'I ate a tasty brunch at a former train station house steps from the Guided Busway'


For those who hate early mornings, breakfast at a railway station is no foreign concept. Whether you’re picking up a bacon bap, a crumbling croissant or a simple cereal bar from WHSmith, platform food is a godsend when your empty belly begins imitating the rumbling of trains along tracks.

As someone who can barely function on less than seven hours’ sleep, I often find myself in the platform snack camp. Before visiting a café in Histon, however, nothing posher than a pain au chocolat had passed my lips at a railway station.

The Station House used to be Histon Railway Station’s building. Part of the site was demolished following its closure to passengers as part of the 1970 Beeching Axe, yet the station building was preserved.

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Today, this building is home to eggs and waffles, coffee and craft beers. And, while it is no longer a stop for train passengers, it is now a spot for those travelling via the guided busway from Cambridge to St Ives and Huntingdon.

The Station House, Histon
The Station House, Histon -Credit:Siobhan Middleton / CambridgeshireLive

Guided busway stops from each direction are just metres from the café. During my Wednesday lunchtime visit for CamBites, I watched from the window of the café as green buses filled with day-tripping pensioners passed by.

The menu was enticing. I had missed the 10am cut-off point for the breakfast options, which included pastries, poached eggs and a maple waffle, but the best dishes were found on the all-day brunch section.

The more traditional brunch options were eggs benedict and full English-style breakfasts – a regular one and a vegan one. For me, however, it was a toss up between the two more intriguing meals.

The café is next to the Guided Busway
The café is next to the Guided Busway -Credit:Siobhan Middleton / CambridgeshireLive

The first was lemon mascarpone-filled French toast topped with berries, compote, dark chocolate granola and maple syrup. The second was Turkish eggs – poached eggs in a thick yoghurt with olive tapenade, tomatoes, harissa oil, pumpkin seeds and sourdough toast.

Won over by the word ‘olive’, I asked the waiter for £10.50 Turkish eggs with a £3.50 flat white. The coffee looked classy in a glass cup with a saucer, and tasted lovely.

Looking around the room while I sipped, I found the décor to be simple, with a hint of an industrial theme coming through in train station-style metal clocks and lamps shaped like vintage kettles.

My lovely flat white coffee from The Station House
My lovely flat white coffee from The Station House -Credit:Siobhan Middleton / CambridgeshireLive

My Turkish eggs arrived just seconds after my flat white, and looked like a work of art. A circle of yoghurt was painted in the background, and the foreground was smattered with bright cherry tomato splashes and seeds.

The subject – a round poached egg in the centre – was haloed by orange harissa oil and topped with a couple of bright green pea shoots.

Onto the taste: The egg was perfectly cooked, and its rich, orange yolk mingled with the very slightly spicy harissa oil. The red onions had been pickled, mellowing their typically harsh flavour.

My Turkish eggs were delicious
My Turkish eggs dish was delicious -Credit:Siobhan Middleton / CambridgeshireLive

The sweetness of the onions and the cherry tomatoes contrasted with the earthy, salty, delicious olive tapenade. The thin layer of yoghurt and the butter on the sourdough added a luxuriousness to the dish, without pushing it into the realm of ‘too rich’.

The story of The Station House started while a father was walking with his young daughter during the 2021 lockdown. The girl asked her father what the old station would be, and he replied ‘a café’.

At the request of the insistent child, the father is now owner of The Station House. The cafe’s Turkish eggs dish was one of the best egg-based meals I have ever tried, so I am grateful to that ambitious little girl.