Mitcham, about the halfway point between Wimbledon and West Croydon, was my nearest station when I was a child. At that time it was operated by two sets of 2-EPBs, which passed each other on the double track length that extended from Mitcham Junction to a little way on the Down side (North-West, towards Wimbledon) of Mitcham - to just beyond the goods yard I believe. Most of the rest of the line was single track. The single-track token for the Wimbledon end was handled by the signalman in the box at Mitcham; that for the Croydon end (I believe) was handled from a platform office at Mitcham Junction. I was less familiar with the line to Croydon. The Mitcham box was at the Down end of the Down platform.
I remember the local furore over several efforts by BR to close the line. Mitcham Station was/is in a shallow cutting and the line passes under a main road at the down end of the platforms. The retaining wall of the back garden of a large house on the opposite side of the road (the premises of Mitcham Labour Club at the time) started collapsing one day and the line was closed for a time. We thought this would be the end, but the wall was shored up by a structure occupying the Up trackbed, and the line singled through the station to a point about 1/4 mile towards Mitcham Junction. Today, the structure remains and the Tramlink lines are interlaced at this point.
My mother always claimed that Mitcham Station was the oldest railway station in the World. I thought it was a flight of fancy, but later I found out that the goods-only Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) had a public siding about where the present-day Tramlink stop stands. That would have been about 1805. The route through Mitcham Station to about Waddon Marsh occupies the old SIR trackbed; I believe the SIR had a level crossing with the main road at Mitcham. The station offices I knew were on the Up side and reached through the middle of a large house via an arched passage. I believe it was an 18th century merchant's house and the arch originally allowed carts through to the back yard. The railway ticket office was in a charmingly ramshackle brick and timber extension on the rear of the house, through which the passage continued, somewhat winding and unlevel . The whole place had a pleasing odour that I identified with "railway" - as I child I assumed it was the smell of high voltage electricity. The passage beyond the ticket office turned right, straight onto the top level of the footbridge.
At Merton Park, there were still platforms and double track* in place for the closed line to Tooting. The booking office and station entrance were on the platform for Tooting, and passengers would walk down its platform ramp, cross the Tooting tracks on a board crossing, and up the ramp of the single platform for the WImbledon-Croydon trains. The relatively short length from Merton Park to Wimbledon was double track.
I don't regard Mitcham Station as closed. The line is now Tramlink, which does of course have a stop there. The house is now private and the Tramlink entrance is on the Down side.
These photos are of Mitcham Station c1970 I believe. The mock-Tudor house beyond it is the Crown Inn
* Later edit : from the
Disused-Stations website I see that, although it was a double trackbed, the line towards Tooting from Merton Park had been singled before my time.
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