crash 1909.
Central Croydon/Katharine Street Station
Then a thriving market town of around 20,000 inhabitants on the southern fringe of London, Croydon was first connected with the railway network in 1839 when the London and Croydon Railway opened a station (now West Croydon) on London Road. Two years later, the London and Brighton Railway opened a station (now East Croydon) on the other side of town. Both stations were a fair distance from the town centre.
"Central Croydon", a branch from East Croydon to Katharine Street, was a largely unsuccessful venture by the London Brighton and South Coast Railway to bring trains closer to the centre of Croydon, as East Croydon station was deemed too far from the busy town centre. It originally opened in 1868 and closed in 1871: it then reopened in 1886, before closing permanently in 1890. Its site was used for the building of Croydon Town Hall, erected in 18921896.
In 1886, the LBSCR sought to improve the usefulness of the branch by extending it under High Street to curve around to the right to join the West Croydon - Epsom line at West Croydon, but this plan, which might have seen it become a viable station, was not realised.
The short section from the main line as far as Park Lane remained in use as "Fairfield Yard" engineers sidings until 1933 when they were abandoned.
Further information can be found at Disused Stations - Central Croydon Station.
Central Croydon/Katharine Street Station map 1860s.
Central Croydon/Katharine Street Station.
Fairfield Yard
The Fairfield Yard stood on the site of a field that was used for a fair for five and a half centuries. Regular fairgoers were greatly surprised when the sober Victorian burghers of Croydon banned the fair in 1866. This was because the Council thought that the fair had become far too badly behaved and was attracting the wrong sort' into the area. In 1866 the land was sold to the Brighton Railway Company and as late as 1933 the site was used for sidings and workshops. In the early thirties there was a rumour that the site may revert back to a place of dubious entertainments, this time as a greyhound stadium. So Croydon Corporation acted swiftly and bought up the land for use as the site for a new civic centre for Croydon. As a result of the war work didn't start on the Fairfield site until the late 1950s.
Fairfield Yard map early 1900s.
Fairfield Yard 1930s.
Fairfield Fair.
West Croydon Station
From 1809 to 1836 the site was the terminal basin of the Croydon Canal, the canal basin was served by a short private branch from the terminus of the Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) at Pitlake.The canal was drained and became part of the route of the London & Croydon Railway, opening in 1839. The station was originally named "Croydon", and in 1851 it was renamed "West Croydon". From 1855 the station was the terminus of the West Croydon to Wimbledon Line, which followed much of the route of the SIR; this line closed in 1997, to be replaced by Tramlink.
In 1845 the L&C inaugurated the atmospheric system of propulsion; it worked for about a year but was not successful.
During the 1930s the station saw major alterations and reconstruction. A new ticket office was built on London Road. The original station buildings, ticket office and entrance in Station Road were closed and are still standing, converted to a shop.
Further information can be found at Disused Stations - West Croydon Station, and 28 London Road, part 2: West Croydon Station in the 1800s, and 28 London Road, part 3: West Croydon Station in the 1900s, and 28 London Road, part 4: West Croydon Station today.
West Croydon map late 1800s.
West Croydon Station 1968 and original building on station road.
Norwood Junction
In 1839 the London and Croydon Railway opened the "Jolly-sailor", a local pub and referred to as "Jolly-sailor near Beulah Spa", at the north end of the High Street, adjacent to the Portland Road level crossing. In 1846 the L&CR merged with the L&BR to form the London Brighton and South Coast Railway, and the station was renamed "Norwood". It became "Norwood Junction" by 1856. Following construction of lines to Crystal Palace the station closed in 1859 and was replaced by the current station located at the end of a short approach road off the south side of the A213 road. The original station building was used as a private house until the 1960s, when it was demolished.
From 1841 the lines through Norwood were used by the London and Brighton Railway and from 1842 the South Eastern Railway, but neither of these companies used the station.
In 1844 the L&CR was given parliamentary authority to test an experimental atmospheric railway system on the railway. A pumping station was built on Portland Road to create a vacuum in a continuous pipe located centrally between the rails. A piston extended downwards from the trains into a slit in the pipe, with trains blown towards the pumping station by atmospheric pressure. The pumping station was in a Gothic style, with a very tall ornate tower that served both as a chimney and as an exhaust vent for air pumped from the propulsion tube. As part of the works for the atmospheric system, the world's first railway flyover was constructed beyond the south end of the station to carry the atmospheric line over the conventional London & Brighton Railway steam line. At the same time the level crossing at Portland Road was replaced by a low bridge across the road. The LB&SCR abandoned atmospheric propulsion in 1847 but the flyover remained in use as part of what is sometimes known as Windmill Bridge Junction.
