Hove Railway Station

My other gateway to London, this station is a bit closer to my house than Brighton station.
Always looks clean and tidy, and the staff are always helpful and friendly.
Nowhere near as busy and manic as Brighton station can be, which is a good thing for me personally.
Trains from here run regularly to London Victoria, and along the west coast to Portsmouth and Southampton.

When I used to live in Hove, I purposefully aimed for a property closer to the station than necessarily on a bus route. It wasn’t so much that I don’t like bus travel: in fact, I’ve always found Brighton’s bus network to be remarkably well run, I just prefer the trains: cheaper, faster, easier to use, and easier to get further afield: always good when I need to work in London for the day. Out of Brighton’s stations, Hove may not be as big, grand or opulent as Brighton Station, but it gets the job done, and has a surprising number of amenities for a smaller, almost rural station.
Apart from the obligatory ticket machines, Hove Station also has a manned ticket office, with 2 – 3 stands open at most times: quite the service, especially for those (like me) that have such trouble with those machine-​thingies. There are also two newsagents, one in and one outside the barriers, as well as a coffee cart and a florists. This is all right in the station: next door you also have a great pub (The Station), a greasy spoon and a Tesco Express around the corner. All of this means that the location here is perfect: everything can be picked up or relaxed into very close to your travel, meaning everything you need is available, both when leaving and returning. And it’s never too busy, thanks to Hove being, generally, a bit quieter.
Basically put, it’s a train station: it does everything it says on the tin, plus its location and number of shops, both built in and in the area, make Hove Train Station ideal for what it is. However, if you don’t need to go to Hove, why would you bother going?

Hove station feels much more like a rural station then one that in fact serves many of Brighton and Hove’s more savvy commuters. Its location, tucked away in the corner of goldstone villas, has the kind of relaxed yet affluent atmosphere that you can find in the larger proportion of the BN3 area. Perhaps this is why estate agents have coined the phrase“BN3 is the place to be”. The architecture enjoys the same period style as Brighton station but in keeping with Hove’s smaller size it definitely lacks Brighton’s dramatic impact. On the whole though the station always seems to feel safe at any time of day or night and with a great selection of conveniences (fuel station, Pub and Hove park stores) I think it would be worth the occasional longer walk home.

Hove railway station is a lot smaller than its big brother Brighton which is fine by me as I find Brighton incredibly crowded and sometimes impossible to get a seat on a train to London. Hove’s service to Victoria is direct and takes 50 minutes. It also has a pretty good service along the Sussex coast to Southampton, Eastbourne and Portsmouth.
If you travel outside peak hours, a return to Victoria is only £13 as opposed to the daylight robbery price between 7−9am.
There’s a little coffee cart when you arrive outside to start your day and a decent florists for when you get back and want to treat your better half to some nice flowers.
Stress free train travel!

Hove’s railway station is the smaller and quieter counterpart of that in Brighton, but still has a regular and reasonably frequent train service to London (direct), to Brighton and along the Sussex coast to Southampton, Eastbourne, Portsmouth and (less frequently) Bristol and South Wales. It’s a busy commuter station in its own right, used by over 2 million passengers a year.
Opened in 1865, the original station on the site was named West Brighton and Cliftonville. This building still survives, adjacent to the present station: painted in Southern’s colours of white and mint green, it was designed in a pleasant, almost domestic, Victorian villa style. The forecourt is now used by a car-​washing business.
In 1893 a new and larger station building was provided slightly to the West, and this more utilitarian red-​brick affair is the main station today. This was called ‘Hove and West Brighton’ until 1895, and then just ‘Hove’. It’s main feature is a generous porte-​cochere, which is great when it is raining! It also shelters a florist stall Monday to Friday.
The station has a small buffet on the London/​Brighton platform, a newsagents in the concourse, and a small ticket office. There’s only usually a single ticket window open, so if your journey is starting here, get there with a few extra minutes to spare.
The three platforms are long and have generous canopies, and while you are waiting you can look across the sidings to the old ‘Dubarry’ soap and perfume factory — an attractive art nouveau building, now used as offices.
I sometimes use the services to and from Hove rather than Brighton, as it is almost as convenient for me and, while it has a less frequent service, the trains tend to be a little less packed.
As well as a taxi rank outside, and buses on the frequent 7 route (Hove-​Brighton Marina) stop here too. The bus will take you to Hove’s main shopping area (or it’s a 10 minute walk), but is nowhere near the sea!