The Folkestone Harbour & Seafront Development Company is delighted to announce that Folkestone Harbour has won the Award for Best Overall Entry at the 2023 National Railway Heritage Awards.

The National Railway Heritage Awards recognise, acknowledge and reward, for the public benefit, the very best in re-use, restoration, and conservation of this country’s historic railway infrastructure.

Paulo Kingston-Correia, General Manager of Folkestone Harbour & Seafront Development Company, who are leading a comprehensive project designed to create a vibrant seafront for the town, said:

“We are very pleased to have our extensive work to restore this deeply historic element of our site recognised in this way. Alongside many other beautiful, ambitious projects right across the country, to have our work chosen as the best example of sensitive renewal for the public good is really rewarding”.

As part of Folkestone Harbour & Seafront Development Company’s ongoing renovation of the Harbour Arm and its heritage structures, the station and its platforms were restored and reopened in spring 2018. The route that once carried the boat train is now a linear park, a landscaped pedestrian link through from the harbour viaduct out to the Harbour Arm. The platforms where passengers once waited for their trains are again a sheltered space to pause, sit, and contemplate; stepped seating areas down to the track bed allow the space also to be used for events and performances.

The rails still run through from the harbour viaduct, but now they are sunk into the track bed where they border landscaped shingle beds, leading the eye through the space. There is a wild aesthetic to the landscaping, one that echoes the shingle beaches of Folkestone and Dungeness. A mix of hardy native wildflowers and grasses, including species that had already made the site their home when it was derelict, will last across the seasons, growing thicker and richer in time.