Facts about Redhill
General Info
Redhill is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead within the county of Surrey, England. The town, which adjoins the town of Reigate to the west, is due south of Croydon in Greater London, and is part of the London commuter belt. The town is also the post town, entertainment and commercial area of three adjoining communities: Merstham, Earlswood and Whitebushes, as well as of two small rural villages to the east in the Tandridge District, Bletchingley and Nutfield.
History
A settlement was formed here in part of the rural parishes of Reigate Foreign and Merstham when a turnpike road was built in 1818. The London-Brighton road passed through the Merstham Gap in the North Downs, and the Redhill Gap in the Greensand Ridge. The settlement was originally known as “Warwick Town” after Warwick Road, and became known as Redhill when the post office moved from Red Hill Common in the south-west of the town in 1856.
A major factor in the development of the town was the coming of the railways. The gap through the Greensand Ridge at Redhill was a major advantage for routing a railway from London to Brighton. A railway station opened in Redhill on 12 July 1841, after the London and Brighton Railway created a rail line by excavating the first of two rail tunnels under the North Downs at Merstham. Another railway station at Redhill followed on 26 May 1842, located on the South Eastern Railway’s London to Dover to line, which branched off the original line south of the Merstham tunnel. Then on 15 April 1844 both these two stations were closed, as a new combined station was opened at the junction that same day, serving both railways, at the site of the present station. In 1849 a branch line to Reigate was added.
