Stations on the Epsom Downs Branch

Belmont, the first station on the branch, is sited one and a quarter miles down the line from the junction at Sutton. The area consisted of less than a dozen scattered agricultural labourer's cottages before the South Metropolitan District School was constructed between 1852 and 1855. It served to accommodate children from impoverished south London families and was heavily extended shortly after the opening of the railway line. The presence of a railway station also triggered housing developments, and in the 1880s the first shops were opened - not surprisingly in Station Road. A post office was opened in 1890, by which time the number of inhabitants at Belmont had more than doubled in ten years to a total of 450 - not a very large number by any standards, but that same year a staggering 1,800 children were recorded to be in attendance at the Met District School (Kirby, 1983).

The school was closed as a consequence of the 1902 Education Act, and Belmont remained a very rural place right up until the 1930s, with the village growing around the railway station.

The station has quite a chequered history in respect to its name, having started out in life as "California". The LB&SCR chose this name with reference to the "California Arms" pub which existed there since 1861 and which can be seen on the 1871 survey map.

There are many stories relating how traffic destined for this station would quite often end up in the United States as officially there was no such place in Britain. Legend therefore has it that the stationmaster, faced with massive losses of consignments, suggested the renaming of the station (Kirby, 1983), and the station's name was changed to Belmont in 1875.

The "California Arms" however remained in place until destroyed by a direct German bomb hit in April 1941; rebuilt in the 1950s, it too was eventually renamed "The Belmont" in the 1980s.

The 1871 survey map also shows the private siding for the South Metropolitan Districts School, which was put out of use and lifted around 1889. The land in the vicinity at this time was still devoid of any housing.

As traffic flows came, changed, and went, all three stations on the branch saw considerable changes in their track layouts over time. Plans from 1865 indicate that both Belmont (still California at the time) and Banstead had goods yards, although mysteriously goods trains didn't appear in the working timetables until 1872 (Kirby, 1983). The trackplan below indicates the single track (black) that has served the station since October 1982, along with track that existed around 1920 but has been lifted over time (blue); Belmont goods yard closed in 1969.

But things are changing again. In January 2023 Sutton Council was able to announce that it had secured a £14.1 million cash injection from the government’s Levelling Up Fund in order to double the number of trains running to Belmont and thus improve public transport access to the London Cancer Hub being developed in Belmont, poised to create 13,000 jobs (Sutton.gov.uk, 2023). The proposal is to have "a siding turnback south of Belmont Station", which essentially means that the original double track from Sutton to Belmont will be reinstated. As the old track bed is still entirely within the existing railway boundary, no purchase of land is needed. The plan is to have the double track extension in operation by 2026.

The original station building of 1865 was severly damaged in 1940 by enemy action with "one side of Belmont station destroyed" (Robinson, 2005) and then completely destroyed in a bombing on 15 April 1941, killing 10 people and injuring many more (Edwards, 1959). There was nothing left to be rebuilt, and the station building was replaced with a prefabricated wooden ticket office.

Belmont station building, and looking towards Sutton (c.1920)

In time this was followed by a concrete CLASP (Consortium of Local Authorities Special Programme) shelter as part of a scheme developed in the 1950s by English local authorities to designe and assemble prefabricated buildings for use in the public sector. Belmont's concrete shelter became a fairly dismal affair over the years, and was finally removed by South Central as part of their station "upgrading programme" in 2004. The wording was slightly paradoxical in this case, as the upgrade resulted in the facilities being reduced to a simple shelterless platform. A proper refurbishment of the station concourse was then undertaken by Southern in 2005, adding a modern shelter, passenger information points, and a ticket vending machine.

Station name sign on the concrete shelter building in 2000

The station forecourt in 2005, after station refurbishment by Southern

The area has seen many changes as the open spaces which existed during the first fifty years of the railway line's existence gradually disappeared, as the comparison of historic and contemporary views of the station area illustrates.

The view towards Sutton in 1961 (left, Ben Brooksbank photograph, creative commons) and in 2005 (above)

Between 1961 and 2005, the scene has changed almost beyond recognition as the down line track and platform serve as the only points of reference left when comparing the two views, whereas the abundance of trees hides the fact that there are actually rows of houses to the left of the railway line.

The view looking towards Banstead (below) has changed in a similarly dramatic way over time. The view from Station Road Bridge in an early 1920s postcard (with Belmont Signal Box) is hardly recognizable in September 2005.

Brighton Road Bridge in the background is the one common landmark - other than the now single track - that remains and serves as a point of orientation.

Station Road Bridge, situated just a few yards away from the Banstead end of the platform, has served as vintage viewpoint for photographers of Belmont station for decades. All the above views - historic and contemporary - were taken looking down from this structure.

The reduction of the branch to single track on 3rd October 1982 made both the original up platform and the footbridge (needed to get there from the main station area) redundant. As with Banstead station, the abandoned platform site quickly became overgrown, but remnants could still be seen thrirty years later. Also still in place and visible (in the left hand foreground of the picture on the right) are the concrete foundations of the footbridge. No doubt these scenes will, once more, change significantly once the line is double-tracked again to this point.

10 August 2006

27 September 2005

Refurbished Cl 455 840 leaves Belmont with a London Victoria service on 27 September 2005 (at which point in time the platform had received new fencing)