Honor Oak railway station was a station opened in December 1865 in

Honor Oak Honor Oak is an inner suburban area principally of the London Borough of Lewisham, with part in the London Borough of Southwark. It is named after the oak tree on One Tree Hill that Elizabeth I is reputed to have picnicked under. Overview One Tr ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway on the

Crystal Palace and South London Junction Railway The Crystal Palace and South London Junction Railway (CPSLJR) was built by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) from to Crystal Palace High Level to serve the Crystal Palace after the building was moved to the area that became known as ...

. The line was built to carry passengers to

The Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibit ...

after its move from

Hyde Park Hyde Park may refer to: Places England * Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London * Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds * Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield * Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester Austra ...

. The station featured two wooden platforms, and apart from two brief closures during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, it remained open until 1954 when the entire branch line was closed. The station was demolished around 1956–7 and afterwards the site has been redeveloped with housing. Honor Oak railway station was about half a mile west of

Honor Oak Park railway station Honor Oak Park railway station serves the suburban area of Honor Oak in the London Borough of Lewisham. It is down the line from , between and . The station is operated by London Overground, with London Overground and Southern trains servin ...

which remains open.

Description

Honor Oak station was located in the

suburb of south London, to the south of Forest Hill Road and to the east of Wood Vale. The

Camberwell Old Cemetery The two Camberwell cemeteries are close to one another in Honor Oak, south London, England. Both have noteworthy burials and architecture, and they are an important source of socioeconomic data in recording the historical growth and changing dem ...

is across Wood Vale to the left. It was situated on the

branch line, which ran from the Lewisham line at Nunhead to a terminus at

Crystal Palace (High Level) railway station Crystal Palace (High Level) was a railway station in South London. It was one of two stations built to serve the new site of the Great Exhibition building, the Crystal Palace, when it was moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham Hill after 1851. It w ...

. The station had two wooden platforms, situated on the outside of the tracks, with a small shelter on each. It was built on an embankment, which was prone to slippage over the years, affecting the level and alignment of the platforms. A

subway Subway, Subways, The Subway, or The Subways may refer to: Transportation * Subway, a term for underground rapid transit rail systems * Subway (underpass), a type of walkway that passes underneath an obstacle * Subway (George Bush Interconti ...

passed under the tracks, and in the station's early years there was a booking office, situated in a wooden building to the east of the station. This was eventually closed and tickets were subsequently sold on the platforms. The station had a 13-lever signal box, which remained in use until closure in 1954. Honor Oak was the only station on the line between the two termini to feature a goods yard. This was located to the south of the station, on the western side of the tracks and had three sidings with capacity for twenty-five carriages. The yard was accessed via a road entrance on Wood Vale.

History

In 1851, the

Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary The Crystal Palace, structure in which it was held), was an International Exhib ...

was held in central London's

, in a large purpose-built glass and iron building known as the "Crystal Palace". At the conclusion of the exhibition, the building's designer, Sir

Joseph Paxton Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

, decided to relocate the building to some land in the Sydenham Hill in south London, creating a permanent public amenity which he dubbed as a "winter park and garden under glass". The palace was dismantled in Hyde Park, and rebuilt in what is now

Crystal Palace Park Crystal Palace Park is a Victorian pleasure ground located in the South London suburb of Crystal Palace which surrounds the site of the former Crystal Palace Exhibition building. The Palace had been relocated from Hyde Park, London after the 18 ...

by 1854. Anticipating passenger demand for travel to the new venue, the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway opened a branch line from the Brighton Main Line at

Sydenham Sydenham may refer to: Places Australia * Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Sydenham railway station, Sydney * Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne ** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne un ...

, terminating at the new Crystal Palace low level station, south of the palace and opening on the same day. The rival London, Chatham & Dover Railway began building its own line to the venue, which opened in August 1865 with services from Ludgate Hill, branching at Peckham Rye and terminating at Crystal Palace high level station, situated to the north of the palace. Initially this line had no intermediate stations but additional stops were added within a few months, including Honor Oak, which opened to passengers on 1 December 1865. The area was sparsely populated at the time, but was built to serve the

situated across Wood Vale as well as a new housing development to the south. The goods yard, used to store coal, was added at to the station after 1870. The station was closed from 1 January 1917 to 1 March 1919 in the wartime economy measures, and again from 22 May 1944 to 4 March 1946.Marshall, C.F.D (1963) History of the Southern Railway, 2nd ed, Ian Allan, London It was electrified in 1925, using the direct-current

third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway t ...

system at 600 volts, but passenger numbers declined after the Crystal Palace burnt down in 1936. Upon the line reopening in 1946 with the cost of repairing the war damage and declining passenger numbers the decision was taken to close the branch in 1954. The station was demolished around 1956–7. No trace of the station remains and the site is occupied by housing. The nearby Honor Oak Park station, on the Brighton Main Line, proved more popular with passengers and remains open as of 2020.

References

Bibliography *

Description

History

References

Further reading