Stations on the Epsom Downs Branch

In his Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (published between 1870 and 1872), John Marius Wilson described Sutton as

"a village and a parish in Epsom district, Surrey; the village stands adjacent to the Epsom railway, 4½ miles WSW of Croydon; consists chiefly of one street, (...) has a post-office (...), a railway station with telegraph, and two hotels."

First mentioned in the Doomsday Book (1086) as Sudtone (meaning “south village” or “south farmstead”) and recorded as having 200 people live in its boundaries, Sutton still only counted a mere 579 inhabitants in 1801.

The transformation from a quiet village to a growing and bustling town was entirely due to the rise of new transportation opportunities.

Several coaching inns sprung up when the Brighton Road turnpike (a toll road operated under a trust set up to raise funds for the repair of that road) was built through the village in 1807 and introduced stagecoach services, but more than anything it was the coming of the railways, with the line built from Croydon to Epsom reaching Sutton in 1847.

The railway provided an even more substantial impetus for growth and development when Sutton became a junction for the newly opened lines to Epsom Downs (1865) and Mitcham Junction (1868). The OS map from 1871 accordingly featured the label "Sutton Junction". Sutton's population increased tenfold to 14,000 during the first forty years of the railway's presence (Mitchell & Smith, 1992).

This gradual growth of the station in size and importance was reflected in a succession of station buildings.

Sutton Station c1916 (Sutton Library Collection)

The first station building, a wooden structure built when the railway reached Sutton in 1847, was removed in 1865 when the Epsom Downs branch was built.

This was replaced by a new building that was built into the Y of the junction. The entrance was situated at street level and access to the platforms was gained by descending stairs set at the outside flanks of the building.

In 1882, the station was enlarged by adding an additional building which was built over the mainline tracks and platforms 1 & 2.

In 1928, the Southern Railway completely rebuilt all of the street level premises, turning a collection of different buildings from different periods into one single station building.

The Southern is known for a number of architectural styles when it comes to station buildings, ranging from Victorian, Mock Tudor and Italianate to its famous Art Deco designs.

Sutton station, however, falls outside of such architectural extravaganzas and was designed first and foremost as a functional building to serve a junction at the intersection of four railway lines.

Nevertheless a pleasing structure, Sutton station has remained with little outward changes for almost 100 years - quite unlike its surroundings, as these three views illustrate the development and architectural change taking place in Sutton expecially more recently.

However, by the time the 1990s rolled around and after years of minimal maintenance, the station building was definitely showing signs of its age, with the old timber work in need of replacement and the roof leaking in places. Also due to their age, the glass roof sections had become fragile and prone to breaking, and the subsequent difficulty in safely cleaning them turned them more into light blockers than a source of natural light (Meacham, 2022).

The station building became an object of growing concern to local authorities and passengers alike, and in September 1999 a scheme to partly rebuild Sutton station was given the go-ahead, with Sutton Council, Railtrack and Connex (the major domus at the time) agreeing on the costs.

Officially, work was launched on 26th November 1999. Actual progress was, however, extremely slow and triggered substantial rail user discontent and repeated talks between Sutton Council and Connex, which handled the refurbishment of Sutton station just as poorly as it operated the Epsom Downs branch and, indeed, the entire South London services.

When Connex lost its franchise and GoVia (South Central Trains) took over in August 2001, Railtrack had to announce "the beginning of the second stage of the Sutton refurbishment programme", as a lot of structural work (such as the trickling roofs and poor guttering) had actually not been dealt with by Connex previously. In sharp contrast to this, South Central completed the work by the end of summer 2002.

As for the refurbishment, the original ticket office had been torn out in August 2000 and replaced by a temporary portacabin-type structure outside the building. The new ticket office had been completed inside the premises in April 2001, t, but the entrance area was still a building site - a state of affairs that had set the tone of the station building's appearance for three years by then.

Sutton Station c1928 (Sutton Library Collection)

Sutton Station, July 2006

Sutton Station, August 2019

In the main platform area, a new buffet building had been completed by that date in the V-shaped island formed by platforms 2 and 3.

August 2000

April 2001

(April 2001)

(July 2006)

Entrance and exit to/from the platform area is now through a hall area equipped with walk-through ticket control units and information screens.

Sutton also benefitted from Southern's extensive station upgrading programme, having been one of the first stations to have QUICKticket machines installed in May 2005.

The track layout at Sutton has not changed substantially since it became a double junction in 1868, apart from the disappearance of the once fairly large goods yard which was cut back after World War Two and is now reduced to one (somewhat overgrown) engineers siding.

(click for a detailed view of platforms 3 and 4 diagram)

Platform announcement at Sutton for Epsom Downs service (September 2004)

4SUB #4672 approaches Sutton's platform 2 on a Victoria to Epsom via Mitcham Junction service, sometime in the 1970s. The line to Epsom Downs is formed by the tracks turning slightly to the right.
(Adrian Wymann Collection)

2EPB #5626 is at the end of a service leaving platform 4 towards West Croydon. Usually the down track to Epsom Downs, this was a reversible line, allowing trains to terminate at Sutton and then head back up to London. The date is 10 June 1976, and train movements at Sutton are still orchestrated from the signal box (the roof of which is just visible above the second and third coach of this train) by means of an imposing array of semaphore signals.
(Adrian Wymann Collection)

Seven years later, on 14 June 1983, the semaphore signals and the signal gantry are gone as 4EPB (Class 415) #5434 heads a Victoria to Epsom Downs via Selhurst service (headcode 92) into platform 4.
(Adrian Wymann Collection)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MEACHAM Michelle (2022) "Case Study Sutton Station – Breathing new life into an old station", Twinfix Blog, 3 October 2022

MITCHELL Vic & Keith Smith (1992) West Croydon to Epsom, including the Epsom Downs Branch, Middleton Press