The problem of rising damp faces many building owners and Network Rail is no exception. Contractors have been engaged at Rye railway station in stripping off the plaster on the ticket office walls to a height of 400mm and then impregnating the brickwork every four inches with a damp-resisting chemical called Dryzone chemical dpc. The walls will then be relined with plasterboard and the fine wooden skirting-boards reinstated.
One contributory factor seems to have been the camber of the platform outside the waiting-room, which slopes back towards the building. There is a grated gully which should drain toward the rail-track, but it has become blocked. A planter box placed hard against the wall is also responsible for retained moisture affecting the lower brickwork below the non-existent damp-proof course. The planter box was a good idea at the time, initiated and tended by members of the former Rye in Bloom committee, whose efforts to brighten the town are much missed today.
There may be fewer trains running these days but these building repairs suggest that Rye station’s ticket office is likely to remain open for many years.
photo: Kenneth Bird