The LB&SCR constructed a large marshalling yard to the south of the station during the 1870s, extended in the early 1880s. At their height the yards on both sides of the line each had over 30 carriage roads. With dwindling freight traffic the yard fell into disuse by the 1980s and the tracks were relaid to accommodate an enlarged Selhurst Depot.
The Southern Railway opened a five-road motive power depot with a turntable in 1935, to serve the marshalling yard. It replaced a shed at West Croydon. This depot was closed in 1964 and demolished in 1966.
Further information can be found at The Norwood Society, and Wiki - Norwood Junction Station.
Norwood Junction map 1860s.
Norwood Junction - Jolly-sailor station - in 1845, showing the atmospheric railway pumping station.
Norwood Junction Crash 1891.
Norwood Junction 1954.
Norwood Junction Loco Depot 1960.
Norwood Junction Shed 1963.
Anerley Station
Opened as "Anerley Bridge" by the London and Croydon Railway in 1839 and renamed "Anerley" in 1840.
It was situated in a largely unpopulated area, but was built as part of an agreement with the local landowner. According to local lore, the landowner was a Scotsman and, when asked for the landmark by which the station would be known, he replied "Mine is the annerly hoose". The timetable of the day seems to back this up since it says "There is no place of that name".
The London and Croydon Railway amalgamated with the London & Brighton Railway to form the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1846, and the station was rebuilt during the widening of the main line during 1849/50.
Anerley Gardens: Opening in 1841 following the launch of the London - Croydon Railway and the closure of the Croydon Canal, the gardens were situated next to Anerley Station and utillised a section of the old canal for pleasure boating. Popular with day trippers and weekenders, they were badly affected by the arrival of the Crystal Palace in 1854 which is visible in the background of the picture below. The gardens struggled on until their closure in 1868 when the site was redeveloped for housing, while the tearooms became the Anerley Arms public house and were subsequently rebuilt.
Anerley Gardens.
Anerley Station and remains of canal map late 1800s.
Anerley Station 1860s.
Penge West Station
The original "Penge" station was opened by the London and Croydon Railway in 1839, probably more for logistical reasons than anything else: the railway crossed the nearby High Street by a level crossing, and the station would have provided a place for trains to wait while the crossing gates were opened for them. The population of Penge was only around 270 at this time, not enough to make the station commercially viable. It was closed in 1841, and the level crossing was converted to a bridge soon afterwards. The entrance to the station was actually on Penge High Street, and not its current position. There were sidings, since removed, which served a coal yard and timber yard on the site of the old brickfield.
There was a demand for improved transport to the Crystal Palace nearby so the station was reopened by the London Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1863 on the same day that the London Chatham and Dover Railway opened its own "Penge Lane" station on its line to London Victoria. The two stations were renamed "Penge West", and "Penge East" by the Southern Railway in 1923.
Penge West Station (and Penge East) map early 1900s.
Penge West Station.
Sydenham Station
Opened by the London and Croydon Railway in 1839. The station is located on the former Croydon Canal.
In 1846, the railway became part of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. The station was originally built south of Sydenham Road however, due to the construction of the branch to Crystal Palace in 1852, platform 2 was resited to its current position. Platform 1 and its station building remained south of the road bridge until 1982 when British Rail decided to construct a replacement platform 90 meters north.
Sydenham Station map early 1900s.
Sydenham Station.
Crystal Palace (Low Level) Station
"Crystal Palace" is one of two stations built to serve the site of the 1851 exhibition building, the Crystal Palace, when it was moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham Hill after 1851. The station was opened in 1854 by the West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway (WEL&CPR) to take the crowds to the relocated Palace. Initial called "Crystal Palace", renamed "Crystal Palace Low Level" in 1898 to differentiate it from the nearby and now demolished "Crystal Palace (High Level)" railway station and renamed "Crystal Palace" in 1955.
From the outset trains were operated by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR). Initially the station was the terminus of a spur line from Sydenham. In 1856 the station was able to take through train services to Wandsworth via West Norwood and Streatham Hill, following the completion of the Crystal Palace Tunnel. Although relatively short, the tunnel was regarded as a major engineering achievement.
In 1857, an eastward connection was made to Norwood Junction (for the Brighton line to the south) and in 1858 the WEL&CPR was extended as far as Beckenham. From 1860 direct services were extended to London Victoria.
