As The Elmbridge Magazine celebrates its big birthday, Marcia Summers charts the landmark events that have reshaped the local scene..
D’Oyly Carte Island
D’Oyly Carte Island, restored 2021
A crumbling wreck for years, Eyot House received an unlikely reprieve at the turn of the decade.
Dominating the view of D’Oyly Carte Island, near Weybridge, from the southern bank of the Thames, it once hosted the likes of Gilbert & Sullivan, the light operatic partnership that lit up Victorian London.
The mansion was built by Richard D’Oyly Carte, the impresario who produced their operas, founded the Savoy Hotel and gave his name to the island, but by 2019, it was in ruins.
Then, in 2021, the house and island were purchased by Andy and Sheila Hill, from Richmond, who promptly set about restoring them.
There is now a coffee shop and creperie on the island, while the first public concert took place in 2023.
The Heart, Walton, opened 2006
Originally built in the 60s, The Heart Shopping Centre reopened as a bold new housing and shopping complex in 2006 after a £150m investment.
Spanning over a million square feet, it’s home to 59 stores and restaurants, a 799-space car park, a gym and 279 apartments.
Chelsea FC Training Centre, Cobham, opened 2005
Chelsea FC started using its 140-acre Cobham site in January 2005, the first team training there with construction still ongoing.
Costing a reported £20m, the state-of-the-art complex – built during the ownership of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich – caters for the whole club, from the first team to the academy, including the women’s teams and reserves.
It boasts nine outdoor pitches (three with undersoil heating, six to Premier League standard), an indoor artificial pitch, a media centre, gyms, cold immersion pools, sauna, hydrotherapy pool and steam room.
Will Tindall
Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher
Celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, Sandown Park was the UK’s first purpose-built racecourse with enclosures.
It was also among the first to charge an admission fee, which proved to be a masterstroke for regulating behaviour, thereby helping to attract women and the leisured upper classes.
In 1979, the 100-year-old grandstand was replaced by the present multifunctional space.
Then, in 1994, Sandown Park was purchased by the Jockey Club, which built it up into a top music venue and exhibition/conference centre.
The park also now boasts a golf course, go-kart track, sports club, ski slope, hotel and nursery school.
Hampton Court Palace marked its quincentenary in 2015
Hampton Court Palace marked its quincentenary in 2015, 500 years since Cardinal Thomas Wolsey began work on the Tudor building.
There were special events, displays and entertainments throughout the year, including historical reenactments of jousts and Tudor era banquets.
It was the second round of quincentennial celebrations: 2009 saw the creation of a new garden in Chapel Court to mark 500 years since the accession to the throne of Hampton Court’s most notorious owner – Henry VIII.
Rose Theatre, Kingston, opened 2008
Decades of community campaigning led to the creation of a new £11m, 822-seat theatre, partly inspired by the Elizabethan Rose Theatre in London.
With its unique 11-sided auditorium and lozenge-shaped stage, the Rose is designed for both intimate and epic productions.
Opened in January 2008 with a production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, directed by Sir Peter Hall, it is now a key part of the cultural scene.
Chris Lacey
Painshill Park, Cobham, restored 1980s – 2010s
Walk through the gates of Painshill today and you are immersed in a dreamscape: a world of Gothic towers, glittering grottoes and serpentine lakes.
Yet 40 years ago, the park was a ruin, with bridges collapsing, follies crumbling, and paths overrun.
It has taken decades of restoration, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to bring the vision of its 18th-century creator, Charles Hamilton, back to life.
Inspired by artists of the previous century, Hamilton created a series of landscape ‘scenes’, combining architectural features with trees and shrubs.
Several of the surviving follies are listed in their own right, including the Gothic Tower, the Gothic Temple, and the spectacular crystal Grotto restored in 2013 – a naturalistic cave with bubbling water and stalactites, covered in sparkling crystals.
SGP
Walton Bridge, opened July 2013
For decades, crossing the river at Walton meant bottlenecks and general frustration.
Then, in 2013, the new £32m single-span arch opened – the first new road bridge over the Thames in more than 20 years.
With no piers in the river, it opened up views along the waterway and improved navigation, while carrying around 35,000 vehicles a day.
It is a structure built to last – unlike some of the previous five bridges to have spanned this stretch of the Thames.
Other notable moments
- Surrey has long been a cyclist’s playground, but the 2012 Olympics placed its pedal potential firmly in the spotlight and turned Box Hill into a star. Five years later, local rider Toby Smith mapped a 58.5 km Esher-to-Box-Hill loop, which is now one of the most ridden Strava (route-building app) routes in the world.
- Charter Quay, Kingston’s award-winning riverside development of 238 apartments, five townhouses, river moorings, restaurants, bars, a café, and the Rose Theatre, was completed in 2003.
