St George's Hill is a private
gated community in
Weybridge
Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the ...
,
Surrey, United Kingdom. The estate has golf and tennis clubs, as well as approximately 420 houses. Land ownership is divided between homes with gardens, belonging to home owners, and the estate roads and verges belonging to its residents' association. The hill first served as a home and leisure location to celebrities and successful entrepreneurs on its division into lots in the 1910s and 1920s when
Walter George Tarrant
Walter George Tarrant (8 April 1875 – 18 March 1942) was a builder born in Brockhurst in the north of the port town of Gosport, Hampshire, England. He is best known as a Surrey master builder and developer of St Georges Hill and the Wentwo ...
built its first homes. In a survey, most roads in the estate showed an average house sale price of over £5,500,000, with many properties selling for in excess of £15m and a handful selling for between £20m & £30m, meaning it is one of the most expensive and exclusive places to live in the UK and worldwide.
History
In April 1649, common land on the hill was occupied by a movement known as the
Diggers
The Diggers were a group of religious and political dissidents in England, associated with agrarian socialism. Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard, amongst many others, were known as True Levellers in 1649, in reference to their split from ...
, who began to farm there. The Diggers are often regarded as one of the world's first small-scale experiments in
socialism
Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...
and/or
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
. The Diggers left the hill following a court case five months later. The occupation has been commemorated by
The Land is Ours group, which briefly camped at the summit of the hill in 1995 and 1999.
Residences
Local builder
Walter George Tarrant
Walter George Tarrant (8 April 1875 – 18 March 1942) was a builder born in Brockhurst in the north of the port town of Gosport, Hampshire, England. He is best known as a Surrey master builder and developer of St Georges Hill and the Wentwo ...
owned the land and created many of the houses on the estate.
Each house is required by local laws to have at least of land, and houses are restricted to a maximum of 20 per cent of the plot.
The Neo-Georgian
Hamstone House (1938) and its entrance lodge and garages, Long Wall (1964-68; designed by
Leslie Gooday for himself) and Crow Clump, The Corbies and Yaffle Hill (1913, originally built as a single house, 'Crow Clump') on St George's Hill are each
listed Grade II on the
National Heritage List for England
The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...
.
Geography
The hill is the lowest in
Surrey to be listed by the national database of hills of Britain and Ireland, which records claims for all
Munro
A Munro () is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nev ...
s and all other popularly used categories, ranking 36th and as a
>50 tump. The easterly peak is the highest point of the three boroughs in the north-west corner of Surrey and has the highest summit to be strictly private, a higher semi-private Surrey summit being a shallower rise in rough woodland at
Ribs Down, Windlesham. The summit is 255 feet (78 metres) above mean sea level (
Ordnance Datum) and the minimum descent (notch/
col) is 174 feet (53 metres).
[Database of British and Irish Hills]
Retrieved 2015-03-06 This is to the south at a main road and school separating
Chatley Heath
Chatley Heath is part of 336 hectare reserve including Wisley Common, Ockham and parts of Hatchford. It is an area with a mixed habitats including heathland, ancient woodland and conifer woodland. On the top of Chatley heath (formerly known as Bre ...
in
Wisley
__NOTOC__
Wisley is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England between Cobham and Woking, in the Borough of Guildford. It is the home of the Royal Horticultural Society's Wisley Garden. The River Wey runs through the village and Ockham and ...
and
Painshill Park
Painshill (also referred to as "Pains Hill" in some 19th-century texts), near Cobham, Surrey, England, is one of the finest remaining examples of an 18th-century English landscape park. It was designed and created between 1738 and 1773 by Charl ...
,
Cobham. With its broad summit this minimum prominence results in views of Surrey varying from one observation point to another — the uppermost storey of houses or natural clearings viewed along the estate roads.
[ The estate roads consists of tall, neat hedges, mature trees, tended grass verges and roads laid with tarmac as pictured.
The nearest railway is the ]South West Main Line
The South West Main Line (SWML) is a 143-mile (230 km) major railway line between Waterloo station in central London and Weymouth on the south coast of England. A predominantly passenger line, it serves many commuter areas including south we ...
and nearest motorway is the M25 motorway, both more than 165 feet (50 metres) below the summit and centred from its centre respectively.
