Today i'm on the tram. You know I love the tram. Today, I'm looking at Mitcham,
which is not only a tram stop, but has what might be the oldest station building
in London. Before Mitcham was a tram stop, it was a station. The station entrance was here,
in this building, Station Court. At least, I hope that word is "Court."
As you can see, this doesn't look much like a station, and that's because it wasn't built as
one. Not too long ago, I made a video on the Surrey Iron Railway, London's first public
railway. Although that might be a misleading description, because when the line opened in 1803,
this was out in the countryside. Mitcham station is on the route of what was the Surrey Iron
Railway. In fact, there's a clue to this alongside the tram stop in the name of this street:
Tramway Path. Station Court, or the building that would become Station Court if you like, was built
sometime around the beginning of the 19th century, so roughly contemporaneous with the old tramway,
and this has led to a curious local legend that the two were connected. In the simplest form,
the story goes that Station Court was actually built as a station on the tramway. We can dismiss
this on the grounds that the Surrey Iron Railway didn't really have stations. It didn't even carry
passengers. The closest it came was sidings for unloading cargo. Another idea is that it was an
office for the railway, which is slightly more plausible, but it seems like an odd place to put
it. The line ran from Croydon to Wandsworth, so I would have thought that either of those would
have been a more sensible location than here, in what was the middle of nowhere.
Station Court looks to me like a house built by a reasonably wealthy gent, not super rich,
probably a merchant or something. In which case, imagine how annoying it would be to build your
lovely little country house, only to discover that railways had been invented and they were
building the first one right past your window. The Surrey Iron Railway was never a huge moneymaker
and in 1846 it formally closed, but that of course was not the end. Nine years later,
a new line opened on the track bed of the old: the Wimbledon and Croydon Railway. The
Wimbledon and Croydon was an independent line from Wimbledon to West Croydon.
It was built to a fairly low budget, mostly being single track and of course reusing an old route.
The house at Mitcham. assuming that's what it was, got turned into a station building, which is quite
unusual. Normally, stations are purpose-built. A booking office was added behind, plus of course a
platform, which you can still see the remains of. A second platform was added later on.
The line was worked by two larger companies, the London and South Western Railway and the London,
Brighton and South Coast Railway. The London, Brighton &c. actually bought the line in 1866.
Passenger numbers were never particularly high and two- or even one-coach trains could always
handle those that did use the line. It was more important as a freight connection. There were many
industries between here and Croydon. In the 1950s, there was talk of closing the line for passengers,
but for one reason or another, this didn't happen. There was strong local opposition,
and it was considered that the amount of money saved by withdrawal would be minimal.
There was still plenty of freight. However, this went into decline in the 60s thanks to
industries either closing or switching to road haulage, but the line kept going. Just about.
In 1971, there was a landslip at Mitcham and again, the idea of closure was mooted,
and again, no dice. But the Up platform (the one you can still see) was taken out of use,
reducing the station once again to a single platform. The old footbridge,
which no longer served any purpose, ended up at Wandsworth Road in 1988. British Rail, who were
the owners of the line by then, found themselves with a dilemma. The line was too popular to close,
but not popular enough to stay afloat financially. Services were cut back and so too was maintenance.
At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, I can't help but wonder if BR
hoped that passenger numbers would decline on their own in the face of this terrible service,
to the point where they could close the line without any opposition.
In the 1990s, Croydon council and London Transport came up with a compromise:
reintroduce trams to London. This seemed like a perfect solution for providing a low-cost
passenger service. Of course, for the trams to operate, the railway would have to go.
The last train ran on the 31st of May 1997 and on the 2nd of June, Mitcham station
formally closed. On the 30th of May 2000 ,the tram stop opened. It's slightly to the east of the old
station. The house that had once been the entrance was now a house again. Well, assuming that's
what it was in the first place. The tram stop is accessible via ramps and sees a frequent service.
So frequent in fact that in 2012, the track was doubled between here and Mitcham Junction.
One unusual feature is the section of gauntlet track at the bridge.
This is quite rare in Britain. It's used where you don't have enough space for double track,
but you don't want the expense of installing points. So you interlace the rails. What fun.
And that's the story of Mitcham, from house to station to tram stop. The house is now a listed
building, so whatever happens, it's unlikely to get demolished. Whether you consider it to
count as the oldest station building in London... well, I guess that's a matter of interpretation.
Good evening! I do hope you enjoyed today's video. I don't cover tram stops too often,
but I thought this one had an interesting story and I hope you agree. If you do,
please do click the like button to let YouTube know, and you may wish to subscribe for more.
Hit the notification bell to be kept up-to-date when a new video drops, which
is usually about three times a week. Thanks as ever to my donors on Ko-Fi and Patreon, you are
the pre-existing house to my low-budget railway. And I'll see you all again very soon. Cheerio!