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WOKING'S HISTORY DISTRICT BY DISTRICT

Woking Town Centre

An old postcard of The Albion HotelFrom prehistoric times until the end of the 18th century, this area was part of a vast open heath - Woking Common. In the 1790s the Basingstoke Canal was built across the common and in the 1830s the London & Southampton Railway followed. Easy access to the capital via the railway attracted the London Necropolis & National Mausoleum Company, who in 1854 bought nearly the whole of Woking Common for their national cemetery. In the end they only used part of the land - at Brookwood - and the land around Woking Station was gradually sold off for development.

An old photograph of Chobham Road c 1880The Necropolis Company’s land sales governed the town’s later development. To the south of the railway large expensive plots encouraged large, expensive houses to be built in the HEATHSIDE and MAYBURY areas. To the north (sandwiched between the railway and the canal), smaller, cheaper plots enabled businessmen to set up shop and the new town of Woking was begun.

The Albion Hotel (opposite the station’s ‘back’ entrance) was the first place to be built (in 1856-7), soon to be followed by the original ‘Red House Hotel’ on the corner of Chertsey Road and Chobham Road, (It later ‘moved’ to the site next door)! It is perhaps significant that the new town had three public houses long before any place of worship, and early descriptions refer to Woking as a sort of ‘Wild West’ town.
This might explain why there are so many bars, licensed restaurants and nightclubs in the town today and why The Albion has been rebuilt three times in its relatively short lifetime.

An old postcard of Commercial Way – (left to right; The Grand Theatre; Council Offices; Constitutional Club; Wesleyan ChurchAs a matter of interest, it was the Wesleyan movement that first opened a small chapel (in 1874) in what was later to be called ‘Chapel Street’, followed by the original ‘tin’ Christ Church in 1877. The present building was begun in 1884.

Some of the other early Victorian development was in the High Street where, in 1870 a row of newly constructed cottages were converted into shops. These were followed by the properties in Chobham Road (between Chertsey Road and Commercial Way) developed by Mr Henry Gloster, who opened the ‘South Western Stores’ there in 1874. Gloster also built some of the shops in Chertsey Road, which very quickly established itself as the main shopping area of the town. The Broadway, Commercial Road (Way) and Goldsworth Road also had shops by the end of the 19th century.

Postcard of Chertsey Road showing the original Red House HotelCommercial Road also contained a number of public buildings, including the Woking Public Hall (or Grand Theatre) opened in 1895, the Constitutional Club (1898), the ‘new’ Wesleyan Methodist Church (1904) and the first purpose-built Council Offices (1905). The Fire Station was behind the Council Offices (on the same site as today), while the Police Station was in Guildford Road (on the opposite corner of Heathside Road from the present site). The present Police Station occupies the former Boys’ Grammar School opened in 1914!

Chertsey Road showing the old Barclays Bank on the rightWoking’s first hospital was apparently a converted house in ‘Bath Road’ (where Middle Walk is today), but in 1897, to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, the Woking Victoria Hospital was begun in Chobham Road (by Wheatsheaf Bridge). This was later extended as part of Woking’s War Memorial, but in the 1980s it was demolished and the new ‘Woking Community Hospital’ opened in Heathside Road.

The pages on The Basingstoke Canal, The Railway, and Brookwood Cemetery & The Necropolis deal with more information about the area in relation to those subjects.

Booklets.
The Woking Community Play Association’s book ‘Changing Woking - 1900-1929’ contains a wealth of information on the Edwardian period throughout the whole borough.

The Woking Community Play Association’s book ‘Changing Woking - 1900-1929’ contains a wealth of information on Woking Town Centre.

Booklets on ‘The Coming of the Railway’ and ‘Heritage Notes on Woking Town Centre Conservation Area’ are also available - please see the list of publication on the HERITAGE WALKS page.