Southern presents Smitham station signs to local Historic Societies

In May this year, Southern renamed Smitham station as Coulsdon Town to coincide with the regeneration of Coulsdon town centre and the rebuilding of station. The original Smitham station on the Tattenham Corner line was opened in 1904 to serve the community of Smitham Bottom. This was renamed Coulsdon about the time of World War 1 although the station remained Smitham.

In 2009, Smitham station had lifts installed and the old station building was replaced with a new modular design. The last piece in the jigsaw was to change the name of the station to reflect the new refurbished town centre.

Southern consulted with Croydon Council, Local user groups and residents and the preferred name was Coulsdon Town. The name was changed in May 2011.

New signs have now been installed and Southern has donated two of the original signs, one to the East Surrey Museum at Caterham and other to Bourne society, the local history group for South Croydon and North East Surrey.

Christopher Taylor, Curator of the East Surrey Museum said: “The sign will be a useful addition to the Museum’s transport section and it was nice to receive the sign from Southern now, while the change was actually taking place”.

Antony Merlyn, Southern's Stakeholder Relations Manager said: “It's not often a station is re-named, so this is quite a significant event for the local area. It’s been a pleasure for Southern to make a contribution to the East Surrey Museum and Bourne Society in this way”.

Charles King, Chair of the local user group, East Surrey Transport Committee said: “Our committee agreed with the name change to Coulsdon Town to reflect travelling today. However, it is nice to see the old station name preserved for future generations”.