An event is set to take place at Scarborough Railway Station today to celebrate what is claimed to be the longest station bench in the world.
The Yorkshire Coast Community Rail Partnership (YCCRP) is organising the celebration as part of the national Railway 200 campaign, which marks the 200th anniversary of the modern railway.
The event, which starts at 11am on platform 1, will attempt to find out exactly how many people can sit side-by-side on the historic seat.
The bench dates back to 1883 and was designed by NER architect William Bell to handle the increasing number of excursion visitors to the coast. It is said to be 139 metres long and capable of seating around 230 people, a claim the YCCRP intends to put to the test.
Rachel Osborne, Community Rail Officer for the YCCRP, explained the motivation behind the celebration.
" Scarborough Railway Station has a claim to fame in that it has the longest station bench in the world.
So for Railway 200, we were asked to think about what we could celebrate on our local railway line. And we thought, what better thing to celebrate than our long station bench.
So we're going to actually have an event where we're going to see how many people we can fit side by side on the longest station seat.
Students from Scarborough Sixth Form College are going to come down to the station and some of them are going to be dressed up in period costumes from the last 200 years and we're going to sit as many of them as we can on on the station bench and we're going to have a photographer there and we're going to get a really good photo of everybody on the bench".
Rachel says there is some uncertainty about the bench's exact dimensions.
"All the books and online it says it's 130m long and it says it can seat 230 people but there is a little bit of dispute about that. So we're not quite sure whether it's been shortened over the years and we've purposely not measured it because we'd like to put the claim to the test and see.
But it's certainly long it's still the longest bench in the world but we'll see how long it actually is and how many people fit on it.
It's attracting loads of people. It's really grabbed the attention of of everyone in the rail industry and the railway 200. So there's going to be all sorts of people there and it's going to be a really fun event".
The event is supported and funded by Transpennine Express and aims to bring the community together to celebrate the unique piece of local railway history. Refreshments and souvenirs will be available, and all are welcome to attend.
Andrew Watkins, Communities & Development Manager at TransPennine Trains, said:
“We’re delighted to be supporting this unique celebration of Scarborough’s record-breaking station seat as part of Railway 200.
The bench is a wonderful symbol of the town’s railway heritage, and events like this help bring history to life in a fun and inclusive way. It’s fantastic to see young people and the community getting involved, and we’re proud to play our part in marking this milestone”.
Emma Roberts, programme manager for Railway 200, also commented:
“This is a fantastic, fun contribution to the railway’s 200th anniversary celebrations. I hope Scarborough’s many rail customers will be sitting comfortably for many years to come!”.
The bench is located on platform 1, which Rachel Osborne described as historically being the main platform for excursions. She stated that the platform remains important today for attracting rail tours to Scarborough.
"It has shrunk a bit over the years, but we've still got a lot remaining at Scarborough compared with other resorts.
It is really good that platform one remains because it does attract a lot of excursions all through the year. Steam excursions, diesel excursions.
Scarborough is a big destination for rail tours to come. They come from all over the country and so they they usually arrive on platform one. It's brilliant for Scarborough, it's brilliant for the station and for the economy".
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