Vol 13 No 16 Hampton Station Part 2

Non-Hampton & Richmond Borough related posts.
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Les1949
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HAMPTON, AROUND AND ABOUT

Things you may not know, or didn’t know you knew!

No 16 HAMPTON STATION Then and Now
Part 2 1939 to date

The previous article covered the period from 1864, when the railway arrived, to the beginning of World War 2.

During war time unnecessary rail travel was discouraged, however, in time there was a new source of traffic – prisoners of war. Kempton Park Racecourse wasn’t being used for horse racing but instead a Prisoner of War Camp was built there. Thousands of German and Italian prisoners were conveyed by train, escorted by Military Police, to the camp, especially in the latter stages of the war following the Allied invasions of France and Italy.

In the early post war years little changed at first. Goods were still transported by rail to and from Hampton’s Good Yards and the railways were nationalised in 1948, Hampton becoming part the Southern Region, South West Division. However, road transport kept growing, and by 1965 the goods yard, goods shed and coal yard were all gone.

In the mid-70s a block of flats, Kempton Rise, was built on the site of the coal yard.

A private dwelling was built on part of the old station buildings and some ‘bijou’ houses were built on old railway land near the level crossing.

The station has changed and been ‘modernised’, not all in a good way.



New footbridge (2009), safety markings on the platform…but no gents or ladies’ toilets or waiting room (though there is a small covered area). The only toilet now is for disabled use on the London-bound platform. There is one definite improvement though, and that is the excellent coffee ‘shop’, on the London side. One thing hasn’t changed, people were complaining about the service in 1893, plus ca change.

The Old Historian
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