Scarborough Railway Station - VERY Victorian!

Another look at how the railways in the UK have changed over the years with a look at Scarborough Station or Scarborough Central as it was known as previously, and I will follow this later with a post on my own personal memories of being a regular visitor to Scarborough as a geeky, train-loving kid in the late seventies and early eighties.

The History

The Georgians, and later, the Victorians loved Scarborough. A combination of the bracing sea air, beautiful beaches and famous heath giving Spa waters had turned a once tiny fishing hamlet into the UK's first true seaside resort. So how best to get there? Build one of those new-fangled railway lines of course.

Scarborough railway station at the turn of the 20th century (coloured photo courtesy of Mick Armitage)

Now when Scarborough station began construction in 1843, public railways had only been in existence for 18 years but the Victorians couldn't get enough of them, they were truly the first mass transit system and were opening up the possibilities to visit distant parts of the country that for many would have previously been impossible, and boy did they want to come to Scarborough!

Upon opening in 1845, the whole town closed to attend the Grand opening and see the arrival of the first train from York, which consisted of two locos pulling a string of 35 carriages.

The Victorians never did things by halves and the Station was no exception. The imposing Victorian main building and facade ushered people through to two platforms with four tracks which were double spanned by an extravagant, glazed roof constructed of wrought iron, three-hundred and eighty-four feet long and eighty-eight feet wide.

Station entrance in 2017. The clock is still going strong! (My photo, you see the standards have slipped!)

The clock you can see on the tower was added in 1884 and was made the famous clockmaker, Potts of Leeds and cost the princely sum of one hundred and ten pounds!

The goods yard and buildings quickly followed and the station went from strength to strength throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth.

A new station was built at Londesborough Road just to handle the excursion trains and a massive goods yard and stabling point were added at Gallows Close.

The Beginning of the End

Slowly but surely, the decline in goods and passenger traffic began. The Forge Valley Line to Pickering closed to passengers in 1950, and then to goods and the rails lifted in 1953. Following the infamous Beeching report, the stunningly scenic and winding coastal route up to Whitby closed in 1965 along with Londesborough station.

All was not lost however as the excursion trains full of excited holidaymakers continued to descend into Scarborough Central, now simply called Scarborough station by train from all over the North and the North East of England and Scotland, and it's these days that were my halcyon railway days and which are firmly fixed in my memories.

Platform 1. The blue bench you can see on the left is actually quite famous. It is the worlds longest station bench at 95yards long, I kid you not! And that's where me and my cousin used to sit, at the station throat so as not to miss anything coming in or going out. (Photo by me, feel free)

Gallows Road goods depot closed in the early '80s, The goods and newspaper trains that frequented the station had ended by the nineties and lines were pulled up and the whole station rationalised in 2010 which ushered in the station we see today.

Gallows Close goods yard in the late 70s, shortly before closure. (Unknown credit)

And Now.....

Well, Scarborough still has cross country services via York to Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool. There are regular trains to Hull via Filey and Bridlington and on summer Saturdays, one return a day to London via Sheffield, a hark back to those day trips to the seaside in days of yore, when little boys would stand excitedly on the platform watching those rare visiting engines taking a bow on Platform 1. Sometimes there are even steam-hauled railtours that call in to evoke those smokey railway days of the last century.

The old station platforms 6 to 11 were lifted and a Tesco supermarket built, and on the site of the old Gallows Road goods yard, a Sainsburys!

The main station building still stands as its a grade two listed building and Mr Potts would be proud that his station clock is still ticking away, sat atop the station clock tower.

Not so many trains these days (photo by me, feel free)

Tomorrow I will post about my own memories of that time, the perspective of an 11-year-old who loved watching trains!