Southfleet railway station

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Southfleet railway station was on the Gravesend West Line in Kent, England, serving the village of Southfleet and the nearby hamlet of Springhead. It opened on 10 May 1886 as the first stop on the Gravesend branch of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway, just north of what is now the B262 Station Road. The station stood between Southfleet and Springhead and had an island platform with both passenger and freight facilities, including a goods shed, a 5-ton crane in the goods yard, and a signal box. The buildings were made of yellow London stock brick in a Gothic-inspired style, and there was a Victorian-style stationmaster’s house close by, along with four rail cottages. Passengers had to enter the platform to buy a ticket, so no separate platform tickets were issued.

Freight, especially fruit and agricultural goods like blackberries, accounted for much of the line’s traffic. After World War II, competition from buses and falling freight led to trouble. The station became unstaffed in spring 1953, and passenger services ended on 3 August 1953. In 1959 the branch was reduced to a single track, and the platform buildings at Southfleet and at nearby Longfield Halt were demolished.

Gravesend West closed in March 1968, and the line was cut back about 1100 yards north of Southfleet, near a bridge over the A2. APCM ran a coal depot at Southfleet for a while, delivering coal by rail and trucking it to Gravesend, until 1970. A brief revival occurred in 1974–75 when APCM laid sidings and built a small engine shed, but the depot closed in 1976. The remaining track between Dale Road and Southfleet was used at times to store wagons, even after passenger services stopped.

Part of the old trackbed later became part of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL). From Fawkham Junction, CTRL reused the Gravesend West track up to the Dale Road overbridge, then continued on a new route east. CTRL construction began in 1998, with the remaining Gravesend Branch track lifted and the cutting filled in; the overbridge parapets were rebuilt.

Today the site of the old station is a tennis court, and new housing has been built in the former station yard. The stationmaster’s house still exists nearby as a private home.