Mitcham station

Mitcham Station 1814. [Full image 31.5kb]

Mitcham Station 1814. [Full image 37.5kb]

Mitcham station is often called the oldest station in the world. This is a bit misleading. The first drawing here shows the station as it looked in 1814.If the drawing is accurate, it looks as if the SIR station was a separate complex, lying to the west of what is now London Road (A217).

The large merchants house to the left became converted to a station much later, in 1855, and the photo shows it as it is today.

However we have another drawing, below, which purports to show the station up for sale soon after its purchase by the new London and South Eastern Railway, which looks as if it lies, properly, on the Eastern side of the A217. The modern Mitcham Tramlink station, lies under what appears to be the open shed in the background of the picture.

Mitcham Station 1814. [Full image 31.5kb]

Plan of coal merchant's premises 1843. [Full image 33.1kb]

The final image shows the layout of the coal merchant's premises in 1843, from which we can reasonably deduce that, in SIR days, this was never a station, in the public sense, only a private goods yard.

It seems clear that the railway line was culverted to go beneath London Road, while the SIR ran at ground level.

Ed August 2003