Woodhatch Place, Reigate
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Woodhatch Place is a large office building on Cockshot Hill,
Reigate Reigate ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'', and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The ea ...
,
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, which serves as the headquarters of
Surrey County Council Surrey County Council is the county council for the non-metropolitan county of Surrey, England. The council is composed of 81 elected councillors, and in all but one election since 1974 the Conservative Party has held the majority. The leader ...
. The main building was built in 19981999 as the head office of Canon (UK) Limited, in the grounds of a Georgian house, previously called Woodhatch Lodge, with the original house being retained and restored as part of the development. The complex was bought by Surrey County Council in 2020 and converted to become the council's main offices and meeting place.


History

Surrey County Council was created in 1889 under the
Local Government Act 1888 The Local Government Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41) was an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which established county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales. It came into effect ...
. It initially met at the Surrey County Sessions House in Newington, in the southern suburbs of London, where the Surrey
Quarter Sessions The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts that were traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388; they were extended to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535. Scotland establ ...
had been held since 1791. Newington had previously been in Surrey, but was transferred to the newly created
County of London The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Government A ...
at the same time that Surrey County Council was created. The county council chose to leave Newington and move to premises within the administrative county of Surrey, and so built
County Hall, Kingston upon Thames County Hall is a former municipal building in Penrhyn Road, Kingston upon Thames, England. The building, which was the headquarters of Surrey County Council from 1893 to 2020, is a landmark in Kingston and is a Grade II listed building. Histor ...
, which opened in 1893. Under the
London Government Act 1963 The London Government Act 1963 (c. 33) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which created Greater London and a new local government structure within it. The Act significantly reduced the number of local government districts in the ...
,
Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames, colloquially known as Kingston, is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. It is situated on the River Thames, south-west of Charing Cross. It is an ancient market town, notable as ...
was transferred into
Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...
in 1965, and so Surrey County Council again found itself based in the administrative area of
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
rather than in the administrative county that it served; a situation that continued for the next 55 years after the boundary change. The county council considered various options over that time for moving its headquarters to premises within Surrey, but remained based at County Hall until 2020. It eventually decided to move to Reigate, acquiring Woodhatch Place in July 2020. The original house of Woodhatch Lodge is believed to have been built in the late eighteenth century, although the exact date of construction is unknown. It remained a private house set in private gardens and wooded grounds until the 1930s. The house was substantially extended in the
Victorian era 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 the ...
with additional wings added to the east and west of the original house. In 1939 it became the head office of the Mutual Property Life and General Insurance Company Limited, which changed its name to the Crusader Insurance Company Limited in 1946. Further office extensions were built to the north and east of the original house during the time the site was owned by Crusader. Crusader moved its head office to
Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...
in Scotland in 1989, and shortly afterwards the company was bought by Britannia Life. The Woodhatch Lodge site was next occupied by Canon (UK) Limited. In 1996 Canon secured planning permission to demolish the mid-twentieth century offices that had been built by Crusader and the Victorian wings of the house, restoring the original Georgian part of the house and building a large new office building to the north and east of the house. The new building was built 19981999, and was in use from August 1999. It was formally opened by
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 19219 April 2021), was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he was the consort of the British monarch from h ...
, on 27 April 2000. Following Canon's reconstruction, the site became known as "Woodhatch Place" rather than "Woodhatch Lodge". In June 2019, Canon announced that it would be vacating Woodhatch, relocating to
Uxbridge Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon, northwest of Charing Cross. Uxbridge formed part of the parish of Hillingdon in the county of Middlesex. As part ...
where other divisions of the company were already based. By the time Surrey County Council bought Woodhatch Place in July 2020, it had already held its final full council meeting at County Hall in Kingston, on 17 March 2020, as meetings in the latter part of 2020 were held online due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. When the county council bought Woodhatch, it was yet to be decided whether it would be the council's headquarters or a subsidiary office. In October 2020 the council decided that Woodhatch would be the council's headquarters with effect from 1 January 2021. The council held its first meeting at Woodhatch Place on 25 May 2021.


Notes


References

{{reflist Woodhatch Place Government buildings completed in 1999