The frontage of the station was rebuilt in 1875, and was described: "Although the Roman Catholic chapel room is no longer used the station still has a cathedral-like atmosphere as one passes from the period booking hall to the vault-like station and the stairs down to the original station area". This is a description of the station trainshed roof above the staircases at the west end. Originally the whole length of the platforms beyond the bottom of the massive staircases was covered by an elegant dual bow-spring arch iron roof. This was removed as a precautionary measure shortly after the collapse of the similar structure at Charing Cross in 1905.
In 1905-08, Crystal Palace station was included in a proposal for an unusual new form of underground railway, the Kearney High-Speed Tube, devised by the Australian-born engineer Elfric Wells Chalmers Kearney. He envisaged the construction of a tunnel which would run from Crystal Palace to Cricklewood in north-west London, with a branch line terminating at Strand. It was to be operated with an unusual monorail system patented by Kearney which would be powered by gravity, like a type of underground roller coaster. Kearney failed to attract support for his scheme and the line was never built.
The line was electrified between Balham and Crystal Palace in 1911, using the LBSCR overhead system, in time for the Festival of Empire coinciding with the coronation of King George V. Electric trains from Victoria were advertised to complete the journey in fifteen minutes - a running time that has never been equalled.
The station is built on the junction of two lines: the original station platforms lying on the Sydenham route, and the later platforms on the southern spur to Norwood Junction and Beckenham Junction.
Following the fire in 1936 which destroyed the Crystal Palace passenger numbers fell and most services through the station were diverted to serve London-Croydon routes rather than running along the London Bridge-Victoria loop. The southern platforms became the busier pair and the entrance to the station was moved to the south side of the building in the 1980s. The two outer bay platforms, which were used by terminating trains, were abandoned in the 1970s and the third rail was removed, although the track and buffers were left in place. The southern bay was brought back into use in 2010 as part of the East London Line development. The original station was partially refurbished in 2002 . The original Victorian booking hall was reopened in 2012.
A 1908 Railway Clearing House map of railway routes in the Crystal Palace area.
Crystal Palace and the two stations map late 1800s and 1930s.
Crystal Palace Station Low Level Station today.
Crystal Palace High Level Station
Opened in 1865, from Cow Lane Junction east of Peckham Rye on the LBSCR, as "Crystal Palace (High Level)", renamed "Crystal Palace High Level and Upper Norwood" in 1898 and renamed "Crystal Palace High Level" in 1923. Temporarily closed in 1917 and reopened in 1919. Temporarily closed in 1944 and reopened in 1946. Finally closed in 1954.
The Paxton Tunnel was built between the proposed site of Upper Sydenham station in the North and the approach to Crystal Palace High Level in the south. Paxton Tunnel has carried various names, originally named Paxton Tunnel it is referred to as Sydenham tunnel on the later rail maps and is also known locally as both Upper Norwood or Nunhead.
The station has been demolished. Certain features still survive: the south portal of Paxton tunnel; the vaulted pedestrian subway under Crystal Palace Parade which linked the station with the Palace survives and is a Grade 2 listed building occasionally opened for public visits; the concourse on the east side of Crystal Palace Parade although now roofless; two bricked up entrances to the station can be seen in the wall on the west side of Crystal Palace Parade; the retaining walls below Crystal Palace Parade.
The station was an outstanding example of Victorian architecture. From the south portal of Paxton tunnel the line splayed out into a series of sidings and the impressive terminus designed by Edward Middleton Barry. Four tracks entered the station through narrow openings at the London end serving two wooden platforms in each side of the station. The two inner lines had platform faces on both sides to speed the loading and unloading of the expected packed trains. At the far end of the station, the tracks passed through the end walls through a second series of narrow opening to a turntable beyond the bridge over Farquhar Road; this allowed trains to run round and avoid delays. One half of the station was intended for first class passengers, who were given segregated access in the centre transept of the Palace. A subway under Crystal Palace Parade linked the station directly with the Palace. The subway consisted of a wide vaulted and tiled chamber resembling a Byzantine crypt; it was designed and built by cathedral craftsmen brought over from Italy. Nine sidings were provided to cater for goods traffic and to stable additional locomotives and carriages.
Sadly the station never fulfilled its potential. Although the opening of the Palace had encouraged the development of Sydenham and Upper Norwood as quality middle-class suburbs, the Palace itself was very much in decline as an attraction in the last decades of the Victorian era. By 1890, extensive repairs were required and ten years later, the Palace had been divided up into booths and stalls.
The station was closed as an economy measure during both wars and during WW2 the extensive sidings were used to store rolling stock that had been made redundant by the war including buffet and second class boat train carriages. The subway and adjacent courtyard survived the 1936 fire and was used as an air raid shelter during the war.
