The first station in Leatherhead was the terminus of the short-lived Epsom and Leatherhead Railway Company, opened on 1 February 1859, a company which was bought by the London and South Western Railway. In 1867 the somewhat winding route from London by Epsom, Dorking, and Horsham to Portsmouth was completed by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company rendering redundant its running rights over part of the London and South Western Railway line by jointly acquiring a section of the line, but with a separate station at 'Letherhead'. Leatherhead being due south-south-west from London, both companies, the LSWR and LBSCR, built their own Leatherhead station a few hundred yards apart from each other in the same way as Epsom to the north. The two stations were very close but south of the original junction and joint section of track which as in the present day leads towards Epsom. The first LSWR station was replaced by one to the near south-west of the LBSCR station, on 2 February 1885 with the opening of the line to Bookham and Effingham Junction and the Guildford New Line from Surbiton via Cobham, linking Leatherhead and Guildford by rail for the first time. It is now demolished and its spur redirected in 1927. Under the grouping of 1923, the LBSCR and LSWR became part of Southern Railway and thereby the rivalry of two stations within a few hundred metres made historic. The duplication of stops in the town centre ended in 1927 when the line from Guildford was diverted to join the LBSCR line to the south of the LBSCR station, entailing a new bridge across the River Mole but releasing some land. The LBSCR station, opened on 1 March 1867 is the one that survives The stationmaster's house, an integral part of the main building, is now in use as the Archive and Library of The Railway Correspondence & Travel Society. The LSWR station closed in July 1927, and was used as carriage sidings for many years, this use finally ending in the mid 1970s. The old station fell into greater and greater disrepair, and the old line was finally removed in the 1980s. All that remains are part of the steps up from road level to platform level. The line through Leatherhead was electrified in 1925, third rail services starting between Waterloo and Dorking /Bookham and the Guildford New Line on 12 July. 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 the railway has become part of the course of the M25 motorway. Ticket barriers were installed in 2011.
Architecture
The present station is a grade II listed building featuring a square tower above what was the station master's house on the northern projection and along its long central range "an arcade of brick piers with moulded stone imposts and round-headed arches, each under a 2-centred extrados and hoodmould, that at the left end with the doorway to the booking hall and the others with sashed windows, and the whole under a very prominent horizontal canopy with a supported by slender iron columns with ornamental brackets" The tower is red bricked and white stone-dressed. It is in the details of the dressings italianate particularly its bulged cornice and pyramidal roof.
Services
Leatherhead station is served by both Southern and South West Trains. The typical off-peak service pattern in trains per hour is as follows: Southern
Most Southern services terminate at Dorking after 20.00 on weekdays and there is no Saturday evening or Sunday service south of there. London Buses route 465 serves the station and Surrey County Council provide a list of bus services grouped under 'Dorking, Leatherhead, Epsom and Banstead bus timetables'.
