Bishopstone railway station

Bishopstone railway station is on the western side of the town of Seaford, East Sussex, England. It is situated close to the coast, and about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the hamlet of Bishopstone after which it is named. Train services from the station are provided by Southern, and the station is on the Seaford Branch of the East Coastway Line, 58 miles 3 chains (93.4 km) measured from London Bridge.[1]

Bishopstone
LocationSeaford, Lewes
England
Grid referenceTV469998
Managed bySouthern
Platforms1
Other information
Station codeBIP
ClassificationDfT category F2
History
Post-groupingSouthern Railway
Key dates
26 September 1938Opened
1975Reduced to single track
Passengers
2015/16 28,982
2016/17 20,320
2017/18 33,686
2018/19 39,422
2019/20 41,660
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Before this station opened the first Bishopstone station was 0.6 miles (1 km) further west at Tide Mills. That was closed in 1938 when the current station opened, but was subsequently reopened under the name of Bishopstone Beach Halt, and survived as such until 1942.

Buildings and structures

The present station was designed by the architect James Robb Scott and opened on 26 September 1938, the same day that the original Bishopstone station at Tide Mills was first closed. The Art Deco design is said to be inspired by that of Arnos Grove tube station, which was designed by Charles Holden, and was intended to be the centrepiece of a proposed residential development that never took place due to the outbreak of the Second World War.[2]

The main building of the station is symmetrical, with an octagonal central booking hall and two extended wings. One of these wings formerly contained the ticket office and parcels office, and the other contained a waiting room and toilets. As-built, the station had two side platforms in a cutting, accessed by stairs from a footbridge linking to the main station building.[2]

In 1940 a pair of pillboxes was built on the roof of the main station building, flanking its octagonal tower. Despite the times, considerable effort was made to blend these into the original structure, and they are thus well camouflaged.[2]

The last member of staff to work at the station was withdrawn in 1988. Today the old booking office and parcel office is occupied by a small newsagent, and the remaining station facilities are disused, but the main access to the trains is still via the octagonal booking hall. The line was singled in 1975 and all trains now use the former up platform.[2]

Bishopstone Station is a grade II listed building. Because it is unstaffed and unsupervised, and the fact that it is largely boarded up and disused, it is on English Heritage's at-risk register.[2]

Services

As of May 2011 the typical off-peak service is:

There are also two through trains to London Victoria on weekday mornings, and one in the opposite direction in the evening.[3]

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Newhaven Harbour   Southern
Seaford Branch Line		   Seaford
  Historical railways  
Bishopstone Beach Halt
Line open, station closed		   Southern Railway
Seaford Branch Line		   Seaford
Line open, station open

Currently, all trains which pass through Bishopstone, call at the station, except for one early-morning Saturday-only service from Brighton to Seaford.

Incidents

On 3 July 1940 Luftwaffe fighter aircraft machine-gunned and bombed a train near Bishopstone Station. The train driver was killed and several passengers were wounded.[4]

  • View westward, towards Newhaven and Lewes in 1967
  • View westward, towards Newhaven and Lewes in 2012

References
  1. Yonge, John (November 2008) [1994]. Jacobs, Gerald (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 5: Southern & TfL (3rd ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. map 17A. ISBN 978-0-9549866-4-3.
  2. Leigh, Chris (12 January 2011). "Above their station: Bishopstone". Rail Magazine (661). Bauer Media Group. pp. 61–62.
  3. "Rail Timetable Table 189" (PDF). Network Rail. May 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 October 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2011.
  4. Gordon, Kevin (18 May 2006), "The train now standing at Bishopstone Beach . . .", Sussex Express

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