After the war, the station was in a very run down condition, much of the glass trainshed roof had been shattered during relentless bombing and no attempt was made to repair it allowing rain to pour in to the station. As a result the timber platforms were soon covered by vegetation with the rats scurrying under the platforms far outnumbering the passengers. By this time only one platform was in use with the northern stairs, concourse and booking office being abandoned to the elements while that at the other and was little used outside peak hours. Safety nets were draped from the roof to protect passengers from falling debris.
After closure the crumbling structure survived until 1961 when the station was demolished leaving only the high retaining wall on the west side of Crystal Palace Parade, the vaulted subway beneath the road and the now roofless concourse at the east end of the subway.
Over the years there have been a number of rumours relating to the High Level station. There is a rumour that in one of the sealed tunnels in the area, an engine or carriage remains hidden collecting dust. Another version of the story, popular amongst local schoolchildren, claims that the High Level station was closed because a commuter train was trapped by a tunnel collapse, entombing the passengers who remain there to this day. These stories are an example of the extraordinary persistence of local urban legend. The story of the entombed train was apparently current in the 1930s. Back then it referred to the abandoned 1860s pneumatic railway on the north side of the grounds of Crystal Palace Park.
Crystal Palace Station High Level Station 1865, 1908 and 1961.
Crystal Palace Station High Level Station - Paxton Tunnel 1900s.
Crystal Palace Station High Level Station 1950s.
Crystal Palace:The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and plate-glass structure originally built in Hyde Park to house the Great Exhibition of 1851 and designed by Joseph Paxton. The invention of the cast plate glass method in 1848 made possible the production of large sheets of cheap but strong glass, and its use in the Crystal Palace created a structure with the greatest area of glass ever seen in a building and astonished visitors with its clear walls and ceilings that did not require interior lights. The name of the building resulted from a piece penned by the playwright Douglas Jerrold, who in July 1850 wrote in Punch about the forthcoming Great Exhibition, referring to a "palace of very crystal".
After the exhibition, it was decided to relocate the Palace to an area of South London to be rebuilt on Penge Common, at the top of Penge Peak next to Sydenham Hill, an affluent suburb of large villas. It stood there from 1854 until its destruction by fire in 1936.
While the original palace cost £150,000 (equivalent to £14.8 million in 2015), the move to Sydenham cost £1,300,000(£119 million in 2015), burdening the company with a debt it never repaid, partly because admission fees were depressed by the inability to cater for Sunday visitors. However, the Palace was open on Sundays by 1861. By the 1890s the Palace's popularity and state of repair had deteriorated; the appearance of stalls and booths had made it a more downmarket attraction. In the years after the Festival of Empire the building fell into disrepair, as the huge debt and maintenance costs became unsustainable, and in 1911 bankruptcy was declared. In 1914 the Earl of Plymouth bought it, to save it from developers. A public subscription subsequently bought it from the Earl for the nation. In the 1920s, a board of trustees was set up under the guidance of manager Sir Henry Buckland. He is said to have been a firm but fair man, who had a great love for the Crystal Palace, and soon set about restoring the deteriorating building. The restoration not only brought visitors back, but also meant that the Palace started to make a small profit once more.
On 30 November 1936 came the final catastrophe fire. Within hours the Palace was destroyed: the glow was visible across eight counties. Just as in 1866, when the north transept burnt down, the building was not adequately insured to cover the cost of rebuilding. All that was left standing after the fire were the two water towers.
Crystal Palace.
Crystal Palace Pneumatic Railway: The railway was designed by Thomas Webster Rammell, where a carriage fitted with a large collar of bristles was sucked along an airtight tunnel. It operated for just over two months, and may have been a demonstration line for a more substantial atmospheric railway planned between Waterloo and Whitehall, construction of which was started under the Thames but never completed. The tunnel was built in a shallow trench and the contemporary illustration showing the line disappearing beneath the landscape seems to be no more than artistic licence although, as built, earth may have been drawn up around the structure.
The tunnel ran for 600 yards between the Sydenham and Penge entrances to the park. The line operated from 27 August 1864 to October 1864. It is unclear what became of the line, as records do not state what happened after it ceased to operate.
Crystal Palace Pneumatic Railway.
Further information can be found at Wiki - Crystal Palace railway station, and Wiki - Crystal Palace (High Level) railway station, and Disused Stations - Crystal Palace High Level and Upper Norwood, and Subterranea Britannica, and Wiki - The Crystal Palace, and Wiki - Crystal Palace pneumatic railway.
Forest Hill Station
Opened by the original London & Croydon Railway (L&CR) in 1839 as "Dartmouth Arms" (the name of the local inn), renamed in 1845 as "Forest Hil". The line was also used by the London and Brighton Railway from 1841 and the South Eastern Railway (SER) from 1842.
In 1844, the station was chosen by the L&CR as the northern terminus for Phase 1 of an experimental Atmospheric railway to West Croydon. A pumping station was also constructed at the station. The L&CR and the L&BR merged to form the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) in July 1846; the following year "atmospheric" working was abandoned.
The LB&SCR station buildings were destroyed by bombing during World War II and have been replaced by a more modern system-built structure.
Forest Hill Station map early 1900s.
Forest Hill Station 1862 and 1949.
Honor Oak Park Station
Opened by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1886.
Honor Oak Park Station map early 1900s.
Honor Oak Park Station today.
Brockley Station
Opened by the London and Croydon Railway in 1871, although today's buildings are of a modern design.
At the London end the line is crossed by the Nunhead to Lewisham line. At this location adjacent to Brockley station was sited Brockley Lane station which closed in 1917.
Brockley Station map early 1900s.
Brockley Station 1955.
New Cross Gate Station
England's railway boom of the 1830s led to two competing companies driving lines through the area. The first, the London and Croydon Railway (L&CR), established a station on New Cross Road close to Hatcham in 1839. The second, the South Eastern Railway (SER), established a station near Amersham Way in the heart of New Cross in 1849. After both stations came under the ownership of the Southern Railway in 1923 the former L&CR station was renamed "New Cross Gate". During the 19th century, New Cross (Gate) became an important junction where the South London Line, the East London Line, and the Bricklayers Arms Line diverged from the Brighton Main Line to London Bridge.
For a short time in 1847 the station at New Cross was the northern terminus of the atmospheric propulsion system introduced by the L&CR.
The original station was officially opened in 1839 by the London and Croydon Railway. It was intended to become the main freight depot and locomotive workshop for the company. In 1847 the newly formed LB&SCR closed the existing New Cross station, replacing it with another at Cold Blow Lane 0.25 miles to the north, in an attempt to secure passengers from the planned North Kent Line of the SER. This move was not a success and was subject to much local criticism, so in 1849 the LB&SCR rebuilt and re-opened New Cross on the original site. The current station therefore dates from 1849 but was again rebuilt in 1858 to allow for the quadrupling of the Brighton Main Line. Further rebuilding was undertaken in 1869 when the East London Railway opened a line from New Cross to Whitechapel and Liverpool Street.
For the opening of the East London Railway (ELR) a separate ELR station was built in 1869 adjacent to the LB&SCR station. It was closed in 1876 and the trains were diverted to the adjacent LB&SCR station. It was reopened in 1884 for additional Metropolitan District Railway services only for it to close two years later. The ELR station was then demolished around 1900 and the site used for sidings.
The London and Croydon planned to use New Cross as the London terminal for its freight traffic, as the station had good access to the Grand Surrey Canal. It therefore built extensive sidings for this purpose. After 1849 the principal freight-handling facility in the area was moved to Willow Walk on the Bricklayers Arms site, but the sidings continued to be used for the storage of carriages. An Ordnance Survey map for 1871 shows a substantial carriage shed on the west side of the main line, north of the station, but this was no longer shown on the 1894 map. It had been replaced by a combined carriage and locomotive shed on the east side of the line in 1894, but this closed in 1906.
Cross-London freight services were operated to the yard by the Great Eastern Railway, which maintained its own goods depot on the site from the 1870s. These services were continued by the London and North Eastern Railway from 1923, and after 1948 by the Eastern Region of British Railways. They ceased to operate in 1962.
The L&CR opened a motive power depot and a locomotive repair facility here in 1839. The original building, one of the earliest roundhouses, burned down in 1844. A replacement was built in 1845, and a straight shed built by the LB&SCR in 1848 was blown down in a gale in 1863. Two further buildings were constructed by the LB&SCR in 1863 and 1869. By 1882 the second (1845) Croydon shed was derelict and in that year was replaced by the new shed, which was rebuilt with a new roof by the Southern Railway (SR) prior to 1929. The various running sheds began to be run down during the 1930s, but the onset of war meant that they were not formally closed until 1947 and were used for stabling locomotive until 1951. They were demolished in 1957 together with the repair workshops, and replaced by sidings for the storage of electric multiple units. The locomotive workshops established by the L&CR continued to undertake minor repairs on locomotives in the London area for the LB&SCR and the SR, and also briefly for British Railways. They were closed in 1949.
New Cross Gate Stations, Engine Sheds and Railway Works map early 1900s.
New Cross Gate Station and ELR station 1860s.
New Cross Gate Station 1839 and after fire in 1844.
South Bermondsey Station
The original station was situated to the north-west of South Bermondsey Junction, on the northern side of Rotherhithe New Road. It opened in 1866 with the South London Line, and was originally named "Rotherhithe"; it was renamed "South Bermondsey" in 1869. It closed in 1928, when the present station, situated south of South Bermondsey Junction, took its place. The 1928 station is on an embankment, and its platforms and buildings are of wooden construction.
South Bermondsey Station map early 1900s.
South Bermondsey Station today.
Spa Road Station
First station (18361838)[edit] In 1833 an Act of Parliament granted the London & Greenwich Railway (L&GR) the rights to build a 4 miles viaduct from the south end of London Bridge to Greenwich and to run trains along it. However, the line was partially opened to the public well before its full length had been completed in order to maximise revenue income as soon as possible. Other companies were in the process of building their own railway lines and the L&GR wished to gain the commercial advantage of being the first to open for business. The station was, in fact, the first London terminus albeit for less than a year.
Spa Road station was within the parish of Bermondsey, which was then an industrial and working class area. From there the line crossed over marshes and market gardens to reach Deptford and Greenwich. The station itself was very basic. It was squeezed into a narrow space on a two-track viaduct with no room for buildings of any sort. The company did not even refer to it as a station but as a "stopping place." The platforms were accessed via wooden staircases on the outside of the viaduct, the one on the south side having a small wooden hut at the bottom for issuing tickets. If the platform was full, passengers were supposed to queue on the steps to wait for the trains. In practice, though, they often queued on the track itself. The company had not originally intended to provide platforms at all and had fitted its carriages with steps to allow passengers to board from track level, but found that low platforms were more convenient.
The board decided to open a 2.5 miles stretch from Spa Road to Deptford early in1836 and between London Bridge and Spa Road late 1836. There were no services after dark, as there were no signals on the line and it was not illuminated. Usage of Spa Road station dropped significantly after the opening of London Bridge railway station, and drivers began to go straight through without stopping if they had no passenger requests. This changed in 1838 when the company's directors ordered trains to stop at Spa Road hourly throughout the day and reserved half a carriage for passengers to and from the station on Sundays and holidays. The station was still little used and closed1838 and remained out of use until 1842.
The viaduct was so narrow that the carriages only had a clearance of about 20 inches between their sides and the parapet wall, and about 3 feet clearance in the centre. There was no room for buildings of any description anywhere on the line. The company came under pressure to reopen Spa Road station, as competition from the railway had caused the demise of a horse-drawn coach service from Bermondsey to Deptford. It agreed to construct an improved station when the line was widened. This involved moving the access staircase to the north side of the viaduct, building a waiting and booking office room in the arches and constructing a shed over the line. The new station opened in 1842.
The station was upgraded in 1843 and 1844 and rebuilt by the South Eastern Railway in 1845 In 1850 a small shelter for ticket collectors was erected on the Spa Road platform and trains to London Bridge were stopped there to carry out ticket collections before arriving at their destination. This arrangement continued until Charing Cross railway station was opened in 1864.
In 1867 the station was resited further along the viaduct about 200 yards to the east and renamed as "Spa Road & Bermondsey" in 1877.
1915, the station was closed as a wartime economy measure. Spa Road continued to be used by railwaymen until 1925 when it finally ceased to be used by the railway.
By the mid-1980s the old station had fallen into dereliction. Parts of the station still exist; platform remnants are visible, the frontage of the station is still extant and displays the signage of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway. The disused platforms can still be reached via the old ticket office and have occasionally been used in emergencies.
Further information can be found at Wiki - Spa Road railway station, and Disused Stations - Spa Road and Bermondsey.
Spa Road Station maps 1854 and 1860s.
Spa Road Station 1836 and early 1900s.
Spa Road Station 1926 and 1958.
London Bridge Station
Opened in 1836 south of the River Thames in Tooley Street, making it the first and oldest of the current London railway termini. It was not the earliest station in the present London metropolitan area, as the London and Greenwich Railway opened stations first at Spa Road and Deptford earlier in 1836.
Delays in the completion of a bridge at Bermondsey Street postponed the opening of the line into London Bridge station until December 1836. This meant that from 10 October 1836 trains were able to operate as far as the east end of Bermondsey Street bridge, but no further, with passengers having to walk the last hundred or so yards.
