Woking ( ) is a town and

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

in northwest

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. ...

, England, around from

central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...

. It appears in

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

landowner. The earliest evidence of human activity is from the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

, but the low fertility of the sandy, local soils meant that the area was the least populated part of the county in 1086. Between the mid-17th and mid-19th centuries, new transport links were constructed, including the Wey Navigation, Basingstoke Canal and London to Southampton railway line. The modern town was established in the mid-1860s, as the

London Necropolis Company The London Necropolis Company (LNC), formally the London Necropolis & National Mausoleum Company until 1927, was a cemetery operator established by Act of Parliament in 1852 in reaction to the crisis caused by the closure of London's graveyards ...

began to sell surplus land surrounding the railway station for development. Modern local government in Woking began with the creation of the Woking Local Board in 1893, which became Woking

Urban District Council In England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local gove ...

(UDC) in 1894. The urban district was significantly enlarged in 1907, when it took in the parish of

Horsell Horsell is a village in the borough of Woking in Surrey, England, less than a mile north-west of Woking town centre. In November 2012, its population was 9,384. Horsell is integral to H. G. Wells' classic science fiction novel ''The War of the Wor ...

, and again in 1933 when it took in the parishes of

Byfleet Byfleet is a village in Surrey, England. It is located in the far east of the borough of Woking, around east of West Byfleet, from which it is separated by the M25 motorway and the Wey Navigation. The village is of medieval origin. Its winding ...

and Pyrford. The UDC was granted a coat of arms in 1930 and Woking gained

borough status Borough status is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district. In Scotland, s ...

in the 1974 reorganisation of local government. In 2022, a total of 30 elected representatives serves on the council, each with a term length of four years. The Borough of Woking covers an area of and had a population of 103,900 in 2021. The main urban centre stretches from Knaphill in the west to Byfleet in the east, but the satellite villages of Brookwood,

Mayford Mayford is a village in Woking borough of the county of Surrey, England. It is roughly 2 miles south of Woking on Egley Road, part of the A320 between Woking and Guildford, Surrey. The village is mainly centred on the roundabout in the middle ...

, Pyrford and

Old Woking Old Woking is a wards of the United Kingdom, ward and the original settlement of the town and borough of Borough of Woking, Woking, Surrey, about southeast of the modern town centre. It is bounded by the Hoe Stream to the north and the River We ...

retain strong individual identities. Around 60% of the borough is protected by the Metropolitan Green Belt, which severely limits the potential for further housebuilding. Recent developments have included the construction of two residential tower blocks in the town centre and the conversion of former industrial buildings to apartments. There are six Sites of Special Scientific Interest within the borough boundaries, of which three form part of the

Thames Basin Heaths The Thames Basin Heaths are a natural region in southern England in Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey, a slightly mottled east-west belt of ecologically recognised and protected land. They are recognised as national character area 129 by Natura ...

Special Protection Area. Almost all of the town centre dates from the 20th and 21st centuries. Elsewhere in the borough there are several historic buildings, including the ruins of

Woking Palace Woking Palace is a former manor house of the Royal Manor of Woking on the outskirts of Woking, near the village of Old Woking, Surrey. The manor was in the gift of the Crown, and was held by numerous nominees of the Crown until 1466 when Lady Marg ...

, a royal residence of Henry VII and

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

. Parts of St Peter's Church in Old Woking date from the reign of

William I William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087 ...

and

Sutton Place Sutton Place may refer to: Canada * Sutton Place Hotel, a former hotel in Toronto, Ontario * The Sutton Place, a hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia England * Sutton Place, Hackney, a Georgian terrace in London * Sutton Place, Surrey, a country ...

, built for Richard Weston , is one of the earliest unfortified houses in England. The Shah Jahan Mosque, constructed in 1889, was the first purpose-built

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

place of worship in the UK. There are numerous works of public art in the town centre, including a statue of the author,

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

The War of the Worlds'' while living in Maybury Road. Much of the novel is set in the Woking area.

Toponymy

The earliest surviving record of Woking is from

of 1086, in which the manor appears as ''Wochinges''. In the 12th century, it is recorded as ''Wokinges'', ''Wokkinges'', ''Wokinge'' and ''Wochinga''. The "monastery at ''Wocchingas''" is mentioned in a copy of an early 8th-century letter from

Pope Constantine Pope Constantine ( la, Constantinus; 6649 April 715) was the bishop of Rome from 25 March 708 to his death. One of the last popes of the Byzantine Papacy, the defining moment of Constantine's pontificate was his 710/711 visit to Constantinople wh ...

to Hedda, Abbot of Bermondsey and Woking. The first part of the name "Woking" is thought to refer to an

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

individual, who may have been called "Wocc" or "Wocca". The second part is derived from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''ingas'' and means "people of" or "family of".

Geography

Borough of Woking

The Borough of Woking covers an area of in northwest Surrey. Woking town, the main population centre, is surrounded by smaller, distinct settlements, such as

West Byfleet West Byfleet is a village in Surrey which grew up around its relatively minor stop on the London & South Western Railway: the station, originally ''Byfleet and Woodham'', opened in 1887. More than from the medieval village of Byfleet, the i ...

and

in the east, and Knaphill to the west. The villages of Brookwood and

retain strong individual identities and lie just outside the primary built-up area of the borough. Around 60% of the land in the borough is part of the Metropolitan Green Belt, which severely limits the potential for urban expansion. Of the six Sites of Special Scientific Interest, five are areas of heathland and the sixth covers the majority of the Basingstoke Canal.

Woking town centre

Woking town centre is around from central London. It covers an area of around to the north and south of the station, although the primary shopping and office spaces are between the railway line and the Basingstoke Canal. The two main shopping centres, The Peacocks and Wolsey Place, adjoin Jubilee Square. A second public space, Victoria Square, was completed in 2022 as part of a project to construct two high-rise residential apartment blocks and a 23-storey hotel.

Old Woking

, around south of the town centre, close to the River Wey, is the location of the original settlement of the manor of Woking. The village is thought to have grown as an unplanned settlement surrounding St Peter's Church, parts of which date from the 11th century. The basic street layout is likely to have been established in Medieval times, and there was a period of strong growth following the grant of a market in 1662. The settlement expanded northwards during the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...

and Old Woking is now contiguous with the main urban area of the borough.

Hydrology and geology

The majority of the borough is drained by the River Wey, which flows along the southeastern boundary of the borough, from Jacobs Well to Byfleet. The Hoe Stream, which joins the Wey near Pyrford Village, runs from Fox Corner through Mayford. The Basingstoke Canal runs from west to east, broadly following the course of the partly

culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...

ed Rive Ditch, and the northern part of the borough is drained by the tributaries of the River Bourne. There have been major flooding events in Woking in 1968, 2000, 2014 and 2016. The

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...

on which the borough sits were deposited in the

Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...

. The sandy Bagshot Beds are the main outcrop around the town centre and to the north. In the west of the borough, around Knaphill and Brookwood, are the younger

Bracklesham Beds The Bracklesham Group (formerly Bracklesham Beds), in geology, is a series of clays and marls, with sandy and lignitic beds, in the middle Eocene of the Hampshire Basin and London Basin of England. The type section of the Bracklesham Group is th ...

. The Bracklesham Beds have a higher

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

content than the Bagshot Beds, and brickmaking has historically taken place at Knaphill. The River Wey primarily runs across

alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

and the settlements of Old Woking and West Byfleet are built on river gravels.

History

Early history

The earliest evidence of human activity in the Woking area is from the

. Flints dated to years before present (BP) have been found at Horsell and knife blades from BP have been discovered at Pyrford. Two

bell barrow A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an intern ...

s and a disc barrow at Horsell are thought to date from the early

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

Pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...

samples taken from the westernmost barrow suggest that the local environment at the time of construction was predominantly open heathland with some areas of

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

woodland. Aerial photographs suggest that there may have been field systems on Horsell Common, Smarts Heath and Whitmoor Common in the same period, although the local soils are relatively infertile and could not have sustained the farming practices of the time for very long.

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

occupation in the borough appears to have been concentrated in the Old Woking and Mayford areas. The sites excavated to date show evidence of low-status dwellings, possibly connected to iron working and pottery making. Roman tiles can be found in the lower part of the tower of St Peter's Church. Surrey hundreds

The earliest documented reference to Woking suggests that there was a religious foundation in the area in the early-8th century. Around this time, the settlement was the administrative centre for northwest Surrey, with its western border as the

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

between the Rivers

Mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America * Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...

and Wey and its southern border as the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills and ...

. By 775, there was a minster in Woking, which may be the forerunner of St Peter's Church and by the mid-late 9th century, the settlement was the centre of a royal vill. Towards the end of the Saxon period, Surrey was divided into hundreds, of which

Woking Hundred :''See Woking for the town or Borough of Woking for the district.'' Woking was a hundred in what is now Surrey, England. It includes the town of Woking and the Borough of Woking. The Hundred comprised the parishes of: Ash Ash or ashes are ...

was one.

