Riverside - south bank west of the Tower. Egham Hythe

Riverside - south bank west of the Tower. Egham Hythe

This posting includes sites south of the river only. North of the River is Lammas Lands


Post to the east Egham Staines Hythe and Staines
Post to the north Yeoveney
Post to the west Egham


Church Island
Church Island. This is above Staines Bridge, is inhabited and is thought to have been the site of a Roman Bridge across the Thames. It is connected by a footbridge to Church Street, Staines


Egham Hythe
The area covered by this square is partly that of a settlement known as Egham Hythe. It was a small area between the boundaries of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex and the Thames which was part of the holdings of Chertsey Abbey. In time all the open spaces of the area were taken up by gravel workings in time replaced by factories – resulting in a large increase in population.


Hawthorn Road
Runneymede House. Royal Mail Delivery Office
DataServe Warehouse. Computer Sales
Hawthorn House. 1980s offices and warehouse


Hollyhock Island
Small uninhabited island in the channel between Holm Island and the north bank,


Holm Island
Long, narrow, inhabited island near the north bank of the Thames. It has a house called the Nest apparently used by Wallis Simpson in the 1930s.


Hythe Park
Park opened in 2009. It has two play areas - one for toddlers and one for older children, a multi-use ball court and wet/dry wildlife area. An outdoor gym was installed in 2014.


Gordon Road
Acton Bright Steels. Steel stockholding warehouse. Established in 1956

Kingsbury Crescent
Waterman’s Business Park
Lotus Business Park.


Lovett Road
Gartner. Lovett House. Information and technology advisory service. Founded in 1979, with a head quarters in Connecticut
Celsur Plastics – office stationary company founded in 1960
Lansdale.  Established in 1985, Lansdale began by manufacturing Pewter Tankards and Presentation Pieces and now manufacture to the British military and others with outdoor survival equipment
Orbis – office building on the site of an old covered reservoir which went out of use in 1996
Orbis 2 British Gas


New Road
Evangelical Church. This appears to date from the 1950s and also appears to be boarded up and closed.
Railway Bridge. The road crosses the railway by a metal footbridge.


River Park Avenue
Coal post on the south bank of the river at the end of the road
Electricity sub-station


Rochester Road
St. John of Rochester. Roman Catholic Church. The church dates from the early 1960s.


