Woking
Woking is a large town and
local government district with borough status in the west of
Surrey in
South East England. It functions as a
dormitory town of the
London commuter belt and is located 23 miles (37 km) south west of
Charing Cross in
central London.
Woking also plays a role in literature: it is the town in which the Martians landed in
H. G. Wells science fiction novel
The War of the Worlds. It also features in
Douglas Adams's The Meaning of Liff, as the word for when you go to the kitchen but forget why.
Woking's history starts in 673AD or CE. Woking begins around about this time as a settlement of a
Wessex tribe followers of
Wocca. The name has been corrupted and was spelt as Woccingas, Wochinges, Wokynge, Wochynghe at different times.
Modern Woking was formed around the
railway station built over 150 years ago at the junction between trains to the south coast, the
south-west of England and the necropolis railway to
Brookwood Cemetery. This
cemetery was developed by the
London Necropolis Company as an overflow burial ground for London's dead. Later, Woking was home to the first
crematorium in the United Kingdom (St Johns) and the first
mosque in the UK (on Oriental Road). The Shahjehan Mosque was commissioned by
Shahjehan,
Begum of
Bhopal (1868-1901), one of the four female Muslim rulers of Bhopal who reigned between 1819 and 1926.
The
constituency of Woking has historically been a
Conservative party safe seat, with the
Liberal Democrats the principal opposition in the last two
general elections. Its current
Member of Parliament is
Humfrey Malins, who has a majority of around 6,500. The borough council is currently run by a minority Liberal Democrat administration.
Woking has a modern shopping centre called
The Peacocks and an older shopping area, Wolsey Place.
[Wolsey Place web site]The main area for evening entertainment is around Chertsey Road
[Map showing Chertsey Road] which contains restaurants serving a number of
cuisines and there are also numerous bars and pubs. The Ambassadors cinemas
[Web site for the Ambassadors cinemas and New Victoria Theatre] and
New Victoria Theatre[ ] can be accessed via the top floor of The Peacocks.
Woking has indoor swimming pools, "Pool in the Park",
[Pool in the Park web site] and a separate leisure centre. Outdoor facilities include a
skatepark,
tennis courts,
five-a-side football pitches, a
cricket pitch (during the summer),
bowling greens, a
crazy golf course, and a children's adventure playground. These leisure facilities are all located within the attractively landscaped Woking Park
[Woking Park web site] near to the town centre.
The scene at St Peter's Church, Old Woking is an inspiration for many local artists, as is another local beauty spot at the lock at St John's Lye.
[(a) (b) Two sites on David Drury, a local artist]:''See related article:
Energy policy of the United Kingdom Woking council is one of country's leaders in adopting greener energy technologies. Several
combined heat and power stations provide
district heating and
electricity, and electricity is also provided by a combination of
hydrogen fuel cells and
solar cells dispersed throughout the borough. These are linked via an innovative private electricity distribution system operating completely off the public
power grid.
In order to do this the local government laid new power lines to all locations on the Woking
sustainable community energy system (due to
Department of Trade and Industry regulations). Should the public power grid fail, central Woking would continue to have an energy supply.
The cost for providing this energy is approximately
UK£0.01/
kWh less than for public electricity. It has been reported that the
borough saves UK£974,000 a year in energy costs.
[ ] By March 2004 the initiatives had also cut the borough's
carbon emissions by 17%.
Woking railway station is situated on the
Alton Line,
Portsmouth Direct Line,
South Western Main Line and
West of England Main Line. Accordingly, there are frequent trains to and from
London Waterloo (via
Clapham Junction), a journey taking approximately half an hour. There is also the twice hourly
Waterloo/Woking stopping service that calls at many stations between Waterloo and Woking.
There is a
RailAir coach every 30 minutes between the terminus immediately outside the railway station and
Heathrow Airport, using the
M25 motorway.
Gatwick Airport can be accessed via
Guildford railway station or
Clapham Junction.
Principal roads include the A320, which connects to the
M25 to Woking's north near
Chertsey and to the
A3 to its south at
Guildford. The A320 is frequently very congested at peak hours. The
Basingstoke Canal passes through Woking.
Woking has a
non-league football club,
Woking F.C., that competes in the
Nationwide Conference (tier 5). The origin of the club's
nickname, the "Cards", is disputed. One attractive proposal is that the name was acquired because Cardinal
Thomas Wolsey, after whom the smaller of the two shopping centres is named, was staying with
King Henry VIII at Woking Palace (the remains of which can be seen near the
River Wey at Old Woking) when he heard he had been made a
cardinal by
Pope Leo X in 1515. A more prosaic alternative is that the Cards are so named because of the
cardinal red in one half of their home strip.
Woking has a
rugby union club
[Woking RFC] that competes in Surrey league 4 (tier 9).
Woking has a
hockey club.
[Woking Hockey Club] The women's first XI compete in the English Hockey League Women's League 1 (tier 2); the men's first XI compete in a regional league. The club has two
AstroTurf pitches at a clubhouse based in
Goldsworth Park.
The
McLaren Formula One motor racing team is based near to the town.
Infant and junior schools in the area include: Goldsworth Primary School, Knaphill Junior School, Knaphill Lower School, Horsell CofE Aided Junior School, Horsell Village School, St. Dunstan's Catholic Primary School, The Hermitage Junior School and The Oaktree School.
Secondary schools in the area include:
Bishop David Brown School ,
St. John the Baptist School,
The Winston Churchill School, and
Woking High School.
Woking College is located in Old Woking and provides post-16 education. Other colleges situated near to Woking include
Brooklands College,
Farnborough Sixth Form College,
Godalming College and
Guildford College.
|
Sculpture of a Wellsian Martian Tripod. |
Woking was home to
author H.G. Wells, who had the
Martians in
The War of the Worlds land on
Horsell Common, close to the town centre. There is a large sculpture of a (Wellsian)
Martian Fighting Machine in the town centre commemorating Woking's fictional destruction. There is also, inexplicably, a
Hawker Hunter jet fighter, painted silver and mounted on a pole roughly 10 metres tall.
The Jam are from Woking, and its singer/songwriter
Paul Weller (who later, together with
Mick Talbot, formed the
The Style Council) was born there in 1958. Weller's 1995 solo album,
Stanley Road, is named after the street in which he lived.
[Map with Stanley Road indicated]Other notable people who were born in Woking include:
*
Ron Dennis, team principal of the
McLaren Formula One team, 1947
*
Susie Dent, a
lexicographer and the dictionary expert on
Countdown, 1964
*
Harry Hill,
comedian, 1964
*
Sean Lock,
comedian, 1963
*
Liz Lynne,
Liberal Democrat politician, 1948
*
Rick Parfitt, guitarist for
Status Quo, 1948
*
Douglas Pearce,
musician behind
Death in June, 1956
*
Delia Smith,
celebrity chef, 1941
*
Rastatt in
Germany*
Amstelveen in
Netherlands*
Le Plessis-Robinson in
France*
Goldsworth Park estate, Woking*
Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom*
A map of central Woking, and how to get here by road and rail*
Woking*
Woking FC*
Woking RFC*
Woking History Links*
Woking College Homepage - Sixth Form College*
Window on Woking: community organisations and Councillors' sites*
Woking Hockey Club*
Woking Green Initiatives*
The River Wey and Wey Navigations Community Site*
Woking to teach London to be a world leader in tackling climate change*
Woking wins the Queen's Award for Enterprise for community energy systems