Governance

Woking appears in Domesday book as ''Wochinges''. In 1086, it was partly held by

and partly by two lesser tenants of the

Bishop of Exeter The Bishop of Exeter is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. Since 30 April 2014 the ordinary has been Robert Atwell.

. Together the two holdings had sufficient land for ploughteams, of meadow and woodland for 160 swine. Between them, the manors had two mills and one church, and the settlement was among the largest 20% of those recorded in the country in 1086. Three other manors in the modern borough are listed in Domesday Book: Byfleet and Pyrford were held by the abbeys of Chertsey and

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

respectively; Sutton was held by Durand Malet as lesser tenant and by

Robert Malet Robert Malet (c. 1050 – by 1130) was a Norman-English baron and a close advisor of Henry I. Early life Malet was the son of William Malet, and inherited his father's great honour of Eye in 1071. This made him one of the dozen or so great ...

tenant-in-chief In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as op ...

. Woking was held by the Crown until 1200, when

King John King John may refer to: Rulers * John, King of England (1166–1216) * John I of Jerusalem (c. 1170–1237) * John Balliol, King of Scotland (c. 1249–1314) * John I of France (15–20 November 1316) * John II of France (1319–1364) * John I o ...

granted it to

Alan Basset Alan Basset (died 1232 or 1233) was an English baron. Basset was a younger son of Adeliza and Thomas Basset of Headington, Oxfordshire. In like favour with Richard I and with John, he received from the former the lordships of Woking and Mapledu ...

. It was inherited by his descendants until it passed, through marriage, to Hugh le Despenser. It remained in the Despenser family until 1326, when it was granted to Edmund Holland, the fourth Earl of Kent. In the mid-15th century, the manor was inherited by

Margaret Beauchamp Margaret Beauchamp (1404 – 14 June 1467) was the eldest daughter of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick and his first wife, Elizabeth de Berkeley. As the eldest child of a family without male issue, Margaret was expected to inherit from h ...

. It was briefly held by the Crown before it was passed to her daughter, Margaret Beaufort, in 1466. On her death in 1509, Woking was inherited by her grandson, the future

James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...

sold the manor to

Edward Zouch Sir Edward Zouch of Woking (died 1634) was a courtier to English kings James and Charles I, a masque actor, and Knight Marshal of the King's Household. He was the son of Sir Willam Zouch or Zouche. His mother's name is not known. Career Marriage ...

, but it reverted to the Crown in 1671. In 1752 it was bought by Richard Onslow, the third Baron Onslow and remained in his family's possession until the mid-19th century. Entrance Walls And Gate Piers To Byfleet Manor House

Entrance Walls And Gate Piers To Byfleet Manor House

Byfleet became a royal property at the start of the 14th century.

Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to t ...

granted it to Piers Gaveston, but following Gaveston's downfall in 1312, it reverted to the Crown.

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional fo ...

, wife of King James I was the manor's last royal owner and thereafter it was held by a series of private individuals. The current manor house dates from 1686, but it was restored and extended in 1905. Pyrford was held by Westminster Abbey until the dissolution of the monasteries when it became the property of the Crown.

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

granted the manor to Edward Clinton, the first Earl of Lincoln in 1574 and it was sold repeatedly until the mid-17th century. In 1677, Richard Onslow, the first Baron Onslow purchased Pyrford and it was owned by his family until 1805. Reforms during the Tudor period reduced the importance of

manorial court The manorial courts were the lowest courts of law in England during the feudal period. They had a civil jurisdiction limited both in subject matter and geography. They dealt with matters over which the lord of the manor had jurisdiction, primarily ...

s and the day-to-day administration of towns became the responsibility of local vestries. By this time, the modern Borough of Woking was divided between four parishes: Woking, Byfleet,

and Pyrford. The vestries appointed constables, distributed funds to the poor and took charge of the repair of local roads. From the 17th century, the roles of

Justices of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

were expanded to take greater responsibility for law and order in the area. When poor law unions were established following the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, the parish of Woking was included in the

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

Poor Law Union, whilst the parishes of Byfleet, Horsell, and Pyrford were included in the Chertsey Poor Law Union. These unions then formed the basis for the rural sanitary districts established in 1872, which gradually took on more local government responsibilities. When elected county councils were established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, Surrey County Council took over the local government functions of the court of quarter sessions, and operated as a higher-tier authority alongside the sanitary districts. In 1893 a separate local board was established for the parish of Woking, making it its own urban sanitary district, independent from the Guildford Rural Sanitary District. After elections, the first meeting of the Woking Local Board was held on 4 October 1893. Under the

Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level un ...

, the Woking Local Board became an urban district council (UDC). Byfleet, Horsell and Pyrford became part of the Chertsey Rural District, although the parish of Horsell was transferred into the Woking Urban District in 1907, It was not until 1933, when the Chertsey Rural District was abolished, that both Byfleet and Pyrford joined the Woking Urban District. The council was granted a coat of arms in 1930 and three years later it applied to the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

for

, but without success. A similar request made in 1955 was also declined. It was not until the 1974 reorganisation of local government, that Woking finally became a borough. The parishes within the borough were abolished at the same time, making it an unparished area. A civil parish council for Byfleet was created in 1990, but was abolished in April 2010. As of 2022, there are no parish councils in the borough.

Transport and communications

The unimproved River Wey is thought to have been used for the transport of goods and passengers from ancient times. In the early Tudor period, there was a wharf at Woking Palace and in 1566 there is a reference to a "certaein locke... between Woodham lands and Brook lande upon the water of the Weye". The

River Wey Navigation The River Wey Navigation and Godalming Navigation together provide a continuous navigable route from the River Thames near Weybridge via Guildford to Godalming (commonly called the Wey Navigation). Both waterways are in Surrey and are owne ...

was authorised by

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

in 1651. Twelve locks (including two flood locks), and of new cuts were constructed between the Thames and

. The opening of the new navigation had a modest effect on the local area and, by the 18th century, flour produced by watermills at Woking was being shipped to London from a new wharf at Cartbridge near Send. The Basingstoke Canal was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1778 and was intended to provide a route for the transport of farm produce and timber from Hampshire to London. The section between the Wey Navigation and Horsell opened in 1791 and the canal was finally completed in 1794. Although the route was too far from Old Woking for it to have an effect on its development, a wharf was provided at Horsell for the use of local farmers. In the first half of the 19th century, bricks were manufactured in the area now occupied by Goldsworth Road and were transported to London via a wharf adjacent to the Rowbarge pub. The canal declined sharply after the opening of the

London and Southampton Railway The London and Southampton Railway was an early railway company between London and Southampton, in England. It opened in stages from 1838 to 1840 after a difficult construction period, but was commercially successful. On preparing to serve Port ...

in the late 1830s and traffic west of Woking had ceased by 1921. The final commercial delivery, a consignment of timber to Woking, was made via the canal in 1947. By the mid-1960s, the canal was derelict, but between 1970 and 1976 it was purchased by Surrey and Hampshire county councils. Restoration of the canal was completed in 1991 and the canal is now open for navigation from the Wey to the eastern portal of Greywell Tunnel. Brookwood railway station 1923024 672def29

Brookwood railway station 1923024 672def29

The construction of the

began in October 1834 and the first train ran between and on 12 May 1838. When it opened, Woking station was surrounded by open heath and was from what is now the village of Old Woking. Nevertheless, it quickly became the

railhead In the UK, railheading refers to the practice of travelling further than necessary to reach a rail service, typically by car. The phenomenon is common among commuters seeking a more convenient journey. Reasons for railheading include, but are ...

for west Surrey and the main entrance was positioned on the south side of the tracks for the convenience of those travelling by stagecoach from Guildford. The station became a junction in May 1845 when the branch to Guildford was opened. Three other railway stations were built in the present borough: (opened in June 1864), (opened in March 1883) and (opened in December 1887 as Byfleet). The track through Woking station was quadrupled in 1904 and electrified in 1937. The

was established by Act of Parliament in 1852 to create Brookwood Cemetery. New burials had been banned in central London graveyards in 1850 and the company was able to purchase of common land in the Woking area in 1854. The cemetery was consecrated by the

Bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' (except dur ...

in November 1854. Coffins were transported to by train and the cemetery was served by a short single-track branch line with two stations. The company ran funeral trains to Brookwood at least twice a week until April 1941, when the London terminus was bombed.