The Causeway
Built in the middle ages as a roadway but also as a flood barrier.  It appears to have been built by a private individual and thereafter responsibility for maintenance proved a problem.  It is raised about a metre about basic ground level. A stone circle is said to have stood at the east end - although this has been subject to some discussion.
3 Ship Inn. Now demolished.
Sainsbury’s Supermarket. On the site of the Lagonda works
Lagonda Works. Lagonda made motorcycles and cars and became known for their luxury cars. It was begun by American Wilbur Gunn who married a Constance Gray and used their greenhouse to make small steam engines for riverboats. In 1898 he made a petrol engine for his bicycle.  The company expanded in the grounds of their home. In 1905 they produced a three-wheeled car, and then four wheeled cars. In the Great War women workers made munitions here. In 1935 a Staines made car won at Le Mans. The company went into receivership, and was taken over by Alan Good as LG Motors. In 1948 David Brown bought the company and merged it with Aston Martin moving work to Feltham.
Petters. They took over the Lagonda Staines factory. They made small diesel engines and had originated in Yeovil in 1896.  They left and the site was sold in 1989.
Waterman’s Business Park – new build offices. This may be the site of a stream or of a small docking area for river craft or Biffin’s boathouse
Bailey Bridge. This was erected in 1939 from Egham to Staines and left Egham from the site which is now the Waterman's Business centre. It was built to carry extra troop traffic across the Thames and was a Callender-Hamilton 'Bailey' bridge . It was changed to pedestrian only in 1947 and demolished in 1959.
Lotus Park - more offices
British Gas. There are a number of large office buildings in the Causeway and adjacent streets which make up the British Gas Headquarters buildings. British Gas is now a division of Centrica.
55 Halfway House Pub. Now demolished.
Staines and Egham Gas Works. Thus was originally set up as the Staines and Egham Gas Light & Coke Co. in 1833 later becoming Statutory in 1871.  It was taken over by the Brentford Gas Co. in 1915 and then by The Gas Light and Coke Co. in 1926. It was nationalised as part of the North Thames Gas Board in 1949. It was extensively modernised with conversions to the retort house in 1916. In 1927 the first M.A.N. Waterless Gasholder in the Gas Light and Coke’s area was erected here with 1,500,000 cubic foot  capacity designed by Thomas Hardie,. In 1952 a grid pumping station and a new 2,000,000 cubic foot holder  were installed. The works was closed in 1955 and dismantled in 1956, but the gasholders and pumping station remained in use. Closed in the 1960s.  The dry gasholder was demolished in 1985. The remaining holder has since been demolished although it was apparently extant in 1990.
Staines and Egham Electric Company Power Station 1904. This was a private company who got Board of Trade consent for a diesel driven generating station here in 1911 and it was later opened by the Lord Mayor of London.  By 1919 they were supplying lighting in the High Street and other lamps were being converted to electricity. The works was Demolished 1986
North Surrey Water Company Waterworks.  In 1880 it was expanded and modernised as the Staines Joint and Metropolitan Water Board pumping station. This is now owned and operated by Affinity which serves a population equivalent of 500,000 in a geographical area covering south west London and north Surrey, drawing its water directly from the Thames.  It was previously Three Valleys Water, which became Veolia, taken over by Morgan Stanley which now calls it Affinity. A number of old company office blocks on site are still in use but reservoir sites are in other use.


Thorpe Road
Level Crossing. This carries trains on the Waterloo Reading line of South West trains – and is the cause of much local complaint,
Sunshine Hut, This was two wooden huts used by the Girl Guides centre, a Men's Club, the Church Lads' Brigade, and the Sunshine Club. Medical and dental clinics were run here by the County Council. Replaced by the church hall in 1957,
St.Paul's church. By the 1920s the settlement here was growing and in 1919-20 land was acquired and the Vicar of Egham started conducting services in what was called the Sunshine Hut  renaming it St. Paul's Mission Hall. In 1929 a new Church Building Committee was formed and an Appeal for Funds was launched – a major contributor was Mr. Budgen, the grocer. The Foundation Stone was laid in 1930, and the church opened in 1931 designed by John and Paul Coleridge. In 1936 Mr Budgen donated an organ,
Hythe Primary School.  The school originated from 1884 with two separate single-sex schools. In 1969 they became a First School and Middle School and later, in 1985, amalgamated to become Hythe First and Middle School. In 1993 it became a Primary School. In 1996 the original 19th were closed and eventually redeveloped into housing as the Old School Mews. New buildings were constructed to the south and are still in use today. Some parts of the old school are now a nursery and a Children Centre
The Hythe Centre. Local authority community centre


Wendover Road
Wendover Road Methodist chapel. This appears to date from the 1950s.


Wood Haw
Housing on the site of a house, converted to riding stables in the 1930s and later sold.

Sources
Acton Bright Steels. Web site
Affinity Web site
British Listed Buildings. Web site
CELSUR. Web site
Coalposts. Web site
Crocker. Industrial Archaeology of Surrey
Egham Catholic parish, web site
Electrical Times.
Gartner. Web site
Hythe Community Primary School. Web site
Lansdale. Web site
Meadows Gardens. Web site
Runneymede Council. Web site
Stewart. Gas Works of the North Thames area
St.Paul’s Church, Egham. Web site
Surrey Industrial Archaeology
Surrey Industrial Past. Web site
Walford. Village London
Wendover Road Methodist chapel. Web use
Wikipedia. As appropriate