The entrance to Hampton station from Station Road

Image: © Marathon Taken: 26 Mar 2014

The Thames Valley Railway opened on 1st November 1864 between the Kingston Loop south of Twickenham to Shepperton. Hampton station also opened on 1st November 1864. Within a year the line was taken over by the London & South Western Railway. When it opened the branch was a meandering single line through small communities. It was described as "crossing a flat and somewhat dreary region of Middlesex to terminate in a potato field, as if weary of going further in such country". A double track was provided as far as Fulwell in about 1867, and further doubling reached Sunbury in 1878 following the sale of the Kempton Manor estate for conversion to a racecourse. There was no really significant residential development along the line before 1914. At Hampton, a large estate called Marling Park to the north of the station was laid out for building in mid-Victorian times but filled only very slowly. The large gaps in the service during the first 40 years cannot have helped - four hours each way in the afternoon between trains. This is the approach to the station from Station Road. The down platform is just ahead, but anyone wanting the up platform to Fulwell and onwards towards Waterloo would need to cross over the footbridge - see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3903362

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