Charlton Station

 

This week I thought we should take a look at Charlton Station. The background to its’  setting up is quite complicated and so I thought I would just mention it briefly and maybe come back and do another article or articles about how it came to be built when and where it was.

Briefly, it proved impossible to extend the railway line from Greenwich Station down to what is now Maze Hill – maybe by going through Greenwich Park.  A lot of time was spent trying to find various routes but eventually a way of getting the railway to Woolwich, and beyond via Charlton was built by a different railway company - the North Kent. They built their railway line from Blackheath Station, then going through a tunnel which ended up in the Westcombe Park area and carried on to Charlton.  Perhaps I should write up the tunnel sometime – and I see there is new work being done to it at the moment.

Charlton Station opened on the North Kent Line on 30th July 1849. It was built on Charlton Church Lane, then the only road running between Charlton Village and the Woolwich Road.  It was thus not only some way away but there was a steep hill to climb to get to Charlton itself. 

The station is described on the Kent Rail website - and generally the Kent Rail site is excellent at describing station buildings and what they looked like. (https://www.kentrail.org.uk/) They say it was ‘very similar to nearby Woolwich Arsenal ... two storeys high with pitched roofs on the up side. There was no building on the down platform, but instead there was a wall which supported a canopy’. There was no goods yard nor was there a footbridge - you had to walk over the rails to cross from platform to platform. A covered foot bridge was eventually installed along with a goods yard in 1873. From the start there was a signal box.

Newspaper reports over the years give what seems to be an enormous number of deaths at the station. The first, only a month after the opening was o f a drunken woman who died after getting out of the carriage on the wrong side.  Only five days later a labourer was killed when walking alongside the track.

These accidents were overshadowed a year later when, in July 1850, a delayed goods train was struggling to get through the Blackheath tunnel – ‘the driving wheel slipping round without taking hold of the metals’. Also the guard had lost the fog signals to lay behind the train. The driver of a passenger train behind did not see the guard’s hand light and ran into the goods train.  Happily no one was hurt – but over the years there were other and worse accidents in the tunnel.  All of which involved staff from Charlton Station in one way or another.

Charlton Station had a royal visitor in 1865 when a train arrived carrying the Prince of Wales - later Edward VII – who had been to see the Great Eastern ship. He had been ‘at his place at the engine’ since Higham Station. At Charlton he returned to the Royal Carriage.

The line from the tunnel was paralleled in 1852 by the private, goods-only. Angerstein Line which continued through a junction from Charlton – I’ve written a lot about Angerstein here in the past. This junction became even more complex when the line was eventually extended through to Charlton from Greenwich Station via Maze Hill.  From 1873 Charlton Station was called Charlton Junction Station

In 1904 there was a panic ‘owing to a discovery that a wasp had entered a train at Charlton Station’.

Station staff came and went. In 1895 at a smoking concert at the Antigallican, a presentation was made to. J. Cooper, ‘who had been thirteen years booking clerk at Charlton Station’ – he had been promoted to Canterbury Station and so was presented with ‘a gold Albert and pendant, suitably inscribed’ plus a ‘teapot for Mrs. Cooper’. In 1900 a smoking concert was held at the Bugle Horn, for C. Waghorn, inspector at Charlton Station, who was retiring. He got a Gladstone bag from the other staff and a liqueur stand and purse of money, 'subscribed for by passengers’.

There were many changes to the station in 1904 when the original signal box was demolished and replaced by a two-storey all-timber building. Most noticeably changes were made to install the present ‘high level’ entrance from Church Lane. Passenger accommodation was improved and shelters were built on the platforms. There were a number of sidings connected to the goods yard on the down side.

The area was rapidly being built up and there were many jobs in the growing industrial areas near the station. Newspaper advertisements for rooms and houses to let dominate the small ads in the papers of the day. There was even a hotel opposite the station in what is now Wellington Buildings.  Also ‘CABS at all times at Charlton Stations. ‘CARRIAGES A SPECIALITY - Horses - ON HIRE - suitable for any purpose, at low charge’ - demonstrates the prosperity of the area.  This was now a commuter line- made quite clear by a report of a 1909 incident when two goods trains collided outside the station “The passengers left the trains, and had to walk considerable distances before taking a train to the City.

In 1926, and now part as of the Southern Railway, the line was electrified. As part of this a three-storey high red-brick substation was built on the down side at the end of a single-track siding which was extended into the building.

The Second World War brought devastation in the area near the station. On 23rd June 1944 a flying rocket, a V1,  crashed on the station and virtually destroyed it. The only structures to survive the attack were the signal box and the substation. Four civilians were killed, one of whom was Mrs Newick wife of the signalman who lived in the station house. Three members of the staff were injured.  Once debris had been cleared, access from the down side was through the coal yard and for the up line there was a footpath from Delafield road. Wooden huts were built foe tickets sales.

The Station was to remain a ruin for many years until in 1955 the platforms were extended for ten-car trains. Then the 'junction' part of the station name was dropped . In 1957 there was electric lighting and a metal canopy on each platform. The goods yard closed in 1963. The signal box ceased to function from 1970. Station buildings were gradually replaced by ones from the ubiquitous 'CLASP' design including a new footbridge.  Houses were built in the 1990s on the site of the coal yard.

I remember using the station at some point in the 1960s -probably the only time I have ever done so. I asked if I could use the ladies toilet and the friendly, helpful staff pointed it out to me. Not only  was it available but it was very clean and decent - which is more than you could say for the ones at Maze Hill and Westcombe  Park. So, belatedly after 60 years,  can I say ‘thank you’ to the staff at Charlene.

When plans for the Millennium celebrations were made it was decided that for those visitors wanting to get to the Dome by public transport  Charlton should be designated as the principle  station to use.  Various arrangements were made at the station to make it a bit nicer for visitors waiting their transport to the Dome.  A new lift was installed on the up side in a two-storey brick tower  and a 90-foot long covered section was built on the down side n Church Lane - creating a considerable space.   

This space created for millennium transport lay unused for some years but has now become a community garden which opened in April 2013. It was developed as an organic, demonstration garden to show that food could  be grown in small spaces. It was thought that homecoming commuters would get off the train, walk through the garden and maybe pick some fruits or herbs to take home with them for their evening meal.  There is a mix of decorative planting as well as vegetables and salads, and a grapevine. It includes a memorial cherry tree planted in 2018 in memory of Elaine Picton, a founder member of a local Residents Association.

An email has just arrived in my inbox – after ten years work on the garden (or is it a ‘pocket park?).  The email gives a list of work which needs to be done – and so we can get a glimpse of what has been achieved here: “litter pick ...weed raised beds ....remove ornamental plants .. cut back  rocket .. remove bark chippings .....remove  acanthus from the Pollinator Friendly Area .... ... cut back the bay tree by the herb bed - ... prune currant bushes - ..... cut back buddleia “.

I’m afraid  this has been a very quick run through what is a complicated and important station with all the details removed from most of the features.  However,  I suspect that there are very few stations which could where a description of it will include a community garden.