View from a footbridge at Motspur Park station

Image: © Marathon Taken: 19 Sep 2012

The London & Southampton Railway opened its line from Nine Elms to Southampton in 1838. This soon became the London & South Western Railway. In 1859 the London & South Western Railway opened a branch to Epsom. This left the main line west of Wimbledon. Richard Garth of Morden bought the adjacent West Barnes farmlands from the Rayne family for development and persuaded the LSWR to build a station at the junction. It opened in 1871 and was named Raynes Park, which in turn gave its name to the surrounding district. At this time there was no place of any importance between Wimbledon and Epsom and little traffic used the line except on race days. Although the line had been opened in 1859, a station was not opened until 1925 to serve the West Barnes area, which had been built over during the 1920s and 1930s. This was named Motspur Park. Motspur Park only became a junction in 1938 when the Chessington Branch was opened. This was a very late arrival and never reached through to its planned destination of Leatherhead. Like many stations in this area, Motspur Park has an island platform. Footbridges lead over each track to either Claremont Avenue or Station Road. This is the view from the former footbridge.

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