Residential development

Construction of St John's, the only significant area where housebuilding was directly stimulated by the opening of the Basingstoke Canal, began in the first decades of the 19th century. In the 1790s, there had been a few scattered smallholdings and squatters' cottages to the south of Knaphill, but the opening of a wharf to serve the nurseries and new brickworks attracted new workers, requiring more extensive accommodation. By the late 1830s, the new village, initially known as Kiln Bridge, was large enough to support the construction of a chapel, dedicated to St John the Baptist. The chapel was replaced by a larger church in 1842 and the surrounding area acquired the name "St John's" at around the same time. Further expansion in the area continued with the opening of the

Woking Convict Invalid Prison Woking Convict Invalid Prison was constructed in mid-19th-century England, primarily to hold male invalid convicts who previously had been billeted on hulks and had been moved to the temporary invalid prison at Lewes. The concept of a prison spec ...

and Brookwood Hospital in the mid-19th century. Modern Woking began to develop between the mid-1860s and late-1880s, as the London Necropolis Company sold excess land that had not been used for Brookwood Cemetery. The High Street had been laid out by 1863 and a post office opened there in 1865. By 1869, the first houses had appeared in Ellen Street (now West Street), Providence Street (now Church Street) and Commercial Road. By the 1890s, most of the land to the north of the railway line had been sold, but the London Necropolis Company had been unable to find a buyer for Hook Heath, to the south. The company decided to develop the area itself and divided it into plots for large, detached houses. A golf course was built on part of the heath, to attract residents and visitors. The first

council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...

in Woking was constructed following the end of the First World War, and by the summer of 1921, around 100 families had moved into new properties in Old Woking, Horsell, Knaphill and Westfield. In the same year, Chertsey Rural District Council developed their own schemes in Byfleet and Pyrford, and, in the two decades to 1939, Woking UDC constructed a total of 785 houses. Following the end of the Second World War, the borough council began to build estates at Maybury, Barnsbury and St Mary's Byfleet. In the 1944

Greater London Plan The Greater London Plan of 1944 was developed by Patrick Abercrombie (1879–1957). The plan was directly related to the County of London Plan written by John Henry Forshaw (1895–1973) and Abercrombie in 1943. Following World War II, London w ...

, Pyrford and Byfleet were identified as areas for overspill development and homes for 3,250 former London residents were expected to be built in the borough. In 1947,

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

purchased at

Sheerwater __NOTOC__ Sheerwater is a residential neighbourhood or small suburb of Woking, in the Woking district in Surrey, England, occasionally described as a village, between West Byfleet and Horsell. Its border is defined to the north by a gently win ...

and by 1951 had constructed 1,279 houses and flats for new tenants. In 1965, much of the remaining open space in the borough was placed into the Metropolitan Green Belt, restricting the potential for future development of

greenfield land Greenfield land is a British English term referring to undeveloped land in an urban or rural area either used for agriculture or landscape design, or left to evolve naturally. These areas of land are usually agricultural or amenity properties b ...

. Nevertheless, housebuilding continued in the 1970s, including the Lakeview development and the construction of 440 homes on the former Inkerman Barracks site. Unwins_Mill_(geograph_2821737)

Redevelopment has resulted in the demolition of the majority of the Victorian buildings in the town centre. Since 2012, the policy of the borough council has been to permit high-density residential development in this area, exemplified by two residential towers completed in Spring 2022 as part of the Victoria Square project. Elsewhere in the borough, the conversion of former industrial land to residential use is encouraged in preference to building on greenfield sites. Recent examples include the redevelopment of the former Unwins' Print Works at Old Woking into the Gresham Mill apartment complex.

Commerce and industry

Until the mid-19th century, the local economy was dominated by agriculture, although large areas of the modern borough were covered by infertile waste land. Acts of Inclosure were passed for Byfleet, Sutton and Pyrford in 1800, 1803 and 1805 respectively, allowing landowners to rededicate land for pasture and growing crops. Inclosure was not completed at Woking until the London Necropolis Company purchased the common land in 1854. No Act was passed for Horsell and the large area of common land to the north of Woking remains free of development as a result. Clematis 'Belle de Woking' (28510298958)

Clematis 'Belle de Woking' (28510298958)

The opening of the Basingstoke Canal in 1794 enabled new industries to be established in the west of the borough. Brickmaking had been taking place on a small scale at Knaphill since at least 1709, but the works expanded following the opening of a wharf at Kiln Bridge. Although the local soils were unsuitable for large-scale agriculture, nurseries were established on the Bracklesham Beds in the 1790s, to satisfy the increasing demand for ornamental garden plants from the growing middle class in London. The '' Clematis'' specialist,

George Jackman George Jackman II (1837–1887) was an English horticulture, horticulturist and nurseryman, known for his work on early clematis hybrids. One of his first successful Clematis hybrids was Clematis jackmanii, ''C.'' 'Jackmanii'. Family busi ...

, was among those who established nurseries at Mayford and Goldsworth Park.

Cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

s first grown by his firm include the 'Jackmanii' and the 'Belle of Woking'. By 1900, horticulture was one of the most important industries in the area, but following the end of the Second World War, most firms closed or relocated, and their land was sold for housebuilding. Heavy industry arrived in Woking during the First World War with the establishment of the Martinsyde Aircraft Works on Oriental Road. The founders, H. P. Martin and George Handasyde, were unable to expand their existing factory at

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields, ...

and set up a new factory, known as the Lion Works, on the site of the former Oriental Institute. By 1919, over 600 Buzzard biplanes had been produced in Woking, but following the end of the war, demand for aircraft declined and the company closed in 1924. Lion House, Oriental Road, Woking

In 1926, the site of the Lion Works was purchased by James Walker, whose company specialised in the production of packaging materials. By 1939, the factory was the largest employer in Woking and, in the mid-1950s, 8% of the local workforce was working for the company. Manufacturing ceased in Woking in 1993, but the company headquarters is still based in the town. The factory site was redeveloped into the Lion Retail Park. The Sorbo Rubber Works opened in 1920, on the site of the former steam laundry in Maybury Road. It specialised in the manufacture of rubber sponges, but also made toys for children. Production moved to Arnold Road in 1922, and during the Second World War, the company made self-sealing aircraft fuel tanks for the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

. The company was acquired by its competitors, P. B. Cow Ltd, in 1948. The first known brewery in the area was founded in Old Woking in 1715 and continued to trade until 1890. Brewery Road in Horsell is named for the business owned by the Stedman family, which operated from the 1860s until the 1910s. Byfleet Brewery, the largest in the modern borough, was active for much the second half of the 19th century, but production was moved to Guildford after the company was taken over by Friary Ales in the 1890s. The multinational brewing and beverage company,

SABMiller SABMiller plc was a South African multinational brewing and beverage company headquartered in Woking, England on the outskirts of London until 10 October 2016 when it was acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev. Prior to that date, it was the world's ...

, was based in Woking from 1999 until it was bought by

Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, commonly known as AB InBev, is an American-Belgian multinational drink and brewing company based in Leuven, Belgium. AB InBev has a global functional management office in New York City, and regional headquarters in ...

in 2016. As part of the takeover deal, several former SABMiller brands, including Peroni and Grolsch, were purchased by the Japanese firm,

Asahi Breweries is a Japanese global beer, spirits, soft drinks and food business group headquartered in Sumida, Tokyo. In 2019, the group had revenue of JPY 2.1 trillion. Asahi's business portfolio can be segmented as follows: alcoholic beverage business (4 ...

. As of 2022, the UK headquarters of Asahi Breweries is in Woking. The McLaren Group was founded in 1981 by Ron Dennis, following his acquisition of the McLaren Formula One team. The

McLaren Technology Centre The McLaren Technology Centre is the headquarters of the McLaren Group and its subsidiaries, located on a 500,000 m2 (50-hectare) site in Woking, Surrey, England. The complex consists of two buildings: the original McLaren Technology Centre, ...

, designed by

Foster + Partners Foster + Partners is a British architectural, engineering, and integrated design practice founded in 1967 as Foster Associates by Norman Foster. It is the largest architectural firm in the UK with over 1,500 employees in 13 studios worldwide. ...

as the headquarters of the group, was formally opened by

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

in 2004. The site, to the north of the town centre, includes the McLaren Production Centre, the primary manufacturing facility for

McLaren Automotive McLaren Automotive (formerly known as McLaren Cars) is a British luxury automotive manufacturer based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, England. The main products of the company are supercars, which are produced in-house in designated ...

. In 2013, McLaren was the largest employer in the borough.

Woking in the Second World War

During the Second World War, the defence of Woking and the surrounding area was coordinated by the 11th Battalion of the South Eastern Home Guard. Training was carried out at Mizens Farm, Horsell, and included a mock battle with Canadian, Polish and Free French troops in 1941. Dedicated Home Guard units were responsible for guarding the Woking Electric Supply Company power station, the GQ parachute factory and the Sorbo Rubber Works. Woking railway station was defended by troops operating light anti-aircraft artillery. Air raid shelters were opened on Commercial Road and at Wheatsheaf Recreation Ground in 1939, followed in 1941 by further shelters, including at Victoria Gardens. The presence of a major railway junction as well as several Vickers factories making aircraft parts, made Woking an obvious target for enemy bombing. The most severe attack took place in January 1941, in which seven people were killed. By the end of 1944, the borough had experienced 58 air raids, during which around 25 houses had been destroyed and almost 2300 damaged. The final bomb attack on Woking, a

V-2 rocket The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed ...

