Hove railway station serves

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th c ...

in the county of East Sussex, England. It is measured from . The station and the majority of trains serving it are operated by Southern.

Gatwick Express Gatwick Express is a high-frequency rail passenger service between , Gatwick Airport, and in South East England. It is the brand name used by the Govia Thameslink Railway train operating company on the Gatwick Express route of the Thameslink, ...

trains stable at Hove from time to time. It is the closest railway station to the

County Cricket Ground, Hove The County Cricket Ground, known for sponsorship reasons as The 1st Central County Ground, is a cricket venue in Hove, East Sussex, England. The County Ground is the home of Sussex County Cricket Club, where most Sussex home matches since 1872 ...

where

Sussex CCC Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Sussex. Its limited overs team is called the Sussex Sharks. The c ...

play matches.

History

The original Hove railway station, situated further to the east, opened on 11 May 1840 by the

London & Brighton Railway The London and Brighton Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in England which was incorporated in 1837 and survived until 1846. Its railway ran from a junction with the London and Croydon Railway (L&CR) at Norwood – which gives it access fro ...

, on its line from Brighton to Shoreham-by-Sea, designed by the architect

David Mocatta David Alfred Mocatta (1806–1882) was a British architect and a member of the Anglo-Jewish Mocatta family. Early career David Alfred Mocatta was born to a Sephardic Jewish family in 1806, the son of the licensed bullion broker Moses Mocat ...

. It closed on 1 March 1880, and the site became part of ''Holland Road Goods Depot. A wooden halt named Holland Road Halt was also opened a short distance to the west in 1905, served by local trains towards Worthing and on the branch line to Devil's Dyke. This closed in 1956, and no trace now remains of its platforms. The present Hove station was opened on 1 October 1865. It was originally named Cliftonville, then West Brighton, before being renamed Hove and West Brighton in 1894 and finally Hove in 1895.

Station architecture

The original station building, dating from the station's opening in 1865, is on the south side of the line and to the east of the present ticket office and concourse, being separated from this by a long footbridge (a

public right of way A right-of-way (ROW) is a right to make a way over a piece of land, usually to and from another piece of land. A right of way is a type of easement granted or reserved over the land for transportation purposes, such as a highway, public footp ...

) linking the residential roads of Goldstone Villas and Hove Park Villas. The section of road on which the original building stands is called Station Approach. It is currently in commercial use. The design is very similar to that of the buildings still in use at West Worthing,

Shoreham-by-Sea Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in West Sussex, England. The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to its west by the Adur Valley and to its south by the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on th ...

Portslade Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid de ...

and London Road stations, and the former Kemp Town station in Brighton. In 1893, coinciding with the first renaming, a new building was provided to the west. This contains the current ticket office and other station facilities. A large steel and glass porte-cochere stands outside at an angle, sheltering the

taxi rank A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...

, forecourt and entrance area. This was moved from London Victoria following rebuilding works there which had rendered it redundant. The island platform is reached by subway; access from the footbridge between the old and new buildings is no longer possible, as the stairs from it are locked out of use. This platform has a modest building incorporating a café, staff accommodation and waiting room, with a separate toilet block. A wide canopy runs for most of the length of the platform.

Future developments

In 2007, a Department for Transport white paper on the

Thameslink Programme The Thameslink Programme, originally Thameslink 2000, was a £6billion project in south-east England to upgrade and expand the Thameslink rail network to provide new and longer trains between a wider range of stations to the north and to the ...

contained proposals to extend the Thameslink network to various additional routes in southern England; one of these would have been the section of the West Coastway line between Hove and Littlehampton, with services running via the Cliftonville Curve from the Brighton Main Line. Two trains per peak hour have been extended from London Bridge to Bedford from 20 May 2018 and an extra service will join in December 2018.

Layout

There are three platforms – Platforms 1 and 2 can be (and are) used for any combination of arrival or departure. Platform 3 cannot be used for arrivals from the West Coastway or departures towards London in the up direction.

Services

The station is situated a short distance west of the junction between the West Coastway line from Brighton and the Cliftonville Curve, which connects the West Coastway route with the

Brighton Main Line The Brighton Main Line (also known as the South Central Main Line) is a major railway line in the United Kingdom that links Brighton, on the south coast of England, with central London. In London the line has two branches, out of and station ...

. As a result, the station is often used for interchange between Brighton trains and those running to and from

London Victoria Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street (not the Q ...

via the Brighton Main Line. An

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...

allows straightforward

cross-platform interchange A cross-platform interchange is a type of interchange between different lines at a metro (or other railway) station. The term originates with the London Underground; such layouts exist in other networks but are not commonly so named. In the U ...

. A separate

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platform ...

, with direct access to the station concourse and exit, is used for westbound services. The typical off-peak service pattern is as follows:

Eastbound

*4tph to *2tph to

Westbound

*1tph to *1tph to *2tph to During the peak periods, there are a small number of trains between Littlehampton and London Bridge, operated by

Thameslink Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying ...

. Until May 2022, Great Western Railway operated limited services between Brighton,

Portsmouth Harbour Portsmouth Harbour is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Portsmouth and Gosport in Hampshire. It is a Ramsar site and a Special Protection Area. It is a large natural harbour in Hampshire, England. Geographically it ...

and

Bristol Temple Meads Bristol Temple Meads is the oldest and largest railway station in Bristol, England. It is located away from London Paddington. It is an important transport hub for public transport in the city; there are bus services to many parts of the city ...

that called at Hove.Great Western Railway services calling at Hove on 13 May 2022
Realtime Trains

References

External links

My Brighton and Hove - Holland Road HaltMy Brighton and Hove - the original Hove station and surroundings
{{TSGN and SE Stations, Coastway West=y, Mainline West=y, FCC None=y, SE None=y David Mocatta railway stations Former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway stations Grade II listed buildings in Brighton and Hove Grade II listed railway stations Hove Railway stations in Brighton and Hove DfT Category C2 stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1865 Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway