If we asked "Where is London's oldest surviving station?", how would you answer? Probably not "Mitcham".
The epic viaduct route between London Bridge and Greenwich is usually deemed to be the city's first true rail route. It opened in incomplete form on 8 February 1836, when trains first ran between Spa Road in Bermondsey and the temporary terminus in Deptford. In many ways, those are indeed London's first stations.
But there is another contender.
The Surrey Iron Railway was in use 34 years before this. Its freight carriages were pulled by horses rather than steam locomotives, but it was a public railway in all other respects — and one of the world's oldest.
This all-but-forgotten 'plateway', as it was called, ran more than 13 km from Reeves Corner in Croydon to the mouth of the industrial River Wandle in Wandsworth.
It was used by numerous companies to transport goods, including coal, building materials, corn and even manure. Anyone could run suitably gauged wagons along it, for the payment of a toll. It did not support passenger services, though doubtless a few hauliers would have jumped on board for the ride.
The railway operated from 1802 to 1846, by which time more efficient railways and the Surrey Canal had sapped its trade. A few traces survive today, and part of the route is used by the modern Tramlink. But the most tantalising survivor is an adjacent building that might — just might — be the world's oldest surviving railway station.
A Mitcham secret
The handsome, if low-key, Station Court stands just north of Mitcham tram stop. It is now used as offices and a physio centre, but was, for many decades, the entrance to Mitcham railway station. This closed in 1997 to make way for the Tramlink.
But the building's history predates the conventional railways. Station Court was constructed around 1800, just as the tracks of the Surrey Iron Railway were being laid right alongside. It stood so close to the tracks, in both space and time, that it is often assumed to have been part of the infrastructure — perhaps an administrative building or even a freight station. If so, that would make it the oldest surviving station in London, and perhaps the world.
Sadly, there is nothing beyond circumstantial evidence to support these claims. The building seems to have been a merchant's house in the days of the Iron Railway, only later being converted into a station for the opening of the Wimbledon & Croydon Railway in 1855. If it served any railway purpose before that time, then no evidence has yet been found.