, fell on 2 March 1945.

National and local government

UK parliament

The town is in the parliamentary constituency of

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

and has been represented at Westminster since May 2010 by Conservative

Jonathan Lord Jonathan George Caladine Lord (born 17 September 1962) is a British Conservative Party politician who was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Woking at the 2010 and has since been re-elected at the 2015, 2017 and 2019 general ele ...

County council

Councillors are elected to Surrey County Council every four years. The borough is covered by seven divisions, each of which elects one councillor. The seven divisions are: "The Byfleets", "Goldsworth East and Horsell Village", "Knaphill and Goldsworth West", "Woking North", "Woking South", "Woking South East" and "Woking South West".

Borough council

Elections to the borough council take place in three out of every four years. A total of 30 councillors serve at any one time, ten of whom are elected at each election. The council is led by an executive committee, consisting of the Leader and six portfolio holders. Each year, one of the councillors serves as Mayor of Woking for a period of twelve months. The role of mayor is primarily ceremonial and the post has little political power. Among the people and organisations to have received the

Freedom of the Borough The Freedom of the City (or Borough in some parts of the UK) is an honour bestowed by a municipality upon a valued member of the community, or upon a visiting celebrity or dignitary. Arising from the medieval practice of granting respected ...

are

Howard Panter Sir Howard Hugh Panter is a British theatre impresario and theatre operator. With his wife Rosemary Squire he ran the Ambassador Theatre Group from about 1995 until 2016; they remain directors and shareholders of the company. When they left t ...

Rosemary Squire Dame Rosemary Anne Squire, DBE (born 27 May 1956) is a British commercial theatre owner and entrepreneur. She was the founder, co-owner and joint chief executive of the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) Ltd. Squire and her husband/business partn ...

and the

Army Training Centre Pirbright The Army Training Centre Pirbright is an initial training establishment of the British Army, at Pirbright Camp. Scope The ATC, along with the Army Training Regiment Winchester and the Army Training Regiment Grantham, provides Phase 1 milita ...

Twin towns

Woking is twinned with:

Amstelveen Amstelveen () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands with a population of 92.353 as of 2022. It is a suburban part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area. The municipality of Amstelveen consists of the historical villages o ...

, Netherlands (since 1989);

Le Plessis-Robinson Le Plessis-Robinson () is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. , it has 29,100 inhabitants. History Plessis was first mentioned in 839 as ''Plessiacus apud Castanetum'', meaning ''pless ...

, France (since 1993); Rastatt, Germany (since 2001). In December 2014, the borough council announced that it would establish a task group to explore potential twinning opportunities with towns in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Demography and housing

In , the population of the Borough of Woking was . According to the 2011 Census, 83.6% of the inhabitants were

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

, 11.6% were of

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

descent and 2.4% were mixed race. There has long been a large Italian community in Woking, most of whom originated from the Sicilian town of

Mussomeli Mussomeli (''Mussumeli'' in Sicilian) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily, Italy. History Mussomeli is claimed to have been founded in the 14th century by Manfredo III Chiaramonte with the name Manfredi, but later ...

. The majority of the original arrivals worked in the

Britax Britax () is a British manufacturer of childcare products including car seats, pushchairs and high chairs. History The company began making automotive safety equipment and accessories in 1938, as well as importing car and motorcycle accessorie ...

factory in Byfleet and others on the mushroom farms in

Chobham Chobham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England. The village has a small high street area, specialising in traditional trades and motor trades. The River Bourne and its northern tributary, the Hale, ...

or for the James Walker company. Many started their own landscaping or ice cream businesses. St Dunstan's Catholic Church in Woking holds masses in Italian. The Italian population in Woking, including second- and third-generation members, numbers between two and three thousand. There is a large Pakistani population in Woking, centred on Maybury and Sheerwater.

Economy

In the early 21st century, Woking has a strong economy relative to the rest of the UK; the borough was awarded first place in the UK Vitality Index of Local Authorities, compiled by Lambert Smith Hampton in 2021, and was placed in the top 20% of all Local Authorities for economic vibrancy by Grant Thornton in 2016. University graduates comprise more than 60% of the workforce, although around 53% of all working residents

commute Commute, commutation or commutative may refer to: * Commuting, the process of travelling between a place of residence and a place of work Mathematics * Commutative property, a property of a mathematical operation whose result is insensitive to th ...

out of the borough on a daily basis. According to the 2015-16 Annual Population Survey, 85% of the working-age population are in employment (compared to the Surrey average of 80%) and 14% are self-employed (compared to the county average of 12%). However, economic prosperity is not spread uniformly across the borough; two areas of Sheerwater are the most deprived parts of Surrey. In the mid-2010s, the industries providing the largest number of jobs in the borough were

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...

, food and beverage services, and motor vehicle design and manufacture. Woking also has a significant cluster of companies operating in the oil and gas industries, financial and business services industry, as well as the environmental technologies sector.

Public services

Utilities

Woking Gas and Water Company began supplying the growing town with drinking water in 1883. The supply was pumped from a borehole at

West Horsley West Horsley is a semi-rural village between Guildford and Leatherhead in Surrey, England. It lies on the A246, and south of the M25 and the A3. Its civil parish ascends to an ancient woodland Sheepleas Woods which are on the northern downsl ...

, allowing the villages to the south of the town to be fed from the same supply. Horsell and Pyrford were connected to the Woking mains by 1895 and, in 1900, the South West Suburban Water Company started to supply Byfleet. The water companies serving the borough merged with their neighbours in 1973 to form the North Surrey Water Company, which became part of Veolia Water UK in October 2000. Following further changes of name in 2009 and 2012, Veolia Water UK is now known as Affinity Water. Woking Sewage Works, Carters Lane, Old Woking, Surrey 1

Woking Sewage Works, Carters Lane, Old Woking, Surrey 1

As Woking grew in the second half of the 19th century, much of its wastewater was stored in

cesspools A cesspit (or cesspool or soak pit in some contexts) is a term with various meanings: it is used to describe either an underground holding tank (sealed at the bottom) or a soak pit (not sealed at the bottom). It can be used for the temporary co ...

, emptied into ditches, or discharged into the street. The

sewage works Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding envir ...

at Woking Park Farm, Carters Lane were opened in December 1896. Sewers had been laid to the majority of the town centre by 1899 and to Horsell by 1907. A separate sewage works was created at

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 ...

to serve Byfleet, West Byfleet and parts of Pyrford. The public

gasworks A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space. Early gasworks Coal ...

opened in Boundary Road in 1892 and, until 1936, the coal required was supplied via the Basingstoke Canal. Gas mains were laid to Horsell in 1897 and to West Byfleet in 1899. From 1929, additional

gas Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...

was supplied from

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 ...

via a connection at . By December 1935, the Woking District Gas Company had laid around of gas mains and was supplying over 9000 customers in a area. The Wandsworth and District Gas Company acquired a controlling stake in the Woking company in 1936. Woking Electric Supply Company was founded in 1889 and opened its power station in Board School Road the same year. Initially the generator only ran in the hours of darkness and there were only 180 connected properties by 1895. Electric streetlights were installed in Woking in 1893, but in 1902 they were replaced by gas lamps. Electric street lighting was reinstalled in the town in 1931. Under the

Electricity (Supply) Act 1926 The Electricity (Supply) Act 1926 (16 & 17 Geo. 5. c. 51) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which amended the law on the supply of electricity. Its long title is: ‘An Act to amend the law with respect to the supply of electricity ...

, Woking was connected to the National Grid, initially to a 33 kV supply ring, which linked the town to Guildford, Godalming,

Hindhead Hindhead is a village in Surrey, England. It is the highest village in Surrey, with buildings at between 185 and 253 metres above sea level. It is best known as the location of the Devil's Punch Bowl, a beauty spot and site of special scientific ...

and

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...

. In 1932, a 132 kW substation was installed at West Byfleet, which connected the Woking ring to

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

and

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

. The Board School Road power station closed in 1959, by which time it had an installed capacity of 7000 kW. Woking fuel cell 2

Since the mid-1990s, the borough council has commissioned a series of

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

installations to generate heat and electricity to power local homes and offices. Operated by the council-owned subsidiary, ThamesWey, the scheme includes combined heat and power plants,

photovoltaic arrays A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and co ...

and a 200 kW

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...

fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...

at Woking Park. The council aims to generate 15% of the electricity used in the borough from photovoltaics by 2032 and to increase the installed capacity of renewable energy generators to 11 MW by 2030.

