Reedham railway station (London)

Reedham
Reedham Location of Reedham in Greater London
Location	Purley
Local authority	London Borough of Croydon
Grid reference	TQ309606
Managed by	Southern
Station code	RHM
DfT category	E
Number of platforms	2
Fare zone	6
National Rail annual entry and exit
2011–12	0.267 million
2012–13	0.265 million
2013–14	0.281 million
2014–15	0.276 million
2015–16	0.249 million
Railway companies
Original company	South Eastern Railway
Pre-grouping	South Eastern and Chatham Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway
Key dates
1 March 1911	Opened as Reedham Halt
1 January 1917	Closed
1 January 1919	Reopened
5 July 1936	Renamed Reedham
12 May 1980	Renamed Reedham (Surrey)
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
External links	Departures Layout Facilities Buses
WGS84	51°19′53″N 0°07′24″W / 51.3313°N 0.1233°W / 51.3313; -0.1233Coordinates: 51°19′53″N 0°07′24″W / 51.3313°N 0.1233°W / 51.3313; -0.1233

Reedham railway station is in the south of Purley in the London Borough of Croydon on the Tattenham Corner Line. The local area is residential and the station is near the A23 Brighton Road. The Brighton main line is adjacent, but is not served by this station.

Although occasionally referred to as Reedham (London), it is most commonly suffixed as Reedham (Surrey) in order to distinguish it from the station of the same name in Norfolk. Its three-letter station code is RHM.

The station was opened by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway on its branch line to Tattenham Corner as Reedham Halt on 1 March 1911. Situated 49 chains (990 m) from Purley railway station, it was built with 300-foot (91 m) long platforms and adjoined an overbridge crossing Old Lodge Lane in Purley. It took its name from the nearby Reedham Asylum for Fatherless Children, founded in Richmond by philanthropist Andrew Reed in 1844. The asylum was renamed Reedham Orphanage in 1904 and Reedham School in 1950. It closed in 1980, but the trust which ran it still occupies the original lodge (gatehouse) of the estate.

After a period of temporary wartime closure between 1917 and 1919, the halt became a station on 5 July 1936. On 12 May 1980, the suffix "Surrey" was added to the station's name to distinguish it from Reedham (Norfolk). Some timetables used to refer to the station as "Reedham (GLC)". Having first been lengthened in advance of electrification of the line in 1928, the platforms were again extended in 1982 to take eight-car trains in the days when a train had both a driver and a guard. However nowadays, due to lack of station CCTV to assist the driver to close the doors safely, trains without train-mounted external cameras are only permitted to open the doors on the first four carriages.