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Bunbury Way, EPSOM, KT17 4JP

A residential road built on the site of Epsom Downs railway station (which was replaced by a newer, smaller station further along the railway towards Sutton and London). The roundabout shaped object in the foreground is merely a traffic calming device; there are no side roads off Bunbury Way.

Opened in 1865 by the London Brighton & South Coast Railway as the terminus of the line from Sutton, this station closed in 1989 when the line was truncated by 300m and a new station opened behind the camera position. View south west towards the former buffers, probably from a similar position to Image] some 36 years earlier.

A relatively modern stone clad building in keeping with the newly built housing around it. The station shares its building with the Railway Children Kindergarten.

This shows the small car park provided south of the platform. With a much larger car park free of charge, and a better rail service, the station could attract park-and-ride from quite a large area.

There was also a station building nearer the line but has since been demolished.

The building straight ahead, blending in well with the 1980s executive homes on this estate, is in fact Epsom Downs station - it also incorporates a children's nursery. The branch from Sutton was opened in 1865 and at first prospered as the closest station to Epsom racecourse, but that role was usurped by the Tattenham Corner branch in 1901. Since then, the line has had a purely suburban role serving the important town of Banstead but ending nowhere in particular. In 1989 the line was cut back to make way for new housing development, which at least must have offered the prospect of additional commuter traffic.

This hardly looks like the approach to a railway terminus, but in fact this suburban street was built on the trackbed to the original Epsom Downs station, when the branch from Sutton was cut back in 1989 - no doubt a lucrative development opportunity for British Rail at the time. Traffic to the new Epsom Downs station now has to pass this way.

This small building looks as if it might have been intended as a station house: in fact it has never been used as such, but is a kindergarten.

Epsom Downs station is just a shadow of what it once was. Opened in 1865, it had nine platform faces, most of which were only used on race days. Tattenham Corner station is more convenient as it is much closer to the racecourse at Epsom Downs and consequently, as race traffic declined, there was no need for all the platforms at Epsom Downs station. Eventually only one island platform remained and then in 1989 the station was demolished to make way for a new housing estate and a new single platform station was built some 300 yards to the north-east. For more information and photographs see http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/e/epsom_downs/index.shtml During the day now there is an hourly service along the single track branch from Sutton. Although the sign on this building says Epsom Downs station, it doesn't seem to be part of the station and you have to go round the back and through the car park to reach the platform.

Now the booking office is gone this is the way in.