Emergency services and justice

The first fire brigade in the borough was formed in Byfleet in the mid-1880s. In October 1895, the brigade in Woking was formed and was initially equipped with a hand cart, ladders and leather hoses. The first Woking fire engine, a horse-drawn waggon with a steam-powered pump, was purchased by the UDC in 1899. It was replaced in 1919 with a diesel fire engine with telescopic ladders. A second engine was added in 1925. In September 1939, the Woking and Byfleet brigades were merged with others serving nearby towns into a single, combined force covering the whole of Surrey. In 2022, the fire authority for Woking is Surrey County Council and the statutory fire service is

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service The Surrey Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service for the County of Surrey, England, with 25 fire stations. It comes under the administrative and legislative control of Surrey County Council, acting as the Fire Author ...

. Ambulance services are run by the

South East Coast Ambulance Service The South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) is the NHS ambulance services trust for south-eastern England, covering Kent (including Medway), Surrey, West Sussex and East Sussex (including Brighton and Hove). It also cov ...

At end of the 19th century, a police sergeant and two constables were working in Woking and there was a second sergeant at Knaphill. By 1908, the local force had grown to 31, including a superintendent. In 2022, Surrey Police is responsible for policing in the borough. Since January 2020, the force has operated a front counter at Woking Civic Offices in the town centre. The current police station, opened in 1990 in the former boys' grammar school in Station Approach, is due to close in around 2029.

Healthcare

Brookwood Hospital was founded in 1867 as the

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...

for west Surrey on land purchased from the London Necropolis Company. By 1875, there were 675 patients undergoing treatment, but numbers had grown to 1,477 by 1931. During the Second World War, it served as an emergency war hospital and became part of the NHS in 1948. Brookwood Hospital closed in 1994, the majority of the buildings were demolished and the site was used for commercial and residential development. The first general hospital in Woking was a voluntary hospital opened in Bath Road in 1893. It was followed by the 13-bed Victoria Cottage Hospital on the corner of Boundary Lane and Chobham Road. The hospital was extended several times and, by the start of the Second World War, its capacity had increased to 100 in-patient beds. In 1933, Woking UDC and neighbouring councils began to develop plans to concentrate health services at what would become St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey. Nevertheless, the Victoria Hospital continued to provide non-emergency medical services in the town until its closure in 1993. Woking Community Hospital, on Heathside Road, offers a walk-in centre for patients with minor injuries and an in-patient rehabilitation ward. The Bradley Unit is a specialist facility for those recovering from brain injuries. The Bedser Hub, opened in March 2016, was funded by a legacy from Sir Alec Bedser and provides support to enable older people to remain independent and active. In 2022, the nearest hospitals with an A&E department are St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey,

Royal Surrey County Hospital The Royal Surrey County Hospital (RSCH) is a 520-bed District General Hospital, located on the fringe of Guildford, run by the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital has its origins in a facility at Farnham Road which opened i ...

and

Frimley Park Hospital Frimley Park Hospital is a large general hospital in Frimley, Surrey. It is managed by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, and houses a private wing. History Frimley Park Hospital was opened to provide a full range of acute services to patie ...

Transport

Roads

The borough has good transport links to London and the wider south east region: It is linked to the national motorway network via junction 11 of the M25 and junction 3 of the M3. However, Woking is poorly connected by road to local towns in northwest Surrey and there are only two northsouth routes for road vehicles across the London to Southampton railway line in the town centre, both of which suffer from congestion at peak times. Addressing the capacity of the local road network was identified as a priority in the 2018 Woking Forward Programme, published by the county council.

Public transport

Woking railway station Woking railway station is a major stop in Woking, England, on the South West Main Line used by many commuters. It is down the line from . The station is managed by South Western Railway, who operate all trains serving it. History The London ...

is to the south of the town centre. It is managed by South Western Railway, which operates all services. Trains run to via , to and via , to via and to via or . South Western Railway also runs all train services from Brookwood, Worplesdon and West Byfleet stations. Woking town centre is linked by a number of bus routes to surrounding towns and villages in north and west Surrey. Operators serving the town include Carlone Buses, Falcon Bus,

Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

and White Bus. A

RailAir RailAir describes a number of airport bus and coach services designed to connect the National Rail network to airports in the United Kingdom. Services are currently concentrated on Heathrow Airport, with one other from Luton Airport. RailAir s ...

coach service links Woking station to

Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...

Canal and river navigation

The River Wey is navigable from

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 ...

Godalming Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers and includes the settleme ...

and the navigation authority is the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. The Basingstoke Canal is open for navigation from the Wey at Byfleet to Greywell Tunnel, when the water supply permits. The navigation authority is the Basingstoke Canal Authority. The majority of the locks have set opening times and passage must be pre-booked.

Cycle routes and long-distance footpaths

National Cycle Network Route 221 connects Pirbright to

New Haw New Haw is a village which is part of the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England. It is located approximately south of Addlestone and southwest by west of London. Geography New Haw borders Byfleet, Addlestone, Weybridge, Ottershaw, West Byfl ...

and runs alongside the Basingstoke Canal. Route 223, which connects Chertsey to

Shoreham-by-Sea Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in West Sussex, England. The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to its west by the Adur Valley and to its south by the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on the ...

, passes through Woking, as does the "Woking and Egham link" of the Surrey Cycleway. In 2009, the borough council received funding to develop a off-road cycle network, resulting in the creation of 21 routes, collectively known as the "Planet Trails". The trails celebrate the area's connections to '' The War of the Worlds'' by

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

planet A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...

or a

moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

in the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

. The Fox Way, a footpath that circles Guildford, passes through the south of the borough at Sutton Green and Worplesdon railway station. The

E2 European long distance path The E2 European long distance path or E2 path is a 4850 km (3010-mile) series of long-distance footpaths that is intended to run from Galway in Ireland to France's Mediterranean coast and currently runs through Northern Ireland, Scotland, Eng ...

runs along the

towpath A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport ...

of the River Wey Navigation from Sutton to Byfleet.

Education

Early schools

The oldest surviving record of a school in the modern borough is from 1725, when there appears to have been a small school at Byfleet. In the same year, the vicar of Woking reported that there was "one poore writing master" living in his parish and that younger children attended dame schools to learn to read. There is a record of a Church of England-affiliated school in Horsell in 1788 and, in the 1790s, a school for non-conformists opened nearby. National schools were established at Pyrford in 1847 and at Old Woking in 1848.

Secondary schools

Bishop David Brown School, Sheerwater, Woking

The Winston Churchill School is a mixed comprehensive school for pupils aged 11 to 16. It opened in January 1967 on part of the former Inkerman Barracks site and its buildings were designed by the County Architect, Raymond Ash. The school

planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetarium ...

was opened in 2019 by former pupil and Doctor Who actor,

Peter Davison Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett (born 13 April 1951), known professionally as Peter Davison, is an English actor with many credits in television dramas and sitcoms. He made his television acting debut in 1975 and became famous in 1978 as Tristan ...

. Outside of school hours, the planetarium is open to the public and regularly hosts films and lectures on astronomy. The St John the Baptist School is a mixed

Catholic school Catholic schools are pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered under the aegis or in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest religious, non-governmental school syste ...

for pupils aged 11 to 18. It has been sponsored by the Xavier Catholic Education Trust since September 2016, when it gained academy status. The school, on Elmbridge Lane, was founded in 1969. Woking High School was founded in 1970 as Horsell Secondary School, replacing the former Chobham and Goldsworth Schools. It gained academy status in August 2013 and educates pupils aged 11 to 16. The

Bishop David Brown School The Bishop David Brown School is a mixed academy status secondary school located in Sheerwater, (Woking), Surrey, England. History Formerly the Sheerwater Secondary School, in 1982 Sheerwater merged with the Queen Elizabeth II School and ch ...

, in Sheerwater, is a mixed academy for pupils aged 11 to 16. It was formed in 1982 through the merger of the Sheerwater Secondary and Queen Elizabeth II Schools. It was named in honour of David Brown, Bishop of Guildford who died in July of that year. Since 2015, it has been operated by the Unity Schools Trust. Hoe Valley School, Woking, Surrey

Hoe Valley School opened in September 2015 at Woking Park and moved to its current site on Egley Road three years later. The free school currently educates children up to the age of 16 and the sixth form is due to open in 2023.

Sixth-form College

Woking College Woking College is a sixth form college in Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name prob ...

, in Rydens Way, opened in September 1977 with an initial intake of 730 students. It educates pupils aged 16-19 and gained academy status in September 2017. In November 2021, the sixth form college was awarded £3M funding to construct a new teaching block. The facility will enable student numbers to rise by 200, from the current enrolment of 1,450.

