Leamington Spa Avenue railway station was a station serving Leamington Spa,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

. It opened in 1854, and was located immediately to the north of the current surviving

Leamington Spa railway station Leamington Spa railway station serves the town of Royal Leamington Spa, in Warwickshire, England. It is situated on Old Warwick Road towards the southern edge of the town centre. It is a major stop on the Chiltern Main Line between London and ...

, it offered services to , and . It closed in 1965.

History

It was opened in February 1854 by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR), three years after the line from Coventry to Leamington was extended from its original terminus at Milverton into the centre of Leamington, and joined end-on to the branch line to Rugby. It was built alongside the Great Western Railway's Leamington station (which is still in operation) and provided a more convenient station in Leamington than the LNWR's original Milverton terminus. The original station was temporary, and made from wood, it was rebuilt as a permanent brick station in 1860. Leamington Spa Avenue provided passenger services towards Coventry, Rugby and, from 1895 Weedon via Daventry. The local passenger services to Weedon were withdrawn in 1958, and those to Rugby in 1959, but the lines remained open a few years longer for freight. The Coventry service remained until it too was withdrawn, and the station closed in 1965 as a part of the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the M ...

. The Coventry line continued for freight, and was diverted into the former Great Western station and the branches towards Rugby and Weedon were closed. The site of the station was levelled in 1977 to make way for redevelopment. The site was originally covered by a

garage A garage is a covered structure built for the purpose of parking, storing, protecting, maintaining, and/or repairing vehicles. Specific applications include: *Garage (residential), a building or part of a building for storing one or more vehicle ...

bus depot A bus garage, also known as a bus depot, bus base or bus barn, is a facility where buses are stored and maintained. In many conurbations, bus garages are on the site of former car barns or tram sheds, where trams (streetcars) were stored, and ...

and public

car park A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

. In the late 2010s the site was cleared to make way for low rise residential housing and

offices An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...

. File:165_of_'Illustrated_Guide_to_Leamington_Spa,_Warwick,_Kenilworth,_and_Coventry'_(11247397393).jpg, 1898 map of Leamington showing the position of Milverton, Avenue and the GWR stations File:Site of Leamington Spa Avenue Station - geograph.org.uk - 25668.jpg, Site of Avenue station in 2005 File:Site of Leamington Avenue station 5.23.jpg, The site of Avenue station in 2023

References

{{Warwickshire railway stations, disused Disused railway stations in Warwickshire Former London and North Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1844 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1965 Beeching closures in England