Southern Railway Present Smitham Station Signs to Local Historic Societies.

In May this year Southern Railway renamed Smitham station Coulsdon Town to coincide with the regeneration of Coulsdon town centre and the rebuilding of station.

The original Smitham station on the Tattenham Corner line was opened in 1904 to serve the community of Smitham Bottom. This was renamed Coulsdon about the time of World War 1 although the station remained Smitham.

After the completion of the Coulsdon Bypass in 2006 the town centre had a complete refurbishment. While Smitham station had lifts installed and the old building were replaced with a new modular design. Pressure was applied to Southern and DfT by Croydon Council to change the name to reflect the new refurbished town centre.

As part of the New Franchise Southern consulted with Croydon Council, the Local user groups and residents and the preferred name was Coulsdon Town. The name was changed in May 2011 using vinyl transfers.

New signs have now been installed and Southern have kindly donated two of the original signs, one to the East Surrey Museum at Caterham and other to Bourne society the local history group for South Croydon and North East Surrey.

Christopher Taylor the Curator of the East Surrey Museum said that “the sign would be a useful addition to the Museum’s transport section and it was nice to receive the sign from Southern now, while the change was actually taking place”. Antony Merlyn Southern Stake holder Relations Manager Southern Railway said “it is not often a station is re named, so this is quite a significant event for the local area. It’s been a pleasure for Southern to make a contribution to the East Surrey Museum and Bourne Society in this way”.

Charles King Chair of the local users group the East Surrey Transport Committee said “Our committee agreed with the name change to Coulsdon Town to reflect travelling today. However, it is nice to see the old station name preserved for future generations”.

For more information contact : Christopher Taylor 07817 832740 Antony Merlyn 07890 533429 Charles King 07960 127324 Antony Merlyn Southern Stake holder Relations Manager and Nkululeko Phiri Purley Group Station Manager with the Help of Charles King present the sign to Patrick May at the East Surrey Museum.

Antony Merlyn Southern Stake holder Relations Manager and Nkululeko Phiri Purley Group Station Manager present the Smitham sign to Paul Sandford Chair of the Bourne Society at the East Surrey Museum.

Based on information supplied by Charles King.