Photographic miscellany

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  • I have been to the place where the remains of the railway station were – Freshfield industrial estate. But what are those flats behind it? Are they the ones in Eastern Road?

    By Sue (29/10/2003)
  • The photo was taken looking due south (i.e. the people are where the tracks were, in front of the tunnel). Therefore the flats are Somerset House and Montague House to the south of Eastern Road as you surmised.

    By John Blackwell (31/10/2003)
  • The flats are actually the top of Essex Place – Somerset House is a bit lower and a bit to the right. My dad ran the cafe in Montague Place between 1947-80, anybody remember it? Can anyone put a date to this photo?

    By Phil Colls (25/01/2004)
  • I live in Eastbourne but work in Brighton. I remember the viaduct over Lewis Road. Are there any pictures?

    By Peter Morley (30/06/2004)
  • I have in my possession a cine film that my father took when he travelled on the last day that the line was open for passenger traffic. When I have found it and transferred it to video or DVD we can see what will be suitable to put on your website. A number of booklets and books have been written featuring this line and it may be worthwhile getting support from the authors about including their work on this website.

    By Mike Hearn (13/07/2004)
  • The tall building is/was Parsons, the sails and tent makers. Now it is Gala Bingo (hence the train).

    By Roy Pennington (10/12/2005)
  • Mike, Did you ever find the cine film of the last day line was open? Would really love to see it.

    By Peter Barnes (15/02/2006)
  • I used to live in one of the houses on the hill as a child and always remember finding out stories about the tunnel. I also went to St Lukes Junior School. Can any one enlighten me to a mystery that has bugged me since I started at St Lukes which is, Is there a subway for the tunnel under the school? Please can you put me out of a 15 year wait!

    By Ryan (29/05/2006)
  • The tunnel does indeed go under the school at the school and is now blocked up – it comes out in the yard that is now the self storage unit in Freshfield and access is possible from that end but not the school end.

    By The sign of the thymes (06/01/2007)
  • The railway tunnel did run under a school, but it was not St Lukes. The northern exit from the tunnel was under Elm Grove School for Girls. the line continued to the viaduct over Lewes Road. I have found no evidence of a subway from St Lukes to either the Kemp town Station, or the actual running tunnel. Check on any old Ordnance Survey Map and you will see the alignment of the tunnel, a long way from St Lukes.

    By Ron Burtenshaw (07/03/2007)
  • I have strong recollections of a day in 1970 or 1971 when (as teenagers) some mates and I got on to the trackside at London Road Station and walked along the line until we reached the spur off to Kemp Town. The track had been lifted but we continued across the Lewes Road viaduct and through the curved tunnel to Kemp Town where, just as we were investigating the remaining station buildings, we were intercepted and questioned by the police. They knew we’d come through the tunnel, do I suppose someone had seen us crossing the Lewes Road viaduct? It makes me cringe a bit now.

    By Dave White (25/03/2008)
  • I found some interesting footage from the 50s of an enthusiast’s special travelling on the Kemp Town branch and emerging from the tunnel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1rW1FUi0no I wondered if there was any more surviving film of this location.

    By Larry (28/10/2010)
  • With reference to the previous posts about the tunnel alignment. It actually went under both schools, St. Luke’s and Elm Grove, and the junction of Pankhurst Ave. and Down’s Terrace in between. There used to be a brick structure with a sloped end in St. Luke’s playground which ran down to the tunnel, supposedly for use as an air raid shelter, but to us it was a train, ship, plane, tank, fort, or anything else our imaginations could dream up.

    By Richard Godden (07/09/2012)

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