add site
services
publishers
database
health videos
toolbar
stats
live show
health store
more stuff
JOIN/LOGIN
| advertise add site services publishers database health videos
| | about toolbar stats live show health store more stuff JOIN/LOGIN |
Coordinates: 51°23′32″N 0°18′11″W / 51.3923°N 0.3030°W
Surbiton, a suburban area of London in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, is a town next to the River Thames, populated with a mixture of Art-Deco courts, spacious and grand late-19th century townhouses blending into a sea of semi-detached 20th century housing estates.
[edit] HistoryThere is evidence that a settlement has existed at Surbiton since at least 1178. At the time, it was known as Suberton(e), [from the Old English south buritum' or granary]. Norbiton lies to the northeast, and is separated from Surbiton by the Hogsmill River. Before the arrival of the railway, Surbiton was little more than a farm. Maps from as late as the early 19th century show it as little more than a crossroads, but far nearer Kingston than the current station. It was at the base of the hill, not far south of the current Kingston University site on Penrhyn Road. The town started to prosper when a plan to build the main railway line down to the south coast closer to nearby Kingston was rejected by Kingston Council, fearing the detrimental effect it would have on the busy coaching trade. This resulted in the line being routed further south, through a cutting in the hill south of Surbiton. Surbiton railway station opened in 1838, and was originally named Kingston-upon-Railway.[1] It was only renamed Surbiton to distinguish it from the new Kingston railway station on the Shepperton branch line, which opened on 1 January 1869.  As a result, Kingston is now on a branch line, whereas passengers from Surbiton, smaller in comparison, can reach Central London in about 18 minutes on a fast train, as well as places further afield, including Portsmouth and Southampton. This has made Surbiton a convenient location from which to commute into Central London, reflected in the size of its population. Starting in the early 2000s, a West London Orbital underground railway, which would terminate at Surbiton, has been promoted by the influential West London Business group. [edit] In popular cultureThe Pre-Raphaelite painters John Everett Millais (1829-1896) and William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) came to Surbiton in 1851, 26 years before Richard Jefferies (1848-1887). Millais actually used the Hogsmill, close to Tolworth Court Bridge, as the background for his painting ‘Ophelia’. Holman Hunt used the fields just south of this spot as the background to ‘The Hireling Shepherd.’[citation needed] In the mid 1870s the novelist Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) lived in a house called 'St. David's Villa' in Hook Road, Surbiton for a year after his marriage to Emma Gifford. The writer Enid Blyton (1897-1968) was governess to a Surbiton family for four years from 1918, at a house called 'Southernhay'.[citation needed] A 1972 episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus featured a mock documentary which investigated whether the residents of Surbiton had been long-ago ancestors of the people of Hounslow, another London area suburb, "who had made the great trek north."[2] Surbiton's main claim to popular fame is as an icon of suburbia in such British television programmes as The Good Life (starring Richard Briers, Penelope Keith, Paul Eddington and Felicity Kendal, though location filming was done in Pinner, North-West London),[citation needed] and John Sessions' comedy series Stella Street, which has on occasion led to the town being nicknamed "Suburbiton". Other related trivia: the character from the 1980s ZX Spectrum computer games Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy was described as a Surbiton resident,[citation needed] and Black Sabbath played at the Surbiton Assembly Rooms on 19 May 1970.[citation needed] The council sold the Assembly Rooms to Surbiton High School in the 1990s.[citation needed] The Surbiton train station features in the 2009 film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Blood Prince with actors Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter and Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore. Filming took place in November 2007.[3] [edit] Transport links[edit] London Bus services through Surbiton
[edit] Education
[edit] SportFrom 1998 to 2008 Surbiton hosted the first round of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) season. The Surbiton Trophy was part of the ATP Challenger Series and in 2009 the venue was moved to Nottingham as part of a reorganisation by the LTA. Surbiton is also the current home of the Football team Surbiton Wanderers [edit] Notable residents
[edit] Nearby places
[edit] Gallery
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ↑ top of page ↑ | about thumbshots |
