Kemp Town railway station

Kemp Town
Kemp Town
General information
Location	Brighton & Hove
Platforms	1
History
Pre-grouping	London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway ; Southern Region of British Railways
Key dates
1869	Station opened
1933	Station closed to passengers
June 1971	Station closed to freight
26 June 1971	Special train service ran

Kemp Town railway station was the terminus station of the Kemp Town branch line, a short branch line serving the Kemptown district of Brighton, England.

The branch line opened in 1869, running from a junction off the Brighton to Lewes line between London Road and Moulsecoomb stations. It was expensive to construct, requiring a tunnel and a large viaduct.

The passenger service declined after 1917 due to tramway competition, and ceased at the end of 1932, but goods trains continued to operate on the line until 1971.

Opening

The Kemp Town branch line opened to traffic on 2 August 1869.^[1]^[2] There was a formal ceremonial opening on 6 August.

Although the line was constructed as a single line, and the terminus had only one platform, extensive land was acquired around the Kemp Town terminus for future development.^[1] During the 1870s, the goods yard was extended.^[3]

Development

In 1923 the LBSCR was made a constituent of the new Southern Railway following the Railways Act 1921. The Southern Railway decided to withdraw the passenger service on the line and the last passenger trains ran on 31 December 1932.^[2]^[4]

After passenger closure

The signal boxes at Kemp Town and Lewes Road were decommissioned and "one engine in steam" working was instituted on the line for the one or two daily goods trains; this arrangement started on 29 July 1933. There was an occasional Sunday School special excursion and enthusaists specials on the line after passenger closure.

The branch continued in use for goods purposes, and British Railways found it convenient to use Kemp Town goods station as a relief to the congested main goods depot of Brighton. A special passenger train service ran on 26 June 1971.The line finally closed on 14 August 1971.^[5]

Land use since closure

The site of Kemp Town station has been redeveloped as the Freshfield Industrial Estate.^[6]^[7] The only remaining evidence of a station is the portal of the railway tunnel to the north.^[5] This can be seen from the compound of a self-storage warehouse.^[6]

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Hartington Road Line and station closed		London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Kemp Town branch line		Terminus

References

Citations

^ ^a ^b Turner 1978, pp. 173–174.
^ ^a ^b M E Quick, Railway Passenger Stations in England Scotland and Wales—A Chronology, The Railway and Canal Historical Society, 2002
^ Mitchell & Smith 1985, Kemp Town : Fig. 31.
^ Peter A Harding, The Kemp Town Branch Line, self published, 1999, ISBN 0 952 3458 4 6
^ ^a ^b Mitchell & Smith 1985, The Kemp Town Branch : Historial Information.
^ ^a ^b "Kemp Town Junction". The Argus. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
^ "Disused Stations: Kemp Town Station". www.disused-stations.org.uk. Retrieved 8 June 2019.

Sources

Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (1985). Brighton to Eastbourne. Middleton Press. ISBN 0-906520-16-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Turner, J T Howard (1978). The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway: 2: Establishment and Growth. London: B T Batsford Ltd. ISBN 0-7134-1198-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)