Malden Rushett is a small village in the

Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames is a borough in southwest London. The main town is Kingston upon Thames and it includes Surbiton, Chessington, Malden Rushett, New Malden and Tolworth. It is the oldest of the four royal boroughs in Eng ...

, London. It is located at the southernmost tip of the Royal Borough, surrounded by woodland and farmland, and between the larger suburban villages and towns of

Claygate Claygate is an affluent suburban village in Surrey, England, southwest of central London. It is the only civil parish in the borough of Elmbridge. Surrounded by green belt, it lies inside the Greater London Built-up Area. Claygate was once in t ...

Chessington Chessington is an area in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames within Greater London. Historically part of Surrey, today it is the largest salient of Greater London into that county. At the 2011 census it had a population of 18,973. Th ...

Epsom Epsom is the principal town of the Borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The ...

Ashtead Ashtead is a large village in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, approximately south of central London. Primarily a commuter settlement, Ashtead is on the single-carriageway A24 between Epsom and Leatherhead. The village is on t ...

Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley District of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxon period, Leath ...

and

Oxshott Oxshott is a suburban village in the borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England. Oxshott includes hilly acidic heath which is partly wooded (see Esher Commons and Prince's Coverts) and occupies the land between the large towns of Esher and Leatherhead ...

History

Rushett was a detached part of the parish of Malden, located approximately 5 miles southwest of the main parish. On 24 March 1884 it was transferred to the parish of

Facilities

Malden Rushett sits on the crossroads of the

A243 road A, or a, is the first Letter (alphabet), letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name ...

from

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...

and the B280 from

. It consists of a few houses, two pubs and a petrol station incorporating an M&S Simply Food shop. It is two miles from Junction 9 on the

M25 motorway The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major road encircling most of Greater London. The motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest. Margaret Thatcher opened the final section in 1986, making the M25 the lon ...

. The area also houses the Explorer Gate (south entrance and car park) of

Chessington World of Adventures Chessington World of Adventures Resort is a theme park, zoo and hotel complex in Chessington, Greater London, England, around southwest of Central London. The complex opened as Chessington Zoo in 1931, with the theme park being developed along ...

& Zoo Resort.

Rushett Common

South of Malden Rushett is Rushett Common, consisting of two strips of woodland alongside the A243 to the edge of the boundary between Greater London and Surrey. These are bounded by the

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

woodlands of Princes Covert to the west and

Epsom Common Epsom Common is a Local Nature Reserve in Epsom in Surrey. It is owned and managed by Epsom and Ewell Borough Council. It is part of Epsom and Ashtead Commons, a Site of Special Scientific Interest. This is a nationally important wildlife loca ...

to the east. Within Rushett Common is Telegraph Hill – earlier known as Cabbage Hill – which was the site of a station on the Admiralty Shutter telegraph line. This used the shutter system to communicate between London and Portsmouth from 1796 until 1816. The buildings were small two-roomed wooden huts with a frame which held the six wooden shutters.Rushett Common
/ref> The station was replaced by a semaphore station built at

Education

Transport and locale

Malden Rushett was due to have had a railway station built as part of the Southern Railway's extension from

Motspur Park Motspur Park, also known locally as West Barnes, is a residential suburb in south-west London, in the New Malden district. It straddles the boroughs of Kingston upon Thames and Merton. Motspur Park owes its identity to the railway station of ...

via Chessington. The line reached

Chessington South Chessington South railway station is in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in Greater London, England, and is the terminus of the Chessington Branch Line. It is served by South Western Railway, and is down the line from , in Travelcard ...

in 1939 and work was well underway on the final part of the line to Malden Rushett and Leatherhead, which was expected to stimulate further housing development beyond Chessington. The railway was extended beyond Chessington South station as far as Chalky Lane, with a bridge built over this road. Work was halted due to the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, although the Royal Engineers did build a further railway embankment south of Chalky Lane which went as far as Chessington Wood and, probably, not far from the location where Malden Rushett station would have been built. Following the introduction after the war of

Green Belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which hav ...

legislation, little housing development could take place beyond

. Thus, the revenue earned from a station at Malden Rushett would have been minimal and the work was abandoned. The village is now served by the

London Buses route 465 London Buses route 465 is a joint Transport for London and Surrey County Council contracted bus route in London and Surrey, England. Running between Kingston and Dorking, it is operated by London United. The route extends the furthest from L ...

, while route 65 terminates at the nearby

as part of its night route, with route 71 also terminating there.

Nearby places

Esher Esher ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, to the east of the River Mole. Esher is an outlying suburb of London near the London-Surrey Border, and with Esher Commons at its southern end, the town marks one limit of the Greater London Built-Up Ar ...

Tolworth Tolworth is a suburban area in the Surbiton district, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, Greater London. It is southwest of Charing Cross. Neighbouring places include Long Ditton, New Malden, Kingston, Surbiton, Berrylands, Hinchley Wood, ...

Surbiton Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the historic county of Surrey and since 1965 it has ...

Nearest railway stations

Chessington South railway station Chessington South railway station is in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in Greater London, England, and is the terminus of the Chessington Branch Line. It is served by South Western Railway, and is down the line from , in Travelcard ...

Chessington North railway station Chessington North railway station, in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in South West London, is on the Chessington branch line and is served by South Western Railway. The station serves Hook as well as the northern part of Chessingto ...

Bus routes

Prominent residents

Andrew Mackinlay Andrew Stuart MacKinlay (born 24 April 1949) is a British Liberal Democrat politician, who was the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Thurrock from 1992 until he stepped down at the 2010 general election. In parliament MacKinlay built a ...

References

{{LB Kingston upon Thames Areas of London Districts of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames