|
Canterbury
East railway station is on the Dover branch of the Chatham
Main Line in England, and is one of two stations serving the
city of Canterbury, Kent.
The station is 61 miles 65 chains (99.5 km) down the line from
London Victoria (measured via Herne Hill) and is situated
between Selling and Bekesbourne. All serving trains are
operated by Southeastern.
The station and its line were built by the London, Chatham and
Dover Railway and opened on 9 July 1860 as Canterbury. To
avoid confusion with the older station also called Canterbury,
built by the South Eastern Railway, it was renamed to
Canterbury East on 1 July 1889 while the SER station was
renamed Canterbury West.
Although called Canterbury East, the station is about 1/2 mile
(0.8 km) due south of Canterbury West station, and only about
20 yards (20 m) to its east.
The framework of the platform canopies were originally
installed at the never-opened station at Lullingstone.
The semaphore signals at the station were replaced with
coloured lights in December 2011. The elevated signal box
remains but is no longer in use, with signalling on the line
operated from a control room at Gillingham. The signal box was
given Grade II listed building status in 2013.
Canterbury East's ticket barriers were removed in early 2011,
as they were the only ones of the kind in the country and
spare parts were no longer easy to obtain. Work began to
install a new gate-line in October 2016. Coventry and
Earlsfield are the only other stations to lose their ticket
barriers.
The station has a ticket office, an electronic ticket machine,
a cafe and toilets.
In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Final Problem, a short story
in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes and Dr
Watson hide from Professor Moriarty at a station in
Canterbury. The station is unspecified but is likely to have
been Canterbury East as Holmes and Watson were making their
way to catch a boat on the Continental Express from London
Victoria station.
|