The original station was 60 ft wide and 400 ft long and contained four tracks and was approached through a pair of iron gates. It was later covered with a wooden trussed pitched roof. Prior to completion of the train shed, the London and Greenwich Railway entered into an agreement with the proposed London and Croydon Railway for the latter to use its tracks from Corbett's Lane, Bermondsey, and to share its station. The Greenwich railway had however underestimated the cost of building the long viaduct leading to London Bridge and was not able to build a sufficiently large station for the traffic for both companies, and so in July 1836 it sold some land adjacent to its station (then still under construction) to the Croydon railway to build their own independent station.
The London and Brighton Railway and the South Eastern Railway (SER) were also then planning routes from London to Brighton and Dover respectively, and the British Parliament decided that the London and Greenwich line should become the entry corridor into London from South East England. Thus these two railways were required to share the route of the London and Croydon Railway from near Norwood (which in turn shared the route of the London and Greenwich Railway from Bermondsey to London Bridge). As a result, in 1838 the London and Croydon Railway obtained powers to enlarge the station it was then constructing at London Bridge, even before it had opened for traffic. The London and Croydon Railway opened its line and began using its station on 5 June 1839, the London and Brighton Railway joined it in July 1841, followed by the South Eastern Railway in December 1842. Fairly quickly it was found that the viaduct approaching London Bridge would be inadequate to deal with the traffic generated by four railways and so between 1840 and 1842 the Greenwich railway widened it, doubling the number of tracks to four. The new lines, intended for the Croydon, Brighton and South Eastern trains, were situated on the south side of the existing Greenwich line, whereas their station was to the north of the London Bridge site, giving rise to an awkward and potentially dangerous crossing of one another's lines. The directors of the companies involved therefore decided to exchange the station sites. The London and Greenwich Railway would take over the newly completed London and Croydon Railway station, whilst a new joint committee of the Croydon, Brighton and South Eastern companies would demolish the first station and build a new joint station on its site.
Plans for a large new station were drawn up, designed jointly by Lewis Cubitt, John Urpeth Rastrick and Henry Roberts. It opened for business in July 1844 while only partially complete, but events were taking place which would mean that the bell tower would never be built, and the new building would only last five years.
In 1843 the South Eastern, and the Croydon railway companies became increasingly concerned by the high tolls charged by the London and Greenwich Railway for the use of the station approaches, and gained Parliamentary approval to build their own independent line into south London to a new station at Bricklayer's Arms. This line opened in 1844 and most of the services from these two companies were withdrawn from London Bridge, leaving only the Greenwich and Brighton companies using London Bridge station. The Greenwich company, which was in financial difficulties beforehand, was on the brink of bankruptcy and so was forced to lease its lines to the South Eastern Railway (SER), which took effect from January 1845. The following year the Croydon and Brighton companies merged with others to form the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR). As a result of these amalgamations, there were now only two companies wishing to use the two adjoining stations at London Bridge. As a result, the LB&SCR used the unfinished joint station until 1849, when it was demolished to make way for an enlarged station.
The SER took over the second London and Greenwich station (which had been built for the London and Croydon Railway) and sought to develop that site rather than continue to invest in the former joint station, which became the property of the LB&SCR. The SER station was therefore rebuilt and enlarged between 1847 and 1850, to a design by Samuel Beazley. At the same time yet further improvements were made to the station approaches, increasing the number of tracks to six, which entirely separated the lines of the two railways. Once these extensions were complete the SER closed its passenger terminus at Bricklayer's Arms and converted the site into a goods depot.
London Bridge station remained the London terminus of the SER until 1864 when its station was again rebuilt and five of the existing platforms were converted into a through station to enable the extension of the main line into central London and the opening of Charing Cross railway station, and in 1866 to Cannon Street station. In 1899 the SER entered into a working amalgamation with the London Chatham and Dover Railway (LC&DR) to form the South Eastern and Chatham Railway Companies Joint Management Committee. Junctions were laid to enable trains through London Bridge to reach the LC&DR stations at Holborn Viaduct and St Pauls.
The LB&SCR took over the unfinished joint station, which they demolished in 1849 and opened a temporary station in 1850. This was rebuilt and enlarged in 1853-4 to deal with the additional traffic from the lines to Sydenham and Crystal Palace. A three-storey box-like structure was erected, with the name of the railway emblazoned on the top parapet.
An Act of Parliament of 1862 gave the LB&SCR power to enlarge the station further. During the first decade of the twentieth century LB&SCR station at London Bridge was again enlarged, but overall London Bridge station remained a sprawling confusion.