Cookery school

The Gordon Ramsay Academy opened in Commercial Way in September 2021. The site was previously the Tante Marie Culinary Academy, founded in 1954.

Places of worship

Anglican

The

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

churches in the borough belong to the Woking Deanery, part of the Diocese of Guildford. Eight of the churches are listed, including three that are Grade I listed.

St Peter's Church, Old Woking St Peter's Church is situated in Old Woking, Surrey, England. It is recorded in the Domesday Book. It also has the third oldest surviving door in the British Isles. It also has the oldest door in Surrey. History The church is a Grade I listed ...

is the oldest surviving building in the borough. There is thought to have been a wooden church on the site during the Saxon period, but it was replaced with a stone building in the decades following the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...

. The lower part of the walls of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

date from the reign of William I and the

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

west door is from . The oldest parts of the Church of St Mary the Virgin, in Byfleet, date from the 13th century, but the building was extended in the mid-19th century. Also Grade I-listed is the 12th-century St Nicholas' Church in Pyrford, the interior of which has remnants of Medieval wall paintings. The Grade II*-listed Church of St Mary the Virgin at Horsell was built as a stone chapel in the mid-12th century. It was rebuilt in the 14th century and the tower was constructed in the 15th century in flint, clunch and heathstone. The church is noted for its oak

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

, which dates from 1602. The Grade II-listed churches in the borough are Christ Church, in Woking town centre, the Church of All Saints, in Woodham Lane, the Church of St Mary of Bethany, on Mount Hermon Road, and the Church of St John the Baptist, in Parvis Road.

Other Christian denominations

The first Catholic church in the borough was built at Sutton Park in 1875-6. The Church of St Edward the Confessor was designed in the early-English Gothic style by James Harris. The south porch includes a seated statue of

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æth ...

above the door. The present St Dunstan's Church, on Shaftesbury Road, was opened in 2008. It replaced an earlier church of the same name that had been opened in 1925 on White Rose Lane. The first

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

chapel in the borough was opened in College Road in 1863 and there were open-air services taking place close to the railway station in 1871. A church was built in the town centre in 1872 and, five years later, the Woking Circuit was established. A larger church was erected in 1884, which in turn was replaced in 1905. As part of the redevelopment of the town centre, the old premises were sold and a new Methodist Church, known as Trinity Methodist Church, was opened in June 1965. The design of the building was inspired by the Anglican Cathedral in Mbale, Uganda. The two Baptist churches in the borough are part of the North Downs Network of the South Eastern Baptist Association. Knaphill Baptist Church was constructed in 1882 and was originally called “Hope Chapel”. The New Life Baptist Church began as an offshoot of the former Percy Street Baptist Church in Old Woking in 1929, but became independent in 1956.

Muslim

The Shah Jahan Mosque, the first purpose-built mosque in the country, was constructed in 1889 by Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner in the grounds of the Oriental Institute. It was funded, in part, by

Sultan Shah Jahan, Begum of Bhopal Shah Jahan Begum may refer to: *Shah Jahan Begum of Bhopal Shahjahan Begum (29 July 1838 – 16 June 1901) was the Nawab Begum of Bhopal (the ruler of the Islamic principality of Bhopal in central India) for two periods: 1844–60 (her m ...

and was designed by William Isaac Chambers in the late-Murghal style. The central prayer hall is roofed by an

onion dome An onion dome is a dome whose shape resembles an onion. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the tholobate upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. These bulbous structures taper smoothly to a point. It is a ty ...

, topped by a crescent

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

and the northern façade has four open turrets, linked by triangular crow-stepped battlements. The mosque closed following Leitner's death in 1899, but reopened in 1912 following a restoration project by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din.

Buddhist

The Woking Buddhist Temple at Knaphill is one of 15

Thai Buddhist Buddhism in Thailand is largely of the Theravada school, which is followed by 95 percent of the population. Thailand has the second largest Buddhist population in the world, after China, with approximately 64 million Buddhists. Buddhism in Th ...

temples in England and is the headquarters of the Dhammakaya Movement in England. It occupies the former chapel of Brookwood Hospital, which closed in 1994. The Meditation Garden opened in the temple grounds in October 2021.

Culture

Literature

Much of ''The War of the Worlds'' by H. G. Wells is set in the Woking area. The author wrote the majority of the novel between 1895 and 1898, when he lived in Maybury Road. During the early part of the story, a Martian cylinder lands on

Horsell Common Horsell Common is a open space in Horsell, near Woking in Surrey. It is owned and managed by the Horsell Common Preservation Society. An area of is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and part of the Thames Basin Heaths Special ...

. A bronze statue of Wells, by the artist Wesley Harland, was unveiled in Woking town centre in September 2016. A sculpture of a Wellesian Martian Tripod by Michael Condron, was installed at one end of Crown Square in April 1998. Briarbrae, the Woking home of a

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

employee, Mr Percy Phelps, is a key setting in Sir

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

's 1892

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

short story "

The Adventure of the Naval Treaty "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as ''The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes''. It was first published in ''The Strand Magazi ...

". Douglas Adams defined 'Woking' in ''

The Deeper Meaning of Liff ''The Meaning of Liff'' (UK Edition: , US Edition: ) is a humorous dictionary of toponymy and etymology, written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, published in the United Kingdom in 1983 and the United States in 1984. Content The book is a ...

'' as: "Standing in the kitchen wondering what you came in here for".

Media

The ''

Woking News and Mail The ''Woking News and Mail'' (incorporating the ''Woking Review'') is a weekly local paper, which is published in the Surrey village of Knaphill in Woking. The newspaper is published every Thursday and principally covers Woking and the villages ...

'' was first published in 1894 as ''The Woking News'' and was later merged with its rival, ''The Woking Mail'' to create the combined title. In March 2011, it was closed by its owners,

Guardian Media Group Guardian Media Group plc (GMG) is a British-based mass media company owning various media operations including ''The Guardian'' and ''The Observer''. The group is wholly owned by the Scott Trust Limited, which exists to secure the financial and e ...

, but two months later, it was restarted as a monthly newspaper by local businessman, Philip Davies. Weekly editions resumed in November 2012 and in May 2017 the ''Woking News and Mail'' had a print circulation of 2,500. Tindle Newspapers Ltd acquired the paper in October 2022.

Music

The members of

The Jam The Jam were an English mod revival/ punk rock band formed in 1972 at Sheerwater Secondary School in Woking, Surrey. They released 18 consecutive Top 40 singles in the United Kingdom, from their debut in 1977 to their break-up in December 198 ...

met as students at Sheerwater County Secondary School in the early 1970s. They began to perform in

working men's club Working men's clubs are British private social clubs first created in the 19th century in industrial areas, particularly the North of England, Midlands, Scotland and South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class me ...

s in Woking, before releasing their first single in 1977. Their 1982 UK Number 1 single "

Town Called Malice "Town Called Malice" is a song recorded by British band the Jam from the album '' The Gift''. It debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart in February 1982. Overview The title is a play on words of the 1950 Nevil Shute novel ''A Town Like ...

" describes the experiences of the band growing up in Woking. Lead singer, Paul Weller named his 1995

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Stanley Road ''Stanley Road'' is the third solo album by Paul Weller, released by Go! Discs in 1995. In 1998 ''Q'' magazine readers voted it the 46th greatest album of all time. The album took its name from the street in Woking where Weller grew up. ...

'' after the street where he grew up. Other musicians born in Woking, include

Rick Parfitt Richard John Parfitt, (12 October 1948 24 December 2016) was an English musician, best known as a singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist with rock band Status Quo. Parfitt began his career in the early 1960s, playing in pubs and holiday cam ...

, singer-songwriter and

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

ist for

Status Quo is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, political, religious or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the current state of social structure and/or values. W ...

, and songwriter Les Reed, who wrote the songs "

It's Not Unusual "It's Not Unusual" is a song written by Les Reed and Gordon Mills, first recorded by a then-unknown Tom Jones, after having first been offered to Sandie Shaw. He intended it as a demo for her, but when she heard it she was so impressed with h ...

" and " Delilah" for Tom Jones. The pop group, the

Spice Girls The Spice Girls are a British girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and Vict ...

, began their musical careers in 1994, with dance rehearsals at the Trinity Studios in Knaphill. The venue is now known as the Woking Youth Arts Centre.

Public art

Among the works of public art in the town are a series of

polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors. Ancient Egypt Colossal statu ...

statues by Woking-born sculptor, Sean Henry. Initially the sculptures were intended to be displayed on a short-term basis as part of an art trail, but in November 2017 the borough council announced it had agreed to buy the statues and display them in the town on a permanent basis. At either end of the Bedser Bridge over the Basingstoke Canal, there are statues of cricketing brothers, Sir Alec and Eric Bedser by

Allan Sly Allan Sly FRBS (born 1951) is an English sculptor and senior lecturer at Wimbledon College of Art, a constituent college of University of the Arts London. Sly was elected a Fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors in 1992. Early life ...

