Bexhill
 The main entrance to the station photographed on 2nd August 2009. photograph by Gregory Beecroft |
| Bexhill station in East Sussex was opened by the LB&SCR
in 1846 when their route from Brighton to St Leonards was opened. Fifty years
later the SER built a line from Crowhurst, on that company's Hastings
line, to their own terminal station in Bexhill, though not as conveniently
situated for the town as the LB&SCR station. As a result, despite the
SER route to London being shorter and quicker than that of the LB&SCR the
travelling public preferred to use the latter's services - much to the
chagrin of the SER which had built a grandiose terminus, with capacity for four
platforms (though ony three had tracks laid and only two of those were normally
used). When the Southern Railway was formed the ex-S E R (latterly SE&CR)
station became Bexhill West and the ex-LB&SCR station became Bexhill
Central.
This situation continued, with no connection between the two, for many years until the line to Bexhill West was closed and lifted in 1964, the former Bexhill Central then becoming plain Bexhill. In 2005 there was a proposal to end the through service to Victoria but a local action group was set up and proved successful in keeping this service. There is also a campaign running today for the upgrading of the Marshlink line to Ashford and the running of SouthEastern high speed services through Bexhill to Eastbourne. In the other direction, via Hastings, the journey time to London would be slashed from 1 hour 52 minutes to approximately 1 hour 15 minutes. |
 |
The spacious, light and airy booking hall. Note the use of
BR-style totems - and the colour of those on the Trackside Cafe!
photograph by Gregory Beecroft |
| The splendid Victorian ironwork in the roof of the booking hall.
photograph by Gregory Beecroft |
 |
 |
The station buildings are built on a bridge over the railway and
this photograph shows the exit to the booking hall.
photograph by Gregory Beecroft |
| One of the wide subways that lead down to the platforms.
photograph by Gregory Beecroft |
 |
 |
The 1910 built station footbridge providing access to, and exit
from, Nº2 platform via the station buildings.
photograph by Gregory Beecroft |
All photographs are copyright
First | 2nd
This page was created 9 December 2009
