Distant Day Out - Surbiton, Thames Ditton, and Hampton Court

This is yet another post I never got round to writing due to writer's block. It also doubles as an OPZ post, and I know how much you love me writing about random places just outside London.

Surbiton

I don't have much to say, other than I started my trip here. Surbiton is a suburb just south of Kingston, and came about as part of a railway quirk. You see, some railway people wanted to build a line from Waterloo to Southampton via Kingston, but the council refused because they worried the coaching trade would be impacted. So the railway people decided to build a station by Surbiton instead, which at the time was basically unremarkable farmland. It opened in 1838, and they called the station Kingston-upon-Railway, somehow doing so with a straight face, but by 1869 the name changed to Surbiton. People started moving to the area, and Surbiton expanded into a town, home to about 45,000 people today.

 

The station looks nice. It's art deco style, and is Grade II listed. In hindsight I have no idea what the railway people were thinking, building a station as grand as this in 1830s Surbiton, but in retrospect they were cooking.

Walking

I quickly left Surbiton because I doubted I would get much of a post out of it. Indeed, I only came because I wanted to blog about the borough Kingston at some point, and this checked all the boxes. 

If I ever find the urge to blog about south London again, I promise I'll visit Kingston and give it the post it deserves.

Walking along the main road, there wasn't really anything to see. There are some halls of residence from the local Kingston University, as well as these barren pits which I can't find anything on with a quick Google search. I'm thinking they must have belonged to a boating company, because they're marked as pools of water on OpenStreetMap, but otherwise I have no idea. Either way it's all eerie and industrial, what with the odd bit of graffiti on the buildings around here. All a bit dystopian in my opinion.

Desolate pits

Yet it doesn't take long to leave London and enter Surrey. The border's in the middle of the road, the only main indication being this sign here. I'm not sure why Surrey felt the need to advertise themselves as the county that hosted the cycling at the 2012 Olympics - does anyone even remember that? 

  

(Okay in hindsight it looks like Great Britain won eight golds in cycling that year, so maybe it's not that forgettable.)

 

Walking down some side roads, you can reach the Thames and see it in its glory - clear water and only tainted by a few boats here and there. It's wonderful to walk next to it, especially when the weather's not bad and you get to take some excellent photos. Luckily for me, I went on this trip on a lovely September day, so all the stars did align for me.

   

Thames Ditton, and how it all fell apart

The only issue with this walk is that you don't really get to see the Thames lots of the time. I think this was another reason for me abandoning this specific post - there really wasn't much to talk about. At one point I did reach a pub with its own footbridge, thinking I could maybe walk along the Thames for a bit, but it wasn't open to the public beyond a small bit. So instead, I got to walk through Thames Ditton, which isn't the most interesting place ever.

Thames Ditton

Those with a passing interest in the outskirts of London might be aware of Long Ditton. The two are related - Thames and Long used to be part of the Saxon parish called...Ditton. Thames Ditton was the section alongside the Thames, Long Ditton meanwhile was more inland and next to Ditton Hill. However, come the time of the Domesday Book, Thames and Long came under separate ownerships; Thames Ditton is today home to about 10,000 people, and makes for a quaint village, albeit otherwise unremarkable. Its history from the time of the Normans, when it was part of the Bishop of Bayreux's land, to today isn't particularly fascinating either.

 

(As to why I mentioned this, well I kinda found it interesting how there are two Dittons that are also quite far apart.)

Maybe I'm biased because the walk was really tedious. Despite what you may think about me, I don't enjoy walking around identikit suburban roads for ages, especially when I came for a leisurely stroll along the Thames. Google Maps told me there was no path to be found, and it looks like the Thames Path takes a route along the northern bank, through the lands of Hampton Court. Alternatively, I might just be stupid and haven't found the necessary path indicated in this Diamond Geezer post. 

Hampton Court

Either way, I soon got to the end of the walk and emerged onto an even bigger road. The railways ran to one side, and finally I managed to see a river! Better still, there were two!

   

This is the River Ember, which forks off from the Thames by Hampton Court. But not long after it splits off does it do so again - one channel flows as the Ember; the other is the River Mole. Weirdly enough, the Ember only lasts until a camping site by Walton-on-Thames before rejoining the Mole, and the two flow as one channel, albeit under the name Mole. The Mole flows through much of pictureseque Surrey, before ending by Gatwick. 

Not much further up the road is Hampton Court station, which marks the end of a very short railway line running from Surbiton. It opened in 1849, directly related to the opening of the nearby Hampton Court Palace to the public back in 1838. 

And then I finally met the Thames again, flowing under the wonderful Hampton Court Bridge. This is the western-most crossing of the Thames in London - on the other side you have the borough of Richmond - and has stood here in various forms since 1753. Initially, it was a privately-owned bridge, but now we're on the fourth iteration, which has stood here since 1933. 

   

Back in London

Crossing over the bridge, you end up in Hampton. Hampton Court Park can be found here - a large open green space - as well as Hampton Court Palace, which is the main attraction in the area. The palace dates back to the Tudor years; initially a residence for Cardinal Wolsey, the chief minister for King Henry VIII, Wolsey later gave the palace to Henry due to them having a falling out. Wolsey did this to stop Henry hating him, but Henry killed him in 1530 anyways.

Successive monarchs took up residence here, up to George II in the late 1700s; as I mentioned earlier, the palace was later opened up to the public. This also means the public can access the Hampton Court Maze - the oldest hedge maze still around in the UK - as well as the palace gardens and much more; an adult ticket costs £28 if you're willing to cough up some cash. 

I didn't go to the palace, especially as I came here spontaneously. However I have completed the maze before - it was about a decade ago, and I found it very underwhelming. Crystal Palace has the far better maze, and it's all free. Hell, the maze here is so celebrated you even have a solution on Wikipedia.

Epilogue

I didn't hang around for long, catching the next bus to Kingston and eventually getting home. On paper, I reckon a post about Hampton Court should be amongst my best, in fact any post with a walk along the Thames combined with random railway history sounds like the set-up to an AO2a classic.

Unfortunately, it wasn't to be; what I wrote up didn't even work as an OPZ post really, because there was hardly anything of great note outside of London. Perhaps I should have planned my trip better, indeed that's a common theme in all these writer's block posts - even if I did get them written up at the time, I doubt I'd be proud of them.

I do hope to visit the palace at some point, though. I don't actually remember being inside the palace, just the maze. I'd love to see the art there, it must be a treat.