Worcester Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Worcester Park | |
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| Location | |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference: | TQ225655 |
| Latitude: | 51.375264° |
| Longitude: | -0.239047° |
| Administration | |
| London borough: | Sutton |
| County level: | Greater London |
| Region: | London |
| Constituent country: | England |
| Sovereign state: | United Kingdom |
| Other | |
| Ceremonial county: | Greater London |
| Historic county: | Surrey |
| Services | |
| Police force: | Metropolitan Police |
| Fire brigade: | London Fire Brigade |
| Ambulance service: | London Ambulance |
| Post office and telephone | |
| Post town: | WORCESTER PARK |
| Postal district: | KT4 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Politics | |
| UK Parliament: | Sutton and Cheam |
| London Assembly: | Croydon and Sutton |
| European Parliament: | London |
| London | List of places in London | |
Worcester Park is a suburb of London, England, and ward in the extreme north west of the London Borough of Sutton. It is 10.2 miles (16.4 km) south west of Charing Cross. It has a population of 9,874 people.
The Worcester Park post town, which is coterminous with the KT4 postal district, is somewhat larger than the Worcester Park ward of the London Borough of Sutton and includes parts of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in Greater London and Epsom and Ewell in Surrey.
Contents |
[edit] Demographics
Around 90% of Worcester Park residents are White, with 1.9% mixed race, 4.8% Asian or British Asian, 1.3% Black and 2% Chinese or of another ethnic group. [1] Within this is a thriving Nepalese community. Many second- and third-generation British-Nepalese families live in the area. In August or September the residents of Worcester Park are treated to a celebration of the festival of Gai Jatra (the Cow Festival), when practical jokes are encouraged and a procession of children dressed as cows, led by a real cow, travels from the Waitrose car park to the athletic ground, where there is a bonfire and fireworks.
[edit] Transport
[edit] Bus
Worcester Park is well served with regular bus services to Kingston and Sutton on the 213 bus route that runs up Central Road. There are also buses to Heathrow Airport and Croydon on the hourly X26 coach service. A local "Hopper" bus service to Sutton and Sutton Hospital runs via Sainsbury's supermarket in North Cheam. The 151 bus route also runs into Worcester Park and terminates at Worcester Park Rail station before returning though Sutton to Wallington.
[edit] Rail
Worcester Park railway station is in Zone 4, served by the National Rail services of South West Trains and is on the boundary with the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. The Worcester Park line runs from London (Waterloo) via Wimbledon through Worcester Park to Epsom and Guildford.
[edit] Sport and recreation
[edit] Bowls
- Auriol Park in the Surrey Borough of Epsom & Ewell[1]
[edit] Football
- Auriol Park in the Surrey Borough of Epsom & Ewell[1]
[edit] Swimming
- Indoor pools at Epsom, Sutton, North Cheam
- Between 1934 and 1980 the nearest open air swimming pool was Surbiton Lagoon
[edit] History
Worcester Park takes its name from the 4th Earl of Worcester, who was appointed Keeper of the Great Park in 1606. (The area was once part of a Great Park surrounding the Nonsuch Palace of Henry VIII.)
[edit] Blakesley School
Blakesley School was a private primary school run by the Headmaster Eric Dudley. It closed in the summer of 1958, when the land was sold for housing. It occupied the land at grid reference TQ214654 bordered by the portion of Delta Road which was then not surfaced, Delta Close (then a gated track and public right of way leading from Delta Road to Salisbury Road), and Grafton Avenue, again not surfaced, heading towards the church.
It occupied a substantial plot of land and was a "modern manor house" style building. The surrounding wall is said to go back to Henry VIII's reign[citation needed].
[edit] Parker's Field
Possibly belonging to T Parker & Sons, Landscapers, who were based at what is now a housing estate at grid reference TQ221662 beside Worcester Park Station, Parker's Field was the best toboggan run until the top half was built on in the 1970s (despite being Green Belt), when it became unusable.
[edit] Rowe Hall
The Scout hut next door to Cuddington Primary School in Salisbury Road at grid reference TQ215650 was built in 1958 and named Rowe Hall in honour of a long serving scout mistress, "Miss Rowe", who was a teacher at Blakesley School. The hut's erection coincided with the school's closure. Rowe Hall has been burnt down by arsonists and rebuilt at least once in its life. It is the base for the 2nd Cuddington (Rowe) Scouts.
[edit] Worcester (Park) House
In the 1950s, the ruins of a splendid ornamental lake with a multi-arched bridge (at grid reference TQ211654) and balustrade were still visible in the woodland at the foot of the hill in "Parker's Field" (situated between Grafton Road and Old Malden Lane, and behind the still rather ramshackle stables in Grafton Road).
The house itself was not visible, nor were there any ruins apart from the lake and some mounds of bricks to be found. The lake itself had drained into the river Hogsmill, but no source of incoming water was visible. The lake dried up in the late 1940s following the rechanelling of the river.
Close to the bridge remnant to the southwest of the bridge was a ruined domed structure, all that remains of an ice house. However it was filled with soil and other débris which prevented any investigation.
Locals presumed the house to be named "Worcester Park House", and have suggested that Blakesley School was the original house, while historical sources suggest "Worcester House"[2]. However the map of 1871 shows a building labelled "Worcester Park House" to be alongside the lake, to the west of it, on land that was, in the 1950s, overgrown with trees.
[edit] Notable residents
- Jimmy Hill - Footballer for Fulham Football Club and BBC TV Football commentator lived either at 12 or at 14 Kinross Avenue
- John Major - British Conservative Party Prime Minister lived in Longfellow Road and went to Cheam Common School
- Mark Read - member of the boyband A1
- Daley Thompson - British decathlete lived near "The Plough" public house
- Kenneth Wolstenholme - the BBC's original TV football commentator lived at 75 Salisbury Road
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Auriol Park is a King George's Field. See also List of King George V Playing Fields (Surrey) under the entry for Worcester Park
- ^ Brief local history