Golf club
The golf club was designed in 1912 by Harry Colt
Henry Shapland "Harry" Colt (4 August 1869 – 21 November 1951) was a golf course architect born in Highgate, England. He worked predominantly with Charles Alison, John Morrison, and Alister MacKenzie, in 1928 forming Colt, Alison & Morrison L ...
with the clubhouse being built in the early 1920s. The Red and Blue nines make up the main course at St George's Hill, with a third nine - the Green nine - upgraded in 1987 by Donald Steel
Donald Maclennan Arklay Steel (born 23 August 1937 in Hillingdon, Middlesex) is a former golfer and is a noted golf course designer, as well as being a writer and journalist. Educated at Fettes College and Christ's College, Cambridge, he has des ...
, assisted by Jonathan Gaunt
Jonathan Gaunt is a golf course architect, a member of the EIGCA and the director of Gaunt Golf Design.
Gaunt or his company have designed over 30 golf courses since 1987, mostly in the UK. These include Ramside Hall Hotel and Golf Club in Du ...
.
Tennis club
The tennis club has 15 artificial grass tennis courts (8 floodlit), 15 grass and 2 indoor tennis courts, 4 squash courts, gym, air-conditioned studio, 20m swimming pool, steam and sauna, bar and restaurants, creche and beauty spa.
Politics
The local political party is the St George's Hill Independents who are an independent political party.St George's Hill Independents
/ref>
Notable residents
* John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
- Beatles singer/songwriter and guitarist
* Ringo Starr - Beatles singer/songwriter and drummer
* Elton John - singer
* Alexander Perepilichny - allegedly poisoned Russian businessman and whistleblower
* Mian Muhammad Mansha - ''Forbes'' listed and the richest man in Pakistan
*Shilpa Shetty
Shilpa Shetty Kundra (born Ashwini Shetty; Née Shetty; 8 June 1975) is an Indian actress who works mainly in Hindi-language films. Shetty made her screen debut in the thriller ''Baazigar'' (1993) which garnered her nominations for two Filmfa ...
- Indian actress
*Theo Paphitis
Theodoros "Theo" Paphitis ( el, Θεόδωρος Παφίτης; born 24 September 1959) is a Greek-Cypriot British retail magnate and entrepreneur. He is best known for his appearances on the BBC business programme ''Dragons' Den'' and as former ...
- entrepreneur and ''Dragons Den'' star
*Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...
- British singer
* Tom Jones - singer
* David Crouch - entrepreneur
* Nick Faldo - professional golfer
*Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes (4 May 1923 – 4 July 2012) was an English radio, stage, television and film writer, comedian, actor, and director whose performing career spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and performed with many other leading com ...
- comedian
*John Terry
John George Terry (born 7 December 1980) is an English professional football coach and former player who played as a centre-back. He was previously captain of Chelsea, the England national team and Aston Villa. He was most recently the a ...
- professional footballer and coach
*Jenson Button
Jenson Alexander Lyons Button (born 19 January 1980) is a British racing driver. He won the 2009 Formula One World Championship when he drove for the Brawn GP team. After his F1 career, he became champion of the 2018 season of the Super G ...
- British racing driver
* Englebert Humperdinck - singer
*Gordon Mills
Gordon William Mills (15 May 1935 – 29 July 1986) was a successful London-based music industry manager and songwriter. He was born in Madras, British India and grew up in Trealaw in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales. During the 1960s and 1970s ...
- musician, songwriter and manager
*Dick Emery
Richard Gilbert Emery (19 February 19152 January 1983) was an English comedian and actor. His broadcasting career began on radio in the 1950s, and his self-titled television series ran from 1963 to 1981.
Life and career
Richard Gilbert Emery was ...
- comedian
* Bill Martin - Songwriter
Other private estates
There are other estates in Elmbridge:
*Burwood Park
Burwood Park is an historic private estate located in Hersham, Surrey, England. Spanning six miles of road, Burwood Park is situated in a former deer park that belonged to Henry VIII. The 360 acre estate is known both for its extensive wildli ...
*Ashley Park
Ashley Park is a private residential neighbourhood at Walton-on-Thames in Surrey. Its central feature was a grandiose English country house, at times enjoying associated medieval manorial rights, which stood on the site, with alterations, ...
References
{{Use dmy dates, date=February 2019
Gated communities in the United Kingdom
Golf clubs and courses in Surrey
Housing estates in England
Golf clubs and courses designed by Harry Colt
Weybridge, Surrey