Canterbury West Restoration

If you live or work in Canterbury you may have come back from your summer holidays to see a very large white box slowly appearing on the horizon over Canterbury West Railway Station.  The box is of course scaffolding that has been wrapped (it's not quite as big as the Cathedral but it can be seen for miles around) and it has not escaped the public's notice due to its size and of course the fact that it has entirely encompassed this station; a station that last year saw over 2.3m passengers pass it's doors.

The mission as always is to restore this grade II listed building by ensuring conservational repairs are undertaken along with replacing modern additions with more in keeping alterations.  As it is early days into the project, we cannot share too much, though I wanted to share these great pictures we took recently.

Here are a number of facts that we have learned whilst working here:

• This was the first of Britain's railways to regularly carry ordinary passengers in trains hauled by steam power, albeit not along the full length of the line. Even so, the Canterbury & Whitstable Railway opened on 3 May 1830, six months before its better-known rival in the north, the Liverpool & Manchester Railway (which holds the honour of being the very first double-track mainline railway).
• Season tickets were also first issued here in 1834.
• It is also one of the oldest still operating railway stations in world (about 16th) and one of the busiest in Kent (particularly as it is on the High Speed Service).
• It is argued between East and West stations as to whether the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes arrived at the station within Conan Doyle's famous works. In Conan Doyle's 'The Final Problem', a short story in 'The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes', Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson face-off against Professor Moriarty at a station in Canterbury. Conan Doyle does not specify which though.
• It is one of a small number of neo-classical styled railway stations to still be in use throughout the country.

A watercolour of the station as it looked shortly after opening.