Demolition of Royal Mail delivery office to create more space at railway station under way

By Tara O’Connor, Local Democracy Reporter

Work on demolishing a huge Royal Mail delivery office next to East Croydon railway station is well under way.

The building was bought by Network Rail in 2019 as part of its plans to tackle the Croydon bottleneck, and the rail operator wants to build more platforms and tracks around the station to allow trains to run more easily on the London to Brighton line.

But there is uncertainty over whether there will be Government funding for the project, and how a post-Covid decline in passengers will impact this.

It now looks like there could be a “temporary use” for the site, while Network Rail figures out where the upgrade scheme will go.

Diggers can be now be seen working on the derelict Royal Mail building in Addiscombe Road, which is due to be fully demolished in August, but Network Rail said it cannot yet say how exactly the site will be used.

The Croydon area is the busiest, most congested and most complex part of the country’s rail network.

A lack of capacity at East Croydon and “complex series of junctions north of Croydon” means there are delays on the whole route whenever there is an incident.”

Pictured top: The Royal Mail building