Belmont (Sutton) railway station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Belmont | |||
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|---|---|---|---|
| Location | |||
| Place | Belmont | ||
| Local authority | London Borough of Sutton | ||
| Operations | |||
| Station code | BLM | ||
| Managed by | Southern | ||
| Platforms in use | 1 | ||
| Live departures and station information from National Rail | |||
| Annual Passenger Usage | |||
| 2004/05 * | 50,732 | ||
| 2005/06 * | 57,688 | ||
| Transport for London | |||
| Zone | 5 | ||
| History | |||
| Key dates | Opened 1865 | ||
| Transport for London List of London stations: Underground | National Rail |
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| * Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Belmont from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. | |||
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Belmont railway station serves the suburb of Belmont in the London Borough of Sutton in south London. The station is located on the Epsom Downs line, part of the Sutton & Mole Valley Line services of the Southern, and is in Travelcard Zone 5.
[edit] History
The station was opened by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, as part of the Epsom Downs branch line, on 22 May 1865. The branch was originally laid as double track because of the race traffic, and was electrified on 17 June 1928. Now the branch has been singled for most of its length, and trains stopping at Belmont use only the Down platform, where a modern CLASP (pre-fabricated concrete) building was erected in the 1970s. (This has since been demolished and cleared away.) The Up platform still exists, however, as does the footbridge connecting the two platforms.
The station was originally named California, and was only changed to Belmont in 1875. A local resident John Gibbons was charged with poaching, but not wishing to be sentenced to transportation he fled to the USA in 1850 to join the California Gold Rush running a supply store for the miners. Having made his fortune, he returned around 1860 to the area and built a public house called the California Arms, after which the station was named. The name was changed to Belmont due to the large number of mail items being wrongly sent to California, USA.
The California Arms is now known as the Belmont Country Carvery, and is a new building built on the site in 1955. The original was heavily damaged by German bombing in 1941. A plaque on the wall commemorates a Private Gibb who held up the debris for three hours while buried women were rescued. For his bravery, he was awarded the BEM.
[edit] Train services
The typical off-peak service from the station is one train per hour to London Victoria via Sutton, West Croydon, Norbury and Clapham Junction, and one train per hour to Epsom Downs. After 7pm these services run via Crystal Palace rather than Norbury.
[edit] External links
- Train times and station information for Belmont (Sutton) railway station from National Rail
- Belmont (Sutton) railway station is at coordinates Coordinates:
| Preceding station | National Rail | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sutton | Southern Sutton & Mole Valley Lines Mondays-Saturdays only |
Banstead | ||
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