Addiscombe railway station was a terminus to the east of central

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

, on Lower Addiscombe Road between Hastings Road and Grant Road. The East India Way housing development stands on the site.

History

Opened by the

Mid-Kent Railway The Mid Kent & North Kent Junction Railway (usually referred to as the Mid Kent Railway) was an early railway in Kent England. (Note the name is given both with and without the hyphen in different sources.) History Origins The Mid Kent Railway wa ...

, it was part of the South Eastern Railway, which became part of the Southern Railway at the

Grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

of 1923. Addiscombe station was built with three platforms with extensive canopies, a fairly large station building and concourse, but the station was slowly run down after the Second World War. After

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

in 1948 the line became part of the

Southern Region of British Railways The Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948 until 1992 when railways were re-privatised. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s. The region covered south London, southern England and the sout ...

. In 1956 platform 3 was closed and removed, and the goods yard closed in 1968. Later regular through trains to London were withdrawn and the service reduced to a shuttle service to and from Elmers End. In 1993 the carriage depot was closed and around the same time the station became unstaffed with a PERTIS ticket machine outside the entrance. When sectorisation was introduced, the station was part of

Network SouthEast Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the netwo ...

until the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the industr ...

, which

Connex South Eastern Connex South Eastern was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Connex that operated the South Eastern franchise from October 1996 until November 2003. History On 13 October 1996 Connex commenced operating the South Eastern ...

took over. During its last years it received the station code "ACM" and was in travelcard zone 5. When the signal box was burnt down in 1996, the line was reduced to a single track operation and only platform 2 was used. The last train (an enthusiasts' railtour) was on the evening of Saturday 31 May 1997, which also visited the West Croydon–Wimbledon line, also closed that day. The station was closed in preparation for the construction of

Tramlink London Trams, previously Tramlink and Croydon Tramlink, is a light rail tram system serving Croydon and surrounding areas in South London, England. It began operation in 2000, the first tram system in the London region since 1952. It is manage ...

, opening in 2000 along the former line from

Elmers End Elmers End is an area of south-east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, Greater London and formerly part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south of Beckenham, west of Eden Park, north of Monks Orchard and east of An ...

to Woodside, then following the line towards

Sanderstead Sanderstead is a village and medieval-founded church parish at the southern end of Croydon in south London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon, and formerly in the historic county of Surrey, until 1965. It takes in Purley Downs and S ...

, which had closed in 1983. Addiscombe tram stop is half a mile to the east. The station was demolished in 2001 and the site was used for the East India Way housing development – named after the

East India Company Military Seminary The East India Company Military Seminary was a British military academy at Addiscombe, Surrey, in what is now the London Borough of Croydon. It opened in 1809 and closed in 1861. Its purpose was to train young officers to serve in the East India ...

which was located nearby. All that survives are sections of the walls formerly supporting the canopy and station buildings. Part of the line beyond has become

Addiscombe Railway Park Addiscombe Railway Park, also known as the Addiscombe Linear Park, is a park in Addiscombe, South London, managed by the London Borough of Croydon. The first section of the park was opened on 26 May 2007, with the second stage opened on 15 Ma ...

. There had been a bid for the station to house a working railway museum, which Croydon Council opposed.

References

* *

External links

Subterranea Britannica Page

Croydon Council page on Addiscombe Railway Park
{{coord, 51.379618, -0.081535, type:railwaystation_region:GB_source:subbrit.org.uk-enwiki, display=title Disused railway stations in the London Borough of Croydon Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1864 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1997 Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Croydon