Eltham Park Railway Station ........ the one I never visited

So, despite living in Eltham for an important chunk of my childhood I never visited Eltham Park Railway Station.

Eltham Park Railway Station, 1908

But then we lived on Well Hall Road and there seemed very little reason to stay on the train.

On the rare occasions when I did visit the next station on the line it was part of those adventures which led me wandering across Eltham on sunny Saturdays or in the school holidays.

All of which means I have no idea what it looked like, and so I am grateful to that smashing little book Eltham Village published in 1984.*

More so because one of the authors, Paula Richardson has given me permission to reproduce this picture, and as we all know it is always correct to seek the permission of those who first reproduced the image.

Likewise, I shall credit that excellent site Disused Stations for the history of the railway Station, which opened in 1908 by South Eastern & Chatham Railway Company and closed on March 3rd, 1983.**

By then I had done a decade in Manchester and remember my surprise when on going home later in that year the train from Charing Cross deposited me on the platform of entirely different railway station.

Not much of a story I suppose, but sometimes history is made up of the little things.

Location; Eltham

Picture; Eltham Park Railway Station, 1908, from Eltham Village

*Eltham Village,  Gus White, Ian Murdock and Paula Richardson in 1984 and published by G & Pi Publications Eltham

**Eltham Park, Disused Stations, http://disused-stations.org.uk/e/eltham_park/index.shtml

The Eltham Hutments ............ the book of the story and a thank you to Tricia

Now until very recently I had no idea that a small community of 1500 families lived close to where I grew up on Well Hall Road.

But then why should I?  They were erected in 1916 and had gone by 1937.

The first hints came from comments on  the Well Hall facebook site but it was my friend Tricia Leslie who first alerted me to the extent of this small estate and pointed me in the direction of The Eltham Hutments by John Kennett.

Mr Kennett is a respected local historian who has written extensively about the area and contributes a regular column for SE nine. **

And with the The Eltham Hutments he has uncovered a rich part of our history.

“Between 1916 and 1937 parts of the Well Hall and Eltham Park areas of Eltham were covered by temporary dwellings.  

These 1500 wooden huts were erected for Woolwich Arsenal munitions workers and their families.

To a whole generation of local people they were home yet memories of life in ‘the hutments’ are limited to a dwindling number of former residents.”***

The book covers the building of the huts, much on life in the community and their final demolition and removal.

What is all the more exciting is that Tricia has strong family links with those huts; “my grandfather is mentioned in the book as Mr W.B. (William Broadhurst) under the heading of Shooters Hill By-Pass (Rochester Way) and Re-Housing.  It was a test case that went to court.”

And she is currently researching the community which will be a fascinating addition to Eltham’s story.

Picture; cover of The Eltham Hutments, 1985

* The Eltham Hutments by John Kennett, 1985, Eltham Books

**SE nine, http://www.senine.co.uk/

***ibid John Kennett, page 1

Back visiting that old station on Westmount Road nine months later

Now they say you should never go back to your childhood haunts, especially if you have been away for a long time.

It is a rule I break all the time and as a result I am often disappointed at the mismatch between what I remember and what I see now.

And Eltham Park station is just such a place.

Back in February my friend Chrissie had visited the place and photographed the building, and today she went back.

I had hoped that in the months since her visit someone had breathed new life into the place.

But sadly not so, and it is a shame.

It was never a station I knew well.

Living on Well Hall Road I got off at the station by the Pleasaunce so I never really knew Eltham Park but for those who did this must be a sad ending.

According to Discover Eltham* this was the original station building for what was Shooters Hill and Eltham Park “having between the wars become a parade of shops; no 96 with its distinctive upper floor was the original entrance to the booking hall.”

The station’s name was changed to Eltham Park in 1927 and was closed in 1985.

Since then it has been a series of retail units overshadowed by the shops further along Westmount Road.


Pictures; courtesy of Chrissie Rose 2014

*On Westmount Road with ST TIO PARADE in January 2014, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/on-westmount-road-with-st-tio-parade-in.html

**Discover Eltham and its Environs, Darrell Spurgeon, 1992, revised edition 2000

On Westmount Road with ST TIO PARADE in Janaury 2014

© Chrissie Rose

I wonder how long we will still have this parade of shops at numbers 92-98 Westmount Road.

According to Discover Eltham* this was the original station building for what was Shooters Hill and Eltham Park “having between the wars become a parade of shops; no 96 with its distinctive upper floor was the original entrance to the booking hall.”

The station’s name was changed to Eltham Park in 1927 and was closed in 1985.

And I just don’t remember it.

The station in happier times, © This is Eltham

But then my stop was Well Hall and in all the years I lived in Eltham I never travelled beyond it.

Now I rather wish I had, if only to be able to claim that I knew all the stations on the line from Charing Cross to Bexleyheath.

As it is there will be plenty of people who will have fond memories of using the station and for all those who never knew it in its hey day here amongst our modern pictures is one from the past.

The old Eltham Park station and its neighbouring shops have clearly seen better times.

© Chrissie Rose

The half hearted attempt to cover the glazed tiles with blue paint was clearly not a success, no one has replaced the missing letters in Station Parade, and  the faded Thresher signage is evidence that no one has bought anything at number 92 for a long time.

And if any more proof were needed that this once smart row of shops was sliding into oblivion it is that that in the second edition of Discover Eltham the parade fails even to get a mention.

So it is too the good that Chrissie was on hand to record them and it is another reminder of the need to snap away and capture what may soon no longer be with us.

Of course the parade may have a new lease of life after all there should be a demand for vacant shops along Westmount Road but as with so many properties there is every chance that they will be redeveloped as something new.

We shall see.

*Discover Eltham and its Environs, Darrell Spurgeon, 1992, revised edition 2000

Pictures; of the parade today courtesy of Chrissie Rose, January 2014 and at an earlier time, courtesy of Thisiseltham, http://www.thisiseltham.co.uk/index.php