Penge East

Nice old station.

Penge East railway station is on the Chatham Main Line in England, serving part of the Penge and Sydenham areas in the London Borough of Bromley, south London. It is 7 miles 15 chains (11.6 km) down the line from London Victoria and is situated between Sydenham Hill and Kent House.

The station and most trains that call are operated by Southeastern, as part of the Bromley South Metro service, with a very limited number of Thameslink services as well. Penge East is in Travelcard Zone 4.

History

A 1908 Railway Clearing House map of lines around the Brighton Main Line and Chatham Main Line in South London.
The station is 7.2 miles (11 km) from London Victoria on the Chatham Main Line and was opened on 1 July 1863. It was built by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway and originally known as Penge (LCDR) or Penge Lane, and was renamed Penge East on 9 July 1923.[4] When the line was built a level crossing was built where the line crossed the old alignment of Penge Lane (now Newlands Park Rd and St John's Rd). When the level crossing was closed in about 1879, Penge Lane traffic was diverted down what are now Thesiger Road, Parish Lane and the current Penge Lane.

Penge West station is a short walk away, with services to London Bridge. The covered footbridge with its corrugated roof dates from the 1880s and is a listed structure. The station is close to the South-Eastern portal of Penge Railway Tunnel.

Services
The typical off-peak service is four trains an hour northbound to London Victoria (via Herne Hill and Brixton) and four trains an hour southbound to Orpington (via Bromley South). A very infrequent service operates via St Pancras International to St Albans, Luton or Bedford. Trains via St Pancras International generally start or terminate at Beckenham Junction.

Connections
London Buses routes 75, 194, 227, 176, 354 and 197 serve the station.

Nice and clean station & lovely new coffee shop just by the newsagent side entrance

Nice local station and kept clean

"People think I wrote all my tunes in New york, but actually I wrote all them while sitting around on Platform 1 of Penge East station."
~ Lou Reed

And so, in a place where the inhabitants are known as Penguins, Lou Reed first conceived of his strange world of misfits and transsexuals.

After Reed became the superstar that we all now think of him as, Penge station was completely redeveloped and tiles representing characters from Lou's songs were fashioned by orphaned children and placed all round the station. You can still see them today.

David Bowie showed up here in 1967 and the rest is history.