St George's Hill is a private

gated community A gated community (or walled community) is a form of residential community or housing estate containing strictly controlled entrances for pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles, and often characterized by a closed perimeter of walls and fences ...

Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge, Elmbridge district 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 cro ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England. Comprising more than 450 properties, the land that is now the contemporary St George's Hill estate was purchased by builder W. G. Tarrant in 1911. Over the following decades, Tarrant masterminded the development of St George's Hill into a country retreat for wealthy Londoners that promised both seclusion and natural beauty. St George's Hill is known for its population of celebrities and

high net worth individual In the financial services industry, a high-net-worth individual (HNWI) is a person who maintains liquid assets at or above a certain threshold. Typically the criterion is that the person's financial assets (excluding their primary residence) are ...

s, and is generally considered the most prestigious of the Surrey private estates, only rivalled by nearby Wentworth. Notable residents have included

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

and

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, us ...

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

, golfer

Nick Faldo Sir Nicholas Alexander Faldo (born 18 July 1957) is an English retired professional golfer and television commentator. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he was renowned for his dedication to the game, and was ranked No. ...

, and F1 racing driver

Jenson Button Jenson Alexander Lyons Button (born 19 January 1980) is a British racing driver, who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Jota. Button competed in Formula One from to , and won the World Drivers' Championship in with Brawn; ...

Geography

Location

St George’s Hill lies on the edge of the town of

in north Surrey, and is 23 miles southwest of

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

. Its southern boundary is Byfleet Road, and its eastern side is formed of Seven Hills Road and Foxoak Hill. Its northern edge includes Queens Road and St George’s Avenue, while it is bordered to the west by Brooklands Road.

Topography

The hill is the lowest in Surrey to be listed by the national database of hills of Britain and Ireland, which records claims for all

Munro A Munro (; ) is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevi ...

s and other categories, ranking 36th and as a >50 tump. The easterly peak is the highest point of the three boroughs in the north-west corner of Surrey and has the highest summit to be strictly private. The summit is 255 feet (78 metres) above mean sea level (

Ordnance Datum An ordnance datum (OD) is a vertical datum used by an ordnance survey as the basis for deriving altitudes on maps. A spot height may be expressed as above ordnance datum (AOD). Usually mean sea level (MSL) at a particular place is used for the d ...

) and the minimum descent (notch/ col) is 174 feet (53 metres).Database of British and Irish Hills
Retrieved 2015-03-06

History

Early history

St George's Hill was once the site of an

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

hillfort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

, and the remains of the ramparts can still be seen. Erroneously referred to on many old maps as 'Caesar's camp', it was an 'unremarkable' construction, though perhaps slightly more complex than others of its type. On 1 April 1649, a group of men and women led by Gerard Winstanley and William Everard began to 'dig and sow' St George's Hill, which they regarded as

common land Common land is collective land (sometimes only open to those whose nation governs the land) in which all persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...

.Zambelli, 2023, pp. 9–10 They may also have begun making caves and dens. These people, soon to be known as

Diggers The Diggers were a group of religious and political dissidents in England, associated with a political ideology and programme resembling what would later be called agrarian socialism.; ; ; Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard (Digger), Will ...

, faced opposition from local communities, who regarded them as squatters. By September that year, the Diggers had decamped elsewhere. The dwellings they left behind were eventually destroyed. The land was acquired by

Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (Frederick Augustus; 16 August 1763 – 5 January 1827) was the second son of George III, King of the United Kingdom and King of Hanover, Hanover, and his consort Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. A so ...

in 1804. It came into the possession of the Egerton family during the

Victorian period In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed th ...

Modern history

In 1911, developer Walter George Tarrant purchased 964 acres of the ancient common land. His plan for the estate envisioned St George's Hill as an ideal residence for the modern professional man, offering privacy, natural beauty, and potential for sporting activities. The area developed rapidly, shifting from a 'wooded wilderness' to a 'hillside studded with mansions'. In its early decades St George's Hill could still be accessed by visitors and picnickers, but was restricted to the public in 1928. Many of the earliest mansions were built in the then fashionable Arts and Crafts style.

purchased a house in the 1960s, and in the following years the estate would attract a greater number of celebrity residents, to the extent that St George's Hill and the wider Elmbridge area have come to be regarded as a British

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

. The first decade of the 21st century saw an influx of wealthy Russians, and by 2022 more than a quarter of properties were owned by individuals from former Soviet states. The radical history of St George's Hill has been commemorated by activists. Environmental campaigner

George Monbiot George Joshua Richard Monbiot ( ; born 27 January 1963) is an English journalist, author, and Environmental movement, environmental and political activist. He writes a regular column for ''The Guardian'' and has written several books. Monbiot ...

and a group of supporters founded The Land is Ours in 1995 and squatted on the hill. They returned again in 1999 to mark the 350th anniversary of the Diggers' occupation, erecting a 'memorial stone' in the process.

