Two more places with two stations: Carshalton and Harringay

Saturday 17th January 2026

Following all the suggestions after last month’s originally planned final blog in this series, I’m able to prolong the feature a bit longer with a few monthly posts this year to tick off all those additional places which are blessed with two stations on completely different lines and not connected by regular trains.

First up for 2026 are two more to add to last month’s London’s suburban bonanza: Carshalton in the south and Harringay in the north.

In Carshalton’s case I should say it depends how one is defining ‘place’ as Sutton and Wallington are very close by and could all be considered one place with four stations, but Carshalton does have an individual geographic feel to it, so in my judgement it does qualify as being a ‘place’ in its own right.

Carshalton and Carshalton Beeches are both controlled by Southern being located just under a mile apart on almost the same line of longitude and about a mile and a half east of Sutton.

Carshalton itself is the busier of the two stations and as you can see from the above photograph has a rather grand station building welcoming passengers and sees both Southern and Thameslink trains with the former providing half hourly trains northbound to Victoria and southbound to Epsom and Dorking with alternate hourly journeys continuing to Horsham while Thameslink trains give a half hourly (northbound) link to Herne Hill and Elephant & Castle then to Blackfriars and through ‘the core’ to St Pancras and on to St Albans City. Southbound Thameslink (and Southern) trains go to Sutton (the next station) then the former continues around the loop via Morden South to Wimbledon and back via Tooting and Herne Hill through ‘the core’ to St Albans City. There are additional departures in the peaks including a ‘fast’ Southern train to Victoria and another to London Bridge.

Carshalton Beeches with its more modest building to welcome you (as shown in the photograph below) just sees Southern trains calling but does offer options of both Victoria (via West Croydon and Selhurst etc) or London Bridge (via West Croydon and Norwood Junction) both half hourly northbound, and Sutton (the next station) then either Epsom or Epsom Downs, each half hourly southbound with enhancements in the peaks providing a combined 10 minute frequency.

Carshalton opened in 1868 and in 2024/25 had 1.139 million passengers passing through whereas although the line through what we now know as Carshalton Beeches opened much earlier in 1847, the station itself, originally called Beeches Halt didn’t appear on the scene until 1906, being renamed in 1925. It saw 0.787 million passengers in 2024/25.

Carshalton is accessible with a lift as well as stairs to the subway…

… joining the two platforms whereas Carshalton Beeches has a non-accessible footbridge at the western end…

… depicted in a rather nicely painted graphic on the wall.

As you can see Carshalton Beeches also has plenty of covered waiting area for passengers to wait…

…although not a huge number of seats on the Sutton bound platform.

The ticket office and gateline at Carshalton Beeches…

… has one of the most well stocked book libraries I’ve seen on these station tours…

… as well as a very informative Community Noticeboard.

I should also add there is accessible entrance/exit to/from the London bound platform (platform 1) through a side gate which can be unlocked if needed.

TfL bus route 154 passes by outside the station.

Back at Carshalton there’s also a ticket office with a smattering of seats…

… either side of the gateline…

… for passengers to enjoy a wait in the relative warm on a cold winter’s morning like the day I visited.

Although there’s also a waiting room on the London bound platform 1.

There are also toilets on this platform.

The covered areas on the platforms are not quite as extensive as at Carshalton Beeches but do look rather splendid as period architectural pieces to savor.

Finally, the station is apparently the home of an insurance broker.

Let’s go north of the River and take a look at Harringay’s two stations.

And you might be surprised to know, as I was, that it’s the Overground station Harringay Green Lanes which is the busier of the two with 1.425 million passenger entries/exits in 2024/25 compared to its near neighbour (600 yards to the west), Harringay, which mustered 1.14 million passengers that year.

Of course, my impressions are way outdated from the days when the former was an awfully run down station called Harringay Stadium on the Gospel Oak/Barking line when I grew up in this part of north London during the 1950s and 1960s whereas Harringay offered direct trains to King’s Cross, and in peak hours to Moorgate and Broad Street making it far more useful.

Harringay Green Lanes shook off that old image in the 2007 when it became part of the Overground and received a full makeover including making it accessible with extensive ramps…

… installed to take passengers to and from the platforms either side of the railway bridge over the very busy Green Lanes.

It’s also located adjacent to the popular Arena Shopping Park on the site of the old Greyhound Stadium and offers passengers four trains an hour.

There’s no ticket office, nor gateline, but being an Overground station it does have a staff presence.

Indeed, on the day I visited a member of staff was on both platforms but they may have been an exception.

As you can see the station won’t win any prizes for facilities…

… but I can assure you it’s a much more pleasant place to wait than in the 1950s/60s and you also don’t have to wait very long either with a best ever service on the line.

A ticket machine and departure board greet passengers at each entrance…

… but that’s about it.

At nearby Great Northern run Harringay, the facilities are equally sparse with no ticket office or gateline, just two ticket machines and a ‘meeting point’…

… nor accessible either, with steps down to the platforms…

… from a footbridge linking residential roads…

… either side of the extensive and wide East Coast mainline at this point with its service tracks alongside the main and suburban lines.

It’s one of the few stations in Britain where both platforms are west facing.

… and there is an enclosed waiting room but only open on Mondays to Fridays.

And a rather narrow northbound west facing platform 2 too.

Great Northern trains run every 15 minutes southbound to Finsbury Park and along the old Northern City line via Highbury & Islington to Moorgate with northbound trains running half-hourly alternately to either Welwyn Garden City or via the Hertford North line to Stevenage. Additional trains run in the peaks.

Just south of the station alongside the northbound platform 1 is the track providing a link from the Gospel Oak to Barking line featured earlier as seen on the right hand side of the photo below.

Back on the southbound platform 1 is a locked hut with a shutter which looked as though it was permanently shut.

And that completes all the places in London with two stations. More from elsehwhere in Britain next month.

Roger French

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