{"id":3279,"date":"2011-01-31T10:00:03","date_gmt":"2011-01-31T10:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=3279"},"modified":"2011-01-30T22:43:29","modified_gmt":"2011-01-30T22:43:29","slug":"the-chateauesque-glory-of-box-hill-railway-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/the-chateauesque-glory-of-box-hill-railway-station\/","title":{"rendered":"The ch\u00e2teauesque glory of Box Hill railway station"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/box-hill-railway-station-01.jpg\" alt=\"The ch\u00e2teauesque glory of Box Hill railway station\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m a big fan of Victorian\u00a0railway\u00a0architecture, and although a lot of fine vernacular buildings have been\u00a0senselessly\u00a0destroyed\u00a0since the 1960s, it&#8217;s\u00a0always\u00a0heart-warming\u00a0to find some inspiring examples still standing.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A particularly\u00a0pleasing\u00a0survivor\u00a0is the splendid Grade II listed Box Hill &amp; Westhumble railway station in the village of Westhumble, near Dorking in Surrey.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/box-hill-railway-station-02.jpg\" alt=\"The ch\u00e2teauesque glory of Box Hill railway station\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Constructed at the insistence of \u00a0landowner Thomas Grissell as part-compensation for the railway slicing across his land, the main station building is a glorious French\u00a0ch\u00e2teau\u00a0themed\u00a0affair.<\/p>\n<p>The design was by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charles_Henry_Driver\" target=\"_blank\">Charles H Driver<\/a> and\u00a0features steeply pitched roofs with patterned tiles, crowned by an ornamental turret, topped with a delicate decorative grille and weather vane.<\/p>\n<p>A renowned Victorian architect, Driver also worked with the engineer Joseph Bazalgette on the construction of the London sewerage system, the glorious \u00a0pumping houses at Abbey Mills and Crossness, and Llandudno pier.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/box-hill-railway-station-03.jpg\" alt=\"The ch\u00e2teauesque glory of Box Hill railway station\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Over the years, the station has enjoyed several\u00a0variants\u00a0on its name, with &#8220;Box Hill,&#8221; \u00a0&#8220;Boxhill,&#8221; \u00a0&#8220;Westhumble&#8221; and &#8220;West Humble&#8221; all being used in varying combinations for signs, timetables and railway maps.<\/p>\n<p>The confusion was finally put to bed in 2006: after a\u00a0consultation with local residents, the station&#8217;s name was changed from &#8220;Boxhill and Westhumble&#8221; to &#8220;Box Hill and Westhumble.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/box-hill-railway-station-04.jpg\" alt=\"The ch\u00e2teauesque glory of Box Hill railway station\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The buildings are now used by local businesses.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/box-hill-railway-station-05.jpg\" alt=\"The ch\u00e2teauesque glory of Box Hill railway station\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Box Hill station in 1961.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/box-hill-railway-station-06.jpg\" alt=\"The ch\u00e2teauesque glory of Box Hill railway station\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Station view, May 2010.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/box-hill-railway-station-07.jpg\" alt=\"The ch\u00e2teauesque glory of Box Hill railway station\" \/><\/p>\n<p>View from Platform 2 looking towards northbound Platform 1, Sept 2008.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/walks\/boxhill-westhumble-walk.html\" target=\"_blank\">Box Hill and Norbury Park walk<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/walks\/box-hill-surrey-walk.html\" target=\"_blank\">Box Hill park<\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Credits: Photos 1-4 \u00a9\u00a0urban75 Feb 2008, remainder <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Box_Hill_%26_Westhumble_railway_station\" target=\"_blank\">Wikipedia<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m a big fan of Victorian\u00a0railway\u00a0architecture, and although a lot of fine vernacular buildings have been\u00a0senselessly\u00a0destroyed\u00a0since the 1960s, it&#8217;s\u00a0always\u00a0heart-warming\u00a0to find some inspiring examples still standing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,193,90],"tags":[105,1200],"class_list":["post-3279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photos","category-places","category-railways","tag-box-hill","tag-railways"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/box-hill-railway-station-01.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-QT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3279"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3285,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3279\/revisions\/3285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}