Signal Box At Havant Station

This is a railway signal box built around 1890 for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, with a subsequent extension around 1938 for the Southern Railway. It is a large Type 5 Saxby and Farmer signal box, constructed with a brick frame floor and a timber-framed upper floor, topped with a hipped roof of Welsh slate. The building has five bays, with the two bays furthest from the crossing (the west end) added around 1938.

The trackside elevation features blocked arched openings to the locking room, where stone cills are still visible. A balcony at first floor level runs in front of three light windows, these windows appear to be plastic replacements, designed to replicate the original timber design, with pivoted rather than sliding horizontal action. Deep eaves brackets top each bay post, and the fascia above the windows is divided to match the width of each pane. The hipped roof has lost its original ventilators. The rear elevation has corner windows providing views of the crossing and the Hayling Island branch. An external stack has been removed. A ground floor extension likely dates from around 1938.

The interior was not inspected at the time of listing, but is reportedly equipped with a Westinghouse 70 lever frame, presumably installed around 1938 during the box’s extension.

Historically, the signal box controls a significant junction between the 1859 London and South Western Railway line and the 1847 London, Brighton and South Coast Railway line, as well as the goods yard at Havant station and the 1867 Hayling Island branch. The building’s design, typical of Saxby and Farmer Type 5 boxes produced between 1876 and 1898, is thought to have been erected between 1888 and 1897. The dualling of the line from London, completed in 1878, likely increased traffic. The 1938 extension included refitting with a 70 lever frame by the Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company of Chippenham, which had taken over the Saxby and Farmer works in 1903. The signal box is valued as a fine example of a Type 5 Saxby and Farmer signal box, notable for its later extension and refitting, and for its control of a significant junction.