. Sir Alec is shown bowling on the south bank and Eric batting on the north bank. The ''Winning Shot'', by Christine Charlesworth, depicts the wheelchair basketball player,

Ade Adepitan Adedoyin Olayiwola "Ade" Adepitan (born 27 March 1973) is a Nigerian-born British television presenter and wheelchair basketball player. As a presenter, he has hosted a range of travel documentaries and sports programmes for BBC television. Ade ...

, and celebrates the

London 2012 Paralympic Games The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Game ...

Venues

Until the early 1970s, Christ Church Hall was the only performing arts venue in Woking. It was demolished and replaced with the first purpose-built theatre, the

Rhoda McGaw Theatre The Rhoda McGaw Theatre is part of the entertainment complex adjacent to the Peacock Centre in Woking, Surrey. The theatre seats 228 in 9 rows of raked seating and has been reported to have excellent acoustics. The stage is flat, 58’ wide ...

, which opened in 1975. It too was demolished and replaced by the Ambassadors Theatre Complex, which opened in 1992. The complex houses two theatres, the 1,300-seat New Victoria Theatre and a 230-seat studio theatre, also named the Rhoda McGaw Theatre. The Ambassadors' Cinema, also accessed via the top floor of The Peacocks, opened with three screens in April 1993 and a further three were added in February 1997. It closed for refurbishment in 2019 and re-opened as Nova Cinema in May 2021. The new venue has seven screens, including a luxury screen. Lightbox gallery, Woking

The Lightbox The Lightbox is a public gallery and museum located in Woking, Surrey, in the South East of England. Three galleries host a range of exhibitions, changing regularly and it has a free museum of local history - 'Woking's Story'. It was opened on ...

, adjacent to the Basingstoke Canal in the centre of Woking, was opened to the public in 2007. The arts and heritage centre was designed by the architects' firm, Marks Barfield, and includes a permanent museum of local history. It hosts temporary exhibitions of works by local and international artists and the first Woking Literary Festival took place at the venue in 2017.

Sport

Leisure centres and swimming pools

Woking Leisure Centre opened on Kingfield Way in 1976 and offers a gym and facilities for

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and five-a-side football. The centre underwent a £2M refurbishment, which was completed in June 2013. Elsewhere in the borough, the Woking Sportsbox, adjacent to Hoe Bridge School, opened in July 2018 and the Eastwood Leisure Centre, in Sheerwater, opened in October 2021. Before the first open air pool was opened in Woking Park in 1910, local people swam in the canal and the River Wey. The first pool was replaced in 1935 by the Woking Lido, which was in turn replaced by Pool in the Park in 1989. The first

water slide A water slide (also referred to as a flume, or water chute) is a type of slide designed for warm-weather or indoor recreational use at water parks. Water slides differ in their riding method and therefore size. Some slides require riders to si ...

s were opened at Pool in the Park in 1992 and were replaced by new flumes, named "The Martian" and "The Time Traveller" in July 2019. The Eastwood Leisure Centre offers a 25 m, 6-lane main pool and a teaching pool for children.

Association football

Woking F.C. Woking Football Club is a professional association football club, based in Woking, Surrey, England. Founded in 1887, the club plays its home matches at The Laithwaite Community Stadium and is nicknamed the Cardinals, often shortened to the Card ...

, nicknamed "the Cardinals" or "the Cards", was formed in 1887. Initially home games were played at Wheatsheaf Common, but had moved to Kingfield by 1923. The club won the

FA Amateur Cup The FA Amateur Cup was an English football competition for amateur clubs. It commenced in 1893 and ended in 1974 when the Football Association abolished official amateur status. History Following the legalisation of professionalism within footba ...

in 1958 and the

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

in 1994, 1995 and 1997. In the 2021/22 season, Woking F.C. competed in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

. The borough also supports three clubs playing

Non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

: Westfield F.C. (founded 1953),

Sheerwater F.C. Sheerwater F.C. are a Non-League football club who are based in Sheerwater, in Woking, Surrey, England. They play their home fixtures at the Eastwood Centre and are members of the . History The club was founded in 1958, by John French, and ...

(founded 1958) and

Knaphill F.C. Knaphill Football Club is a football club based in Knaphill, Surrey, England. They are currently members of the and play at Redding Way. History The club was established in 1924. Pyrford Cricket Club was founded in 1858 and its main ground is Pear Park on Coldharbour Road. Westfield Saints Cricket Club was founded in 1875 and plays its home games at Greenmead near Mayford. Byfleet Cricket Club was founded in 1876 and has played its home games at the club ground in Parvis Road ever since. The first pavilion was constructed in around 1890 and the current brick building dates from 1979. The unusual dimensions of the ground means that, since 1922, it has had two narrow cricket squares, laid end-to-end, rather than a single full-width square. Woking and Horsell Cricket Club was founded in 1905 as Horsell Cricket Club. Initially it played its home games at the Vicarage field, but moved in 1923 to its current ground on Brewery Road. The club adopted its current name in 1968. Old Woking Cricket Club was founded in 1962 and has played at its current ground, on Queen Elizabeth Way, since 1967. Previously known as Woking Remnants Cricket Club, it adopted its current name in 1997.

Hockey

Woking Hockey Club was founded in 1904. It is based at

Goldsworth Park Goldsworth Park is a large housing estate to the north-west of Woking in Surrey, England. It was named after the nearby Goldsworth area which was a large 'tithing' of Woking Parish. The tithing included most of the north west of Woking, such as ...

and its facilities include two

AstroTurf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has m ...

pitches. The Hockey Museum opened in Butts Road in 2012 and moved to its current premises in the High Street in December 2017.

Rugby

Woking Rugby Football Club (R.F.C.) traces its origins to Vickers R.F.C., which was founded in Byfleet in 1931. Following the closure of the

British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marconi ...

(BAe) works at

in the late 1980s, the club was reformed under its current name in 1990. Initially the club used the former BAe ground, but has played its home games at the Byfleet recreation ground since 1993. The Clubhouse is at the Camphill Social Club at West Byfleet.

Notable buildings and landmarks

Central Woking towers

Woking skyline from Guildown in 2020 (geograph 6720429)

The tallest buildings in Woking are Victoria Square Tower 1 and Tower 2 at and respectively. The two buildings contain residential apartments and a third, the 23-storey Tower 3, has a Hilton Hotel. The project was designed by the architects' firm,

Benoy Benoy is an international firm of architects, master planners, interior architects and graphic designers working from design studios in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. The company is primarily known for its glob ...

, and was managed jointly by ThamesWey, a subsidiary of Woking Borough Council, and Moyallen Holdings Limited. The

Export House Export House in Woking, Surrey, is a tall office building formerly also known as the BAT Building during its tenancy by British American Tobacco. It was the tallest in Woking and among the five tallest buildings in Surrey until the constructi ...

was completed in 1974. It is known locally as "The BAT Building" (pronounced B-A-T), from the initials of its first tenant,

British American Tobacco British American Tobacco plc (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, England. As of 2019, it is the large ...

and has

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan bird of prey (Bird of prey, raptor) in the family (biology), family Falco ...

s nesting on top.

Crematorium

Woking Crematorium Woking Crematorium is a crematorium in Woking, a large town in the west of Surrey, England. Established in 1878, it was the first custom-built crematorium in the United Kingdom and is closely linked to the history of cremation in the UK. Locat ...

, close to St John's, was opened in March 1885 as the first purpose-built crematorium in the UK. The required land was purchased from the London Necropolis Company in 1878 by Sir Henry Thompson, founder of The Cremation Society. The crematory and columbarium were built in 1879 and the chapel was added in 1888.

Living Planet Centre

The Living Planet Centre, to the north of the town centre, adjacent to the Basingstoke Canal, was opened in 2013 by

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...

. It was designed by Hopkins Architects and has a barrel-vaulted roof, which covers the central atrium. The building is the headquarters of the UK

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...

and has a Learning Zone that is open to visitors.

Surrey History Centre

The Surrey History Centre, in Goldsworth Road, was opened in March 1999 by

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

. It was designed to replace the Surrey Record Office, which was previously based at

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 ...

. The building also houses collections from the Guildford Muniment Room and the former Surrey Local Studies Library.

Sutton Place

, was built for Richard Weston and is one of the earliest unfortified houses constructed in England. The present house was constructed as a replacement for the Medieval manor house of Sutton, which had been described as "ruinous" in 1329. It was originally built around four sides of a central courtyard, but the north range was demolished in 1786. The building includes a two-storey

great hall A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages, and continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great ...

, decorated with royal coats of arms, and a

panelled Panelling (or paneling in the U.S.) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was developed in antiquity to make roo ...

long gallery.

