Old cobbled road under the station

When Brighton station was opened in 1841, it was connected to the town by a narrow, steep track running up from Trafalgar Street. Cabs used the track to drop off passengers next to today’s platform 7.

To get to the platform, the track went north from Trafalgar Street and then doubled back on itself, passing through a road tunnel underneath the station.

Station traffic stopped using the Trafalgar Street link in 1845 when Queen’s Road was built. The tunnel beneath the station is now disused and closed to the public.

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  • I’m not sure that this is quite right! It is a fact that originally Trafalgar Street was the main access street to the station, and very steep. However my understanding is that originally when the station was smaller, the Goods Yard was on the west side, and at the same level as the main line. As the town and hence station expanded, the Goods Yard was moved to the east side, and at a lower level. It was for this reason that the small tunnel was built under the main platform: to get heavy goods from the east lower side to the higher main level. I don’t doubt that it was also used to bring passengers in from the Trafalgar Street side of town. Also I doubt that it was even in existence, never mind closed, in 1845, just 4 years after the original station opened. I couldn’t say when it was built, however check out the Station Tour with Jackie Marsh-Hobbs, Brighton Festival, she will know. I’m sure it was still in regular use all the time that horse drawn transportation was in use, right up to the early 1900’s and probably only stopped being used when powerful motorised transport finally superseded four-legged transport!

    By Peter Groves (06/05/2008)
  • They are two different tunnels. The tunnel under the platforms enabled freight trains from Shoreham Harbour to get to the Lower Goods yard on the east side. It was rope hauled and used horses as the gradient was too steep for the early locomotives. It closed when the line from the Upper Goods yard linked the Lower Goods from the north on the east side of the mainline.
    The Cab tunnel for horse drawn taxi cabs was used well into the early 1900s as photographs show.

    By Adrian Backshall (26/11/2022)

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