History of Brighton Station
section under review pending a reorganisation of material about the station and its history
Trafalgar Street
Over the rest of the C19th, a narrow bridge was added over Trafalgar Street, and then the bridge was widened eastwards, and then widened once again. As you walk down Trafalgar Street from the West, you can see the three generations of ironwork that represent the three successive phases of bridge-building.
Opposite the station forecourt (and opposite the museum) was a large hotel whose location is now occupied by the bus stop area in front of the station. The hotel had a basement entrance on Trafalgar Street that is still visible, and (conveniently for its guests) was almost opposite the station's lower-level entrance.
Trafalgar Street station entrance
The old lower (disused) entrance to the station (a square arch with 45-degree corners) still exists on Trafalgar Street. This sealed-off entrance leads to the abandoned level beneath the platform of Brighton Station, which used to house baths and service businesses, with stairs emerging inside the current station area.
Disused unit
Alongside the old lower entrance is a sealed-off unit that was a barber's shop, and was then reused as a small recording studio. The next four units make up the Museum.
The Museum Arches
The four main arches used by the Museum are underneath the station forecourt, facing Trafalgar Road, occupying the rest of the old under-arch region. To the right of the Museum entrance is a large wooden doorway that marks the old, now-hidden entrance to the cab road that ran alongside the old station exterior wall.
The Museum's arches have been used for different purposes over the years. The smaller arched rooms that branch off the Museum lobby and are used for Museum offices and resource rooms, were originally used as stables, and each room still has a square trapdoor in the arched ceiling at the back of each room, where bales of hay were dropped down to feed the horses.
The next three arches were used to store wine or beer, and the red equilateral triangle on a white background above the outside of each arch, on Trafalgar Street corresponds to the logo of the Bass brewery company. This logo was one of the first UK registered trademarks.
The section of exterior wall along the length of the museum has a mural depicting the Brighton Belle electric Pullman train, painted in 2010.
The Cab Road
Brighton Station's Cab Road ran alongside the station's original eastward exterior wall. The route was bridged-over when the station building was extended outwards to the east, and new arched units were built on its other side.
The cab road is now effectively a brick-lined tunnel that separates Brighton Toy and Model Museum from the businesses under the newer station arches. The entrance to the road/tunnel is behind the large wooden door directly to the right of the Museum's main entrance.
Brighton Station Goods Tunnel was used for a while as a firing range.
Brighton Works
Brighton Locomotive Works was partly situated on the adjacent land to the immediate east of the station, and was one of the country's biggest locomotive production facilities. The recent buildings to the East of the station are mostly built on the site of the old Works, and many of the new place names are names associated with railways (like Fenchurch Walk).
Not all of this recent development is yet listed or shown on online maps but can usually be seen on mapping websites in "satellite view".
