Dover, Kent has had numerous railway stations due to the legacy of competition between the South Eastern Railway (SER) and London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR)
and the subsequent rationalisation attempts by their successors; South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR), Southern Railway and British Rail Southern Region.
Opened on 22 July 1861 as Dover Town (Priory) by the LCDR,Dover Priory railway station became a through station on 1 November the same year, upon completion of a tunnel though the Western Heights connecting it to LCDR's new Dover Harbour Station in the Western Docks area. The renaming in July 1863 as Dover Priory led rival SER to adopt the name "Dover Town" for one of its Dover stations. Dover Priory is the only station still open in Dover.
Besides Dover Priory, there have been five other stations in Dover, all of which are now closed.
The name Dover Harbour has been used for two separate stations. The first was opened by the LCDR on 1 November 1861; this was closed in June 1863 when it was replaced by a new station named Dover Town and Harbour. This was renamed Dover Harbour on 1 July 1899 and closed on 10 July 1927. The LCDR constructed a tunnel through the Western Heights to allow continental traffic to access the Western Docks in 1861, and just south of the tunnel, on the current track to Folkestone, a station was built. Later an extension was also built onto Admiralty Pier. It was closed in 1927 by Southern as part of their rationalisation and modernisation of the Dover area. Although the platforms have been demolished as in March 2017 the station buildings still survive as offices.
The SER's original station opened on 7 February 1844 as Dover, and was situated on Shakespeare Beach just east of where the current line from Folkestone turns north towards Dover Priory. This was originally a terminus, but later the line continued onto Admiralty Pier. It was renamed Dover Town in December 1861, and was closed on 14 October 1914 as part of rationalisation and modernisation of the Dover area by SECR. After closure for passengers the track/platforms were in use for freight/engineers use until the 1990s. After the track was removed the area was used for car parking and in March 2017 some sections of platforms still survive.