Transport

Rail

Weybridge railway station Weybridge railway station is near the established midpoint of Weybridge in Surrey, England and south of its town centre. It is on the South West Main Line and operated by South Western Railway (train operating company), South Western Railway. I ...

, managed by

South Western Railway South Western Railway Limited, trading as South Western Railway (SWR), is the British state-owned train operating company that took over the services of the South Western Railway (2017–2025), operator of the same name from FirstGroup and MTR ...

, can be accessed for rail services. It takes approximately 30 minutes to reach central London during

rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English, Indian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice e ...

travel to London Waterloo.

Road

St George's Hill is 3 miles from the M25 and 7 miles from the M3.

Air travel

For air travel,

Heathrow Heathrow Airport , also colloquially known as London Heathrow Airport and named ''London Airport'' until 1966, is the primary and largest international airport serving London, the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdo ...

is close by, and private aircraft can use nearby Fairoaks Airport.

Amenities

Golf club

The course at St George's Hill Golf Club was designed in 1912 by Harry Colt and opened for play the following year. Known for its visual appeal, it has been described as one of the best examples of the 'Golden Age' of golf course design, as well as the course outside the United States that most resembles Pine Valley. No longer a 36-hole complex, the Red and Blue nines make up the main course at St George's Hill. A third, somewhat shorter nine - the Green nine - was upgraded in 1987 by Donald Steel, with assistance from Jonathan Gaunt. In 2023, the Renaissance Golf Design firm was hired to produce a new masterplan for all holes at the club.

Tennis club

St George's Hill Lawn Tennis Club was officially opened on 7 June 1915 by

Prince Alexander of Teck Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone (Alexander Augustus Frederick William Alfred George; born Prince Alexander of Teck; 14 April 1874 – 16 January 1957), was a member of the extended British royal family, as a great-grandson of King Georg ...

and his wife Princess Alice. The club lies in the north-east corner of the estate next to Warren Pond. In common with the golf club, membership includes access to additional facilities: restaurants, gyms, swimming pools, health spas and crèches. As of 2021, it had a £1,728 yearly fee. Given the exclusive reputation of the area, the membership fee is typically lower than might be expected, which ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' compared in a 2016 article to that of David Lloyd Leisure. There are 13 grass tennis courts, 10 artificial clay, 4 'porous acrylic', 2 artificial grass, 3 TruClay, and 2 indoor. Plans for the installation of padel courts were approved in July 2024, despite noise concerns from some residents. The club defended its plans on the basis that it could lose business from members going elsewhere for padel tennis.

Security

The estate is accessed by a private, gated road which is controlled during the day by security personnel and is restricted at all times. Features include

automatic number plate recognition Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR; see also other names below) is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates to create vehicle location data. It can use existing closed-circuit ...

technology. The security aspect is a major draw for buyers, who want a property they know will be secure when they are travelling. A senior director of a real estate firm commented in a 2023 '' Country Life'' article that 'unless you have your own private security', there is unlikely to be a safer place in Britain to buy a home. In 2011 there was a notable security breach when a group of squatters moved into Woodlawn Cottage, an empty property that had fallen into a state of disrepair. Estate management responded by placing 24 hour security patrols around the property while police awaited a court order to evict the squatters. Security was further tightened after the suspicious November 2012 death of resident Alexander Perepilichny.

Notable residents

- British racing driver * Dick Emery - comedian *

- professional golfer * Engelbert Humperdinck - singer *

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

- singer * Tom Jones - singer *

Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

singer/songwriter and guitarist * Bill Martin - songwriter * Gordon Mills - musician, songwriter and manager * Mian Muhammad Mansha - ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' listed and one of the richest men in Pakistan * Theo Paphitis - entrepreneur and ''Dragons Den'' star * Alexander Perepilichny - allegedly poisoned Russian businessman and whistleblower *

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...

- British singer * Shilpa Shetty - Indian actress *

- Beatles singer/songwriter and drummer *

Eric Sykes Eric Sykes (4 May 1923 – 4 July 2012) was an English radio, stage, television and film writer, comedian, actor and director whose performing career spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and performed with many other leading com ...

- comedian *

John Terry John George Terry (born 7 December 1980) is an English professional Coach (association football), football coach and former Association football, player who played as a centre-back. He was previously captain of Chelsea F.C., Chelsea, the En ...

- professional footballer and coach

Other private estates

There are other estates in Elmbridge: *

Burwood Park Burwood Park is a historic private estate located in Hersham, Surrey, England. Spanning six miles of road, Burwood Park is situated in a former Deer park (England), deer park that belonged to Henry VIII. The 360 acre estate is known both for it ...

* Ashley Park

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=February 2019 Gated communities in the United Kingdom Golf clubs and courses in Surrey Housing estates in England Golf clubs and courses designed by Harry Colt Weybridge, Surrey