Bat & Ball Station Wins Urban Heritage Award

Published: 28 July 2021

Bat & Ball Station building is a Grade II listed Victorian property which was constructed in 1862. The building is of significant historical interest as it was the first station in Sevenoaks and in 1867 used by Queen Victoria when visiting Knole House. The station was boarded from 1991 and gradually deteriorated over the years until 2018 when Sevenoaks Town Council secured a £755,600 Heritage Lottery Fund grant towards the refurbishment of the station building.

The restoration took 26 weeks to complete and the building opened to the public in March 2019 providing heritage information, community rooms for hire, a café and public toilets.

Since completion, the restoration project has been nominated for several awards and has been recognised for retaining the buildings original character, enhancing its historic features with contemporary design, as well as bringing an unused building back to life for use by the local community.

Event:

Sevenoaks Town Council were pleased to previously announce Bat & Ball Station restoration had won the Urban Heritage Award, sponsored by the Arch Company, at The National Railway Heritage Awards, 2019. The project was acknowledged for the dramatic restoration work and for bringing the building back into community use as part of the Northern Sevenoaks Masterplan to regenerate the area.

The award was presented by HRH The Princess Royal at the National Railway Heritage Awards special ceremony to mark the competition’s 40th anniversary on Wednesday 4 December at Merchant Taylors’ Hall, London EC2. 

The National Railway Heritage Awards aim is:

"To recognise, acknowledge and reward, for the public benefit, the very best in restoration, conservation and re-use of our historic railway infrastructure." 

The local celebrations and erections of the impressive plaques have been delayed until now due to pandemic public health restrictions.