Trivia: Stations which have been renamed?

[Wilts Wanderer]

I was wondering the other night, how many railway stations on the UK mainland have been renamed in recent times? To keep it sensible let’s use 1948 as the earliest point of reference. I’m interested to know the current name, previous name and (if known) the reason for renaming the station.

A couple that I can think of:

Allerton was renamed Liverpool South Parkway in 2005, rebuilt to create an interchange between the main Crewe-Liverpool line and the Merseyrail Northern Line, plus bus links to John Lennon Airport. (Also replaced Garston on the Merseyrail route which closed.)

Wood Green was renamed Alexandra Palace in 1982. (Until 1971 had been named Wood Green (Alexandra Park)).

I’m posing this simply out of curiosity, interested to see what people come up with.

 

[Urban Gateline]

Carpenders Park on the Euston to Watford Junction Overground line used to be called South Oxhey, can't think of any others!

 

[TheEdge]

Are you including the countless stations that lost a suffix after Beeching and towns and cities lost multiple stations, like Norwich (Norwich Thorpe) and Great Yarmouth (Yarmouth Vauxhall) but their name didn't really change.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Carpenders Park on the Euston to Watford Junction Overground line used to be called South Oxhey, can't think of any others!

Interesting, as wasn't Bushey called "Bushey & South Oxhey"?

Edit, no apparently it was "Bushey & Oxhey".

 

[RichJF]

Gatwick renamed Gatwick Racecourse, subsequently renamed Gatwick Airport

 

[jamesst]

Rice Lane on the Merseyrail Kirkby line was formerly known as Preston Road, not sure when it was renamed though

 

[Bletchleyite]

Rice Lane on the Merseyrail Kirkby line was formerly known as Preston Road, not sure when it was renamed though

1980s if I recall correctly.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

You have the relatively minor Fambridge to North Fambridge and Woodham Ferrers to South Woodham Ferrers down on the Southminster branch about a decade ago. More recently on the Looe branch St Keyne had 'Wish Well Halt' and Coombe 'Junction Halt' added as suffixes, but I am unsure about whether these were in official capacities or just tourism drives.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Going back a bit, you also have Gilberdyke (formerly Staddlethorpe; changed mid-70s) and Marton (formerly Ormesby; changed god knows when).

 

[deepthought]

Cardiff Bute Road became Cardiff Bay.
St. Helens Shaw Street became St. Helens Central.

 

[The Planner]

Bicester Town being a fairly obvious one.

 

[Mikey C]

On what is now the Overground (ex East London Line) Surrey Docks became Surrey Quays in 1989

 

[30907]

West Weybridge to Byfleet and New Haw (thus breaking the sequence of Ws)
Lyndhurst Road to Ashurst
Clapham to Clapham High St
in each case reason was location.

Hamworthy Junction to Hamworthy
Sandling Junction to Sandling for Hythe to Sandling
branch line closures - in the casecof Hamworthy rather belated!
There are large numbers of suffix changes - Halt, Parkway, Road, Junction...

 

[scragend]

Salford became Salford Central when Salford Crescent was opened.

 

[700007]

Smitham to Coulsdon Town in 2011 on the Southern network and Shepherds Bush to Shepherds Bush Market in 2008 on the Hammersmith & City line (now Circle line as well since extension in 2009).

 

[6Gman]

Lots of spelling changes in Wales.

 

[Mikey C]

I assume (on the Underground) that the Northern Line station Brent became Brent Cross when the shopping centre opened in the 1970s.

 

[robertclark125]

In Fife, Dunfermline Lower kept its name even after Dunfermline Upper closed, until about 1991, when it became plain Dunfermline. In 1997, it was renamed again, when Dunfermline Queen Margaret opened, and became Dunfermline Town.

 

[6Gman]

Knot Mill and Deansgate became
Knot(t) Mill became
Knott Mill and Deansgate became
Deansgate.

Ironically since Knott Mill appears on the façade (of what is now a listed building) the name survives on the building if not in the timetable!

 

[43096]

Manchester London Road to Manchester Piccadilly.

 

[edwin_m]

Are you including the countless stations that lost a suffix after Beeching and towns and cities lost multiple stations, like Norwich (Norwich Thorpe) and Great Yarmouth (Yarmouth Vauxhall) but their name didn't really change.

