Lewes Station

Image: © Simon Carey Taken: 7 Oct 2006

This station is the third one in the town and the second one to cover this site. The first station opened near Friars Walk in 1846 as a terminus from Brighton. The building of a line to Hastings required a branch before reaching the terminus and subsequently needed the train to reverse in and out of the station. More problems occurred with the building of the branch to Keymer Junction in 1847 and therefore a new station built on the current site but pointing north east opened in 1857. However, the new arrangements were still not ideal, a third branch to Uckfield had been added and it was now considered that the original line to Hastings had too sharp a bend. The current station thus opened in 1889 moving the platforms around to the south east and relaying the track into its current formation. The current view is of platforms 3, 4 and 5 (the latter once being numbered 8), platforms 1 and 2 curve round to the north west. A former loop line is now full of ballast. The original station in Friars Walk served as a Goods Yard until the 1960s when it was removed along with the Lewes to Uckfield line.

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