The LB&SCR electrified the South London Line from London Bridge to Victoria in 1909 using an overhead system. Once this experiment proved to be successful other suburban services from the station were electrified, including the lines to Crystal Palace in 1912. Electrification of the main line to Croydon was not however completed until 1920 due to delays resulting from the First World War.
The grouping of the railways of southern England to form the Southern Railway in 1923 at last brought the two adjoining stations under single ownership. Between 1926 and 1928 the Southern Railway electrified the SE&CR suburban lines at London Bridge using a third rail electric system, and converted the existing LB&SCR routes to the same system. The Southern Railway electrified the Brighton Main Line services to Brighton and the South Coast in 1932/3.
Both the London Bridge stations were badly damaged by bombing in the London Blitz in December 1940 and early 1941. The shell of the two stations was patched up but the former Terminal Hotel, then used as railway offices, was rendered unsafe and demolished.
Between 1972 and 1978, British Rail (as it was then known) undertook a major redevelopment of the station and its approaches.
London Bridge Station map 1860s.
London Bridge Station 1836.
The proposed London Bridge joint station 1844.
The South Eastern Station (left) and the temporary Brighton station c. 1850 after the demolition of the Joint station.
The London Brighton and South Coast Railway station c. 1853.
Plan of the stations by 1888, with the SER's separate high- and low-level tracks, and the LB&SCR's new platforms 4, 5 and 6 and Terminus Hotel.
References:
Wiki - West Coastway Line
Wiki - London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
Wiki - London_and_Brighton_Railway
Wiki - London and South Western Railway
Wiki - Brighton Main Line
Spartacus Educational
Wiki - Cliftonville Curve
Wiki - Brighton Station
Wiki - Brighton Railway Works
Brighton Loco Works
Grace's Guide - Brighton Works
Wiki - London Road Viaduct
Wiki - Brighton London Road Station
Wiki - Brighton Lewes Road Station
Disused Stations - Brighton Lewes Road Station
Disused Stations - Hartington Road Halt
Disused Stations - Brighton Kemp Town Station
Wiki - Brighton Belle
Wiki - Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway
Wiki - Volk's Electric Railway
VERA
Urban75 - Brighton Sea Railway
Simplon Post Cards - Brighton Piers
Wiki - Royal Suspension Chain Pier
Wiki - Brighton West Pier
Brighton West Pier Trust
Wiki - Brighton Palace Pier
Wiki - Brighton Racecourse
Regency Society - James Gray Collection Wiki - Preston Park Station
Wiki - Hassocks Station
Wiki - Burgess Hill Station
Wiki - Wivelsfield Station
Wiki - Haywards Heath Station
Wiki - Ouse Valley Railway
Wiki - Ouse Valley Viaduct
Wiki - Balcombe Station
Wiki - Three Bridges Station
Disused Stations - Three Bridges Station
Wiki - Gatwick and Tinsley Green Stations
Wiki - Gatwick Racecourse
Wiki - Horley Station
Wiki - Salfords Station
Wiki - Earlswood Station
Wiki - Redhill Station
Wiki - Merstham Station
Wiki - Merstham Tunnels
Wiki - Coulsdon South Station
Wiki - Coulsdon North Station
Wiki - Coulsdon Town Station
Wiki - Coulsdon
Disused Stations - Coulsdon North Station
Wiki - Purley Station
Wiki - Purley Oaks Station
Wiki - South Croydon Station
Wiki - East Croydon Station
Wiki - Central Croydon Station
Disused Stations - Central Croydon Station
Wiki - West Croydon Station
Wiki - Norwood Junction Station
Wiki - Anerley Station
Wiki - Sydenham Station
Wiki - Crystal Palace Station
Disused Stations - Crystal Palace Station HighLevel
Wiki - Crystal Palace Station HighLevel
Wiki - Crystal Palace
Wiki - Crystal Palace Pneumatic Railway
Wiki - Forest Hill Station
Wiki - Honor Oak Park Station
Wiki - Brockley Station
Kent Rail - Brockley Station
Wiki - New Cross Gate Station
Wiki - South Bermondsey Station
Disused Stations - Spa Road and Bermondsey
Wiki - Spa Road Station
Wiki - London Bridge Station
ASLEF - Lancing
The Sussex Motive Power Depots
The Brighton Motive Power Depots
Gravelroots
Southern E Group
Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society
British Railways Engine Sheds 1948 to 1994
Gerald-massey.org.uk
Old Maps Online