History
The present station, a grade II listed building, is one of four that have served Leatherhead over the years (although two were ever intended to be only temporary). Both the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) and the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) had plans to build a railway line into Leatherhead, and an agreement was reached that one would build the line on condition that the other was granted equal running rights over it. However, each company built its own station a few hundred yards apart from each other: the LBSCR on its line to Dorking and Horsham and the LSWR on its line to Guildford. The lines through the two stations met a short distance to the north, and the joint line continued towards Epsom.
Following the grouping of 1923 caused by the Grouping, the LBSCR and LSWR both became part of the Southern Railway, and having two stations was deemed unnecessary. So, in 1927, the line from Guildford was diverted to join the former LBSCR line to the south of their station.
The first station in Leatherhead was that of the Epsom and Leatherhead Railway, which opened on 1 February 1859. This was replaced by the LSWR station, 880 yards (805 m) to the south, on 2 February 1885. The LBSCR station, opened on 1 March 1867 is the one that survives, although the Stationmaster's House (an integral part of the main building) is boarded up along with the building on Platform 2. The LSWR station closed on 10 July 1927, and fell into greater and greater disrepair but the old line was only finally removed in the 1980s. All that remains are part of the steps up from road level to platform level.
In the 1930s, it was planned to extend the new line to Chessington to Leatherhead. However, World War II caused this to be put on hold, and a subsequent protection order on Ashtead Common meant that this was never built. The land reserved through North Leatherhead for this new railway was subsequently used for construction of the M25 motorway.
Ticket barriers were installed in 2011.
Read more about this topic: Leatherhead Railway Station
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