War memorials

Old Woking War Memorial was unveilled in November 1920 in St Peter's Churchyard. It takes the form of a Cornish granite

wheel cross A sun cross, solar cross, or wheel cross is a solar symbol consisting of an equilateral cross inside a circle. The design is frequently found in the symbolism of prehistoric cultures, particularly during the Neolithic to Bronze Age periods of ...

, decorated with Celtic-style tracery. There are two inscriptions on the base, one for each of the world wars, but no names are recorded on the memorial itself. Woking War Memorial was unveiled in Victoria Garden in May 1922 and was moved to its current location in Jubilee Square in 1975. It consists of a sandstone column, supporting a statue of a winged figure of Victory by the sculptor, Francis William Doyle Jones. The names of 520 people who died in the First World War are inscribed on the plinth and a dedication to those who died in the Second was added in April 1950. Byfleet War Memorial takes the form of a stone cenotaph, supported on a brick plinth. It records the names of 72 people who died in the First World War and of 14 people who died in the Second.

Woking Palace

The first manor house on the site of Woking Palace is thought to have been built by Alan Basset, who was granted the manor by Richard I in 1189. The manor was held by various families, including the Bassets and Despensers, and, in the 15th century, the building was described as "substantial" and capable of accommodating up to 100 guests. In 1466, the manor was granted to

Lady Margaret Beaufort Lady Margaret Beaufort (usually pronounced: or ; 31 May 1441/43 – 29 June 1509) was a major figure in the Wars of the Roses of the late fifteenth century, and mother of King Henry VII of England, the first Tudor monarch. A descendant of ...

, the mother of the future Henry VII, who lived there with her third husband, Henry Stafford, from 1467 until at least 1471. The palace was frequently visited by Henry VII and his son,

, who commissioned the construction of a new kitchen, royal apartments, a new wharf on the River Wey and two bowling alleys. Further improvement works were carried out during the reign of

. In contrast,

is not thought to have taken any interest in Woking and the buildings were allowed to decay. In 1620, he granted the manor to

, who partly demolished the structure to provide building materials for a new house at Hoe Place. By the reign of Charles II, the site was being used as a farm and the remaining buildings had probably been converted to barns. Today, the only visible traces of the palace are the perimeter

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

(filled in the winter months), the former fishponds and a single stone building.

Parks and open spaces

Brookwood Cemetery

The land for Brookwood Cemetery was purchased by the London Necropolis Company in 1854 and the southern part of the site was consecrated as an Anglican burial ground in November of that year. The northern part, closer to Brookwood station, was designated a non-conformist cemetery. The initial designs for area were by the company architect, Henry Abraham, but the chapels were designed by his successor, Sydney Smirke. Smirke, working in collaboration with William Broderick Thomas, was responsible for design of the landscaping, including the extensive planting of evergreen trees and shrubs. The site remains a working cemetery and, by 2009, over 233,300 people had been buried there. In 1917, a military cemetery was laid out to the west of the main site and was subsequently extended to receive those who died in the Second World War. The area was acquired by the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

in 1919 and is now closed for new burials.

Brookwood Country Park

The Brookwood Country Park, to the south of Knaphill, is on the north bank of the Basingstoke Canal. Much of the site is a semi-natural green space, with four wildlife ponds, but it also has two football pitches and a sports pavilion. The country park is managed by Woking Borough Council and has been protected by the charity,

Fields in Trust Fields in Trust, is a British charity set up in 1925 as the National Playing Fields Association (NPFA), by Brigadier-General Reginald Kentish and the Duke of York, later King George VI, who was the first president, which protects parks and green s ...

, under the Queen Elizabeth II Fields programme, since January 2013.

Horsell Common

Horsell Common is a open space, owned and managed by the Horsell Common Preservation Society. Some are designated a biological

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

and form part of the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area. The common includes a range of heathland habitats, including

acid grassland Acid grassland is a nutrient-poor habitat characterised by grassy tussocks and bare ground. Habitat The vegetation is dominated by grasses and herbaceous plants, growing on soils deficient in lime (calcium). These may be found on acid sedimentary ...

and peat bogs. It is noted for the diversity of insects and it provides a habitat for 168

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order (biology), order of insects, comprising the sawfly, sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are Par ...

(bees, wasps and ants) species. Rare plants found in the area include

marsh pennywort ''Hydrocotyle vulgaris'', the marsh pennywort, common pennywort, water naval, money plant, lucky plant or copper coin, is a small creeping aquatic perennial plant native to North Africa, Europe, the Caucasus and parts of the Levant. Description ...

, the lesser water-plantain and three-lobed water crowfoot.

Muslim Burial Ground

The Muslim Burial Ground on Monument Road was completed in 1917 as the resting place for Muslim soldiers killed in the First World War. It was designed by T. Herbery Winny and the rectangular enclosure is surrounded by walls. The entrance gate takes the form of a red brick ''

chattri ''Chhatri'' are elevated, dome-shaped pavilions used as an element in Indo-Islamic architecture and Indian architecture. Originating as a canopy above tombs, they serve as decorative elements. The earliest example of chhatri being used in the ...

'' with a central dome. In 1921, the site was taken over by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, by which time 19 soldiers had been buried there. A further eight soldiers who died in the Second World War were subsequently interred at the ground. After repeated instances of

vandalism Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The term f ...

, the soldiers were exhumed in 1968 and reburied at Brookwood Cemetery. In the following decades, the site was neglected and became overgrown. In 2011, a restoration of the burial ground, part-funded by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

, began. A memorial garden, known as the Peace Garden, was created at the site, centred around a rectangular

reflecting pool A reflecting pool, also called a reflection pool, is a water feature found in gardens, parks, and memorial sites. It usually consists of a shallow pool of water, undisturbed by fountain jets, for a reflective surface. Design Reflecting pools are ...

. A Himalayan birch tree was planted for each of the 27 soldiers who had previously been buried at the site. The Peace Garden was opened in November 2015 by

Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Forfar, (Edward Antony Richard Louis; born 10 March 1964) is a member of the British royal family. He is the youngest child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the youngest sibl ...

Smart's Heath and Prey Heath

Smart's Heath and Prey Heath, to the south west of Mayford, together comprise the Smart's and Prey Heaths Site of Special Scientific Interest. The two adjacent areas are separated by the Hoe Stream and are managed by the borough council. They were not included in the land purchase by the London Necropolis Company in 1854 and have remained as areas of common land ever since. The heaths provide a habitat for the European nightjar and two

insectivorous plant Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants still generate some of their energy from photosynthesis. Car ...

species, the long-leaved and round-leaved sundews.

Woking Park

Until the early 20th century, the area now occupied by Woking Park was open farmland. It was sold to the UDC in 1902 by the Brettel family on the condition that it would be used as a recreation ground and public park. The two ponds in the centre of the park provide a habitat for frogs, birds, ferns and aquatic plants.

Notable people

(1509) mother of Henry VII lived at Woking Palace 14671471. *

Emilia Dilke Emilia Francis Strong (2 September 1840, Ilfracombe, Devon – 23 October 1904), better known as Lady Dilke, was a British author, art historian, feminist and trade unionist. Biography Emilia Francis Strong, the daughter of Henry and Emily Weedo ...

(18401904) art historian, feminist and trade unionist lived at Pyrford Rough from 1881 until her death. * Adelina de Lara (18521961) concert pianist and composer lived in Woking from the 1920s until her death. *

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

(18561950) playwright and political activist lived in The Ridge, Woking from 1901 to 1903 * Ethel Smyth (18581944) composer and

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

lived at Coign, Hook Heath Road from 1910 until her death. *

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

Elizabeth Balfour, Countess of Balfour (18671942) suffragette lived at Fisher's Hill, Hook Heath Road from 1900 until her death. * Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh (18741967) businessman and philanthropist lived at Pyrford from 1906 until his death. * Eric Bedser (19182006) and Sir Alec Bedser (19182010) cricketers lived in the Woking area for the majority of their lives and attended Monument Hill Central School. * John Braine (19221986) novelist lived in Woking from 1966 until his death. * Delia Smith (b. 1941) celebrity chef and television presenter was born in Woking. * Ron Dennis (b. 1947) founder of McLaren Group was born and lives in Woking. *

Sean Lock Sean Lock (22 April 1963 – 16 August 2021) was an English comedian and actor. He began his comedy career as a stand-up comedian and in 2000 he won the British Comedy Award, in the category of Best Live Comic, and was nominated for the Perri ...

(19632021) comedian grew up in Woking and attended John the Baptist School. * Paul Weller (b. 1958) singer-songwriter and musician was born in Woking and attended Sheerwater County Secondary School.

Notes

References

Bibliography

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External links

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Woking Borough Council

Celebrate Woking

Woking 2027 local development framework
{{authority control Towns in Surrey Non-metropolitan districts of Surrey Unparished areas in Surrey Boroughs in England