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| Deal railway station stands at the top of Queen Street,
just west of its junction with West Street.
The railway first came to Deal in 1847. Originally a terminus, with trains running north to Sandwich, Minster and Ramsgate, it was not until 1881 that the line was extended southwards through Walmer and Martin Mill to Dover. To do this, part of Queen Street and other nearby streets had to be demolished to make way for the line. A bridge to the south of the station now carries Queen Street over the line to join London Road on the other side. At Deal, the South Eastern Railway Company built their own hotel - the South Eastern - on the front next to the Castle. It was advertised as being "within reach of the Four Famous Golf Links". These are: Walmer and Kingsdown, the Royal Cinque Ports (to the north of the town by Sandown Castle), Prince's and Royal St George's (both at Sandwich bay). Sadly, the hotel was destroyed by fire in the 1960s; a block of luxury flats now stands on the site.
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| Unlike many small stations on the network, Deal is manned
from early morning to early evening. It is very busy in the
mornings with people commuting to London (about a 2 hour journey on a
good day) and children travelling to school in nearby Dover and
Sandwich.
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| This picture was taken from the bridge over the line
which joins Queen Street with London Road. The station originally
had a roof over both lines, before the "down" platform (north
towards Sandwich) was built, but now only a small canopy remains over
the "up" platform (south towards Dover). Until recent
years, a third line ran between the two outer ones to allow through
trains to pass when there were stationary trains on both
platforms. To the left of the footbridge (in the centre of the
picture) another line ran behind the "down" platform; this was
used for trains from Sandwich that were terminating here and going
back. It was also used for unloading goods and later for parking
engineering stock.
To the right of the picture, where Sainsbury's car park is now, was a coal yard. |