There are also stations that gained suffixes when two companies previously just named their stations after the place, but Grouping or Nationalisation led to them coming under the same ownership and the new owner needed to distinguish them. For example Derby became Derby Midland in 1950 according to Wikipedia.

A confusing one was Long Eaton. The original station near the town centre closed when stopping trains were removed from that section of line. The nearest remaining station was renamed from Sawley Junction to Long Eaton.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Farnworth became Widnes North and then plain Widnes.
Wrexham Exchange became annexed into Wrexham General.
More recently Magdalen Road became Watlington


There are lots of "&"'s and "for"s that have been dropped..
sometimes the "&" has taken over

Mersey Road & Aigburth now just plain Aigburth

Cressington & Grassendale just plain Cressington

Carlton & Netherfield for Gedling and Colwick now plain Carlton

 

[robertclark125]

In BR days, Boldon Colliery became Brockley Whins, and it retained that name after conversion to Tyne and Wear Metro. Staying with the Metro, the only other station I know of to be renamed after it opened to Metro is Smiths Park, which became Meadowell.

Three stations on the Glasgow Subway were renamed, during the 1977-80 rebuilding. Partick Cross became Kelvinhall, to promote travel to the exhibition centre of the same name. Govan Cross became Govan, and Copland road was renamed Ibrox, to advertise its close proximity to Ibrox Stadium, home of Glasgow Rangers FC.

Staying in Scotland, Dundee Tay Bridge station became plain Dundee.

 

[John Webb]

The Midland Railway station at St Albans was named thus from its opening, until it became part of the LMS on grouping, when it was given the suffix 'City' in 1924 to distinguish it from the former London & North-Western station, now also part of the LMS and already known as St Albans Abbey station. The 'City' suffix was removed in 1968 by British Rail. It was restored a couple of years ago after a senior member of the then Thameslink TOC visited the preserved St Albans South signal box, where one of the original British Railway's running-in boards was on display. Within six months the station nameboards were once again bearing the City suffix!

Further up the line, Elstree was opened as such in 1868, in 1869 it was renamed 'Elstree and Boreham Wood', which it kept until 1904, when it reverted to 'Elstree'. In 1953 it became 'Elstree & Borehamwood' (note the minor change in the second name) and stayed that way until 1974 when, yet again, it reverted back to 'Elstree', only in 1988 to switch back to 'Elstree and Borehamwood'. Those of us connected with the area (I used to work near the station) are inclined to think that the shorter name was used to save money when the nameboards needed replacing when money was short!

 

[HainultLoop]

Burnt Mill became Harlow Town in 1960 after it was heavily rebuilt for the Harlow New Town project. The original Harlow station just a few miles up the line was then renamed Harlow Mill.

 

[urbophile]

I seem to think there are many stations which formerly were xxx & yyy simply dropped the & and one of the names. But apart from the Merseyrail examples quoted above ([Mersey Road and] Aigburth; Cressington [and Grassendale]) I can't think of any others. But I'm sure there are many.

 

[CatfordCat]

I assume (on the Underground) that the Northern Line station Brent became Brent Cross when the shopping centre opened in the 1970s.

Yes - the current building is 1920s and was originally Brent. (more here)

if we're including the Underground, then Charing Cross became Embankment and Trafalgar Square (Bakerloo) and Strand (Northern) became Charing Cross in the mid 70s

A number of underground stations were re-named some time ago, but continue/d to show the old names as well - Arsenal still has 'Gillespie Road' tiling, and Marylebone has 'Great Central'. Clapham North had at least one 'Clapham Road' sign in to the 1980s.

 

[robertclark125]

City Thameslink was originally St. Pauls Thameslink, before the name was changed to avoid confusion with St. Pauls on the Central Line of the London Underground. Staying in Greater London, Wood Green was renamed Alexandra Palace in 1982.

Although now closed, Silvertown, in NSE days, also got renamed, Silvertown and London City Airport.

 

[[.n]]

St Boltophs to Colchester Town - around 20 years ago, to make it more obvious it was in Colchester Town Centre

 

[High Dyke]

Carlton & Netherfield for Gedling and Colwick now plain Carlton

Don't forget the other station. Was Netherfield And Colwick, but renamed in 1974 to Netherfield.