Worcester Park

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Worcester Park
Location on map of Greater London
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

[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

Wall surrounding the Blakesley School site
Enlarge
Wall surrounding the Blakesley School site

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

Main article: 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

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ 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
  2. ^ Brief local history

[edit] References

[edit] External links