Art Deco station with a pillbox on the roof

Plans for the new station were developed by the Southern Railway architects at Waterloo and it was decided that the station should have a modern 'Art-deco' look. The station design is very similar to that of Arnos Grove in London, designed by Charles Holden who was responsible for many London Underground stations. Although there is no evidence to show that Bishopstone Station was designed by Holden, there is no doubt that the architects were influenced by his work.

The station was designed around an octagonal booking hall with projecting wings with rounded brickwork; typical of 1930s design. The wing on the right contained a ticket office and a large parcels area. The left wing contained ladies and gentlemen's toilets, a waiting room and a small bookstall. The glazed booking hall was tall with a glass-tiled ceiling to allow in natural light. A small lobby led to a glazed footbridge with steps leading down to the two platforms. The platforms each had a canopy and a waiting room and the 'up' platform even had a small office for railway staff. There was one extra line used as a siding. At the front of the station the plan was to have large modern lettering spelling out 'Southern Railway' on the tower and a flag pole.

There was some opposition to the building of the new station; the Sussex County Magazine regretted the development of the area saying that as a result the old village of Bishopstone with its beautiful church 'may be swamped with modern buildings'.

The new station was opened on September 26, 1938 and the same day the old Bishopstone Beach Station was closed. The modern new station was built of brick and concrete but soon had to be altered due to the demands of war. In 1940 the octagonal tower was turned into a well disguised military pillbox with two projecting areas each having recessed gun-slits facing both towards the sea and inland. This part of the new design is similar to that of a 'type 27 pillbox' which was a brick built octagonal fortified structure usually used to defend airfields. A small military camp was built south of the station (on the site now occupied by a caravan site) and the station was busy with the comings and goings of soldiers based there.

The Southern Railway appointed a woman station master which was most unusual at the time. She was Mrs E Moore and in a wartime propaganda film she is seen selling tickets, talking to passengers and waving her flag to see off trains. The film was used to encourage women to take up work traditionally done by men. Mrs Moore had previously been a stewardess on the steamship Brighton and she remained on the vessel after it had been requisitioned as a wartime hospital ship. In 1940 the ship was bombed while in Dieppe harbour but Mrs Moore managed to escape into France where she hid in hedges, walking 40 miles to Fecamp. Here she managed to board a coal ship which was able to drop her off in Cornwall. After all that adventure, Bishopstone Station must have been quite dull!

Station Road and the surrounding area of Hawth Hill were later developed with housing and the nearby military camp became temporary housing for residents waiting to move into the new estates around Chyngton. I am not sure if the station was ever as busy as the planners thought it could be. Was the bookstall ever used and was the large parcels office ever busy? There were plans to close the station in the 1960s during the Beeching cuts but a committee headed by local resident Harry Potter ensured it stayed open. The last member of railway staff to work there was Mrs Una Shearing who worked from the platform office until 1988.

The ticket office is now Linda's, a small but busy newsagents and shop providing a vital community resource for station users, locals and visitors to the nearby caravan park. Bishopstone Station, a classic art-deco design, is now a Grade II listed building.

KEVIN GORDON