Many of the underground structures beneath Brighton Railway Station were a response to its unique geography and architecture. The station was built on the side of a steep hill, which meant there was limited space to build on.
The first railway track was the goods line from Shoreham Harbour, not the London to Brighton line as might be expected. It brought in raw materials and coal that built and powered the railway station, trains, and the growing town.
The Goods Tunnel
It brought a challenge too. The coastal line was situated at a higher elevation than the station’s goods yard. This meant engineers had to dig deep for a solution, creating the goods tunnel – an underground passage on a gentle gradient that crossed beneath the railway lines, exiting on the east side where the Green Door Store is now. Carriages were uncoupled and sent down the goods tunnel to be unloaded and then returned to the surface.
The growth of the town and railway meant that the station needed to expand again by the 1860s and different areas for marshalling and unloading carriages was established to the north of the station. This led to the goods tunnel being covered, but not filled in.
The Cab Road
A growing town needs good connections and communications and in the 19th century, that meant horses.
Trafalgar Street was the only road leading up to the station when it opened in 1840 (prior to Queens Road’s construction), and the incline was too extreme for horse and cabs to travel up. In response, a neat solution was found. A more gently inclined road – the Cab Road – was constructed, which ran along the east side of the station to platform level.
The expansion of the station in the 1880s extended it eastwards. The Cab Road became enclosed, and had a sharp switchback introduced that brought cabs out onto the section between platforms 7 and 8.
20th century onwards
Time moves on again. Cars arrived and the last horse drawn cab journey was made in 1916.
What do you do with tunnels that have become empty spaces and whose purpose has gone? The Cab Road tunnel was repurposed for storage, an indoor market, and more recently for art exhibitions. The answer for the Goods Tunnel arrived in the late 1930s. War was coming and the country had to be sure that the trains would keep running. This resulted in a shadow underground complex (known as the War Rooms) being constructed to ensure that if the station above ground was hit, service would continue. It was a mirror of the control rooms and signals from the surface and completely secure.
After the war, life underground changed again. The War Rooms became offices for the railway companies and were used for training and meetings.
Woking Homes, a charity for railway workers, was based there. And the empty space at the west of the tunnel, with the entrance between platforms 5 and 6, became a rifle range for Brighton Railway Rifle Club, which is still in use today.
