Epsom

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Alexandra Road

Cottage hospital opened 1889 and was a voluntary hospital until 1889.  In 1988 it became a group practice and the hospital moved.  Since 1994 a day care surgical unit.

Burgh Heath Road

Chalk Pit Now a private garden.

Church Street

18 late 17th with Victorian Porch. From 1755 until recently used as the Vicarage.

20 early 19th

24 early 18th

4 Capitol Cinema/Granada.  In an art deco style, the theatre first opened for business in 1929 as The Capitol, showing sound films to an audience of 1,500. It was also used for stage performances, including popular variety and radio entertainers on Sunday nights. There was a cafe and restaurant. In 1947 it became The Granada. The early sound system was replaced, and was eventually closed in September 1960. It was demolished and rebuilt, and became a carpet store.

Bromley Hurst, large house where the council met in the early 20th

Charity school built here in 1693 and in 1811 became a National School.

Congregational Church. Slightly bow fronted upper room. 1963.

Ebbisham House. Built 1722 by William Woodford.  Wings added early 20th

Epsom Technical Institute. Next door to the public hall.  Terracotta building paid for by public subscription.  Taken over by Surrey County Council. In 1921 it became the Epsom County School for Boys.

Fire Station. 1937 nice modern

Epsom Council Electricity Offices and Showroom in other use.   Designed in the art deco style by Williams, Pettet & Gardner of Epsom and built by Sloggetts of Hampton Hill, the building was opened on 10 July 1937 by Mrs. J Underhill, wife of the Chairman of the Council who was a member of the Electricity Committee. The building catered for offices, and provided display and demonstration areas for the Undertaking's wares and services.

High School for Young Ladies.  1897. 

Horse troughs were once located at the junction of High Street, Church Street and East Street, but have now gone. Horse troughs were supplied by such as the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattletrough Association, they pro- vided accessible sources of fresh drinking water for horses, cattle, smaller animals and humans.

Pacden's Brewery Site. Robert and Frederic Pagden had their brewery, premises   Stone House and St Martins church, possibly occupied from the early 19th century. The brewery was mostly demolished in 1922, but part of the building remains as Church House. The firm had other premises at 93 High Street, which may have beer a retail outlet or offices.

Pitt Place.  Once a farmhouse on the edge of a chalk pit became a mansion in 1770. A 17th/18th century house to the south of St. Martin's church was the home of Mr. Belchier who entertained Wesley in August 1759. Traces of the chalk-pit from which he made the garden, which Wesley admired, are still visible behind the flats, which now occupy the site. Lord Lyttleton there who was profligate and died following a dream which said he would 1783 and his son 1779.  Mrs. Fitzherbert's stone lions from Nonsuch.   Brick wall still there but with Luxury flats in the centre.  South east corner of the garden is a tunnel which goes under Pitt Road and goes across it to a cottage.  Also Another tunnel and a badger house.  Whereabouts of bits and pieces not known. Scandalously demolished 1967.  The double entrance to the ice house remains in the rear of the grounds.

St.Martin.  Medieval church built on the site of a Saxon predecessor.  15th tower, rebuilt 1825 and 1908.  Composite style in Commissioners’ Gothic. Incongruous font from 1460.  Vinegar Bible.  Spanish chest, which could have come from Nonsuch.  Monuments: war memorial. Roman Stane Street passed nearby the church in a southwest direction.  A lot of money was spent on expansion in the early 20th but never really finished. Spire was taken down after a storm in 1947.

128-129 The Cedars. Impressive early Georgian. Two splendid cedars, which were blown down in 1987.  There are two fire insurance marks. One is from the Sun Fire Office bearing the policy number 357323, and the other from The Westminster Insurance Office (1717-1906) with the number 26218.   Originally owned by the Mysters and their coat of arms is on it.

Public Hall/Picture Palladium. This occupied the comer site at the junction of Upper High Street) and Church Street. Opened in 1883, the Public Hall and Club provided the venue for meetings, lectures, stage entertainments, concerts and kinematograph displays. During the early part of the First World War it was occupied by the military authorities as a recruiting centre. Following a period of relative inactivity it was refurbished in 19 16 to become The Picture Palladium. A sound system was introduced in 1929, but the theatre closed its doors in mid-1930 and was demolished in 1934 to make way for the development of the Quadrant Parade.

The Quadrant shops

Old King’s Head. mid 17th pub

Clayton Road

The Railway Cottages for railway workers

Copse Edge Avenue

Estate built here in the early 1930s.

Depot Road

Generating Station owned by the Urban District of Epsom and Ewell.  This began work on 5 February 1902, to provide a direct current supply with a capacity of 110 kilowatts. In 1904 a Bellis & Morcom compound steam set, was added and in 1906 a Browett & Lindley triple expansion set.  In 1913 Diesel power was used and supplied pumps in the Council's Water Department. In 1930 a 33 bulk supply was set up through the London and Home Counties Joint Electricity Authority at Croydon power station, with the Epsom plant being retained for stand-by. Demands made by the growing housing estates and the need to renew ageing supply mains, led to the conversion to an ac system in the 1930s.  Everything had gone from Depot Road by 1954 although the Corporation retained control until Nationalisation in 1948. Most of the site was demolished in the 1960s.

Dorling's Printworks.  William Dorling was a printer in Bexhill, which he left in 1821 to establish his flourishing printing business in Epsom, first in Upper High Street and later at other premises including Depot Road where the company operated for many years until closure in 1979. Among the company's varied products were the well-known race cards entitled 'Dorling's List of Epsom Races'.  These were printed on a flat bed Albion press made by John Richardson of Fleet Lane, London, and which is now in Bourne Hall Museum.

Downside

Ladies’ College.  1890s

Downs Road

Chalk Pit. Now the Elizabeth Welchman Garden, having been bequeathed to the Borough by that lady on her death in 1906.

East Street

Electrical Theatre Cinema. This was on the corner of Hook Road and East Street, and opened at the end of 1910 as The Electric Theatre, showing silent films with piano accompaniment until about 1923-24. It reopened in 1926, and continued as the Pavilion Theatre, presenting stage productions until closure in 1929. The building was partially destroyed by fire, was partly used as a cafe, and survived the Second World War and was demolished in 1953.

Artesian well sunk in 1853.

 

Pitt Road

The Grove

The Grove House.  Late 18th house. 

The Parade

County Court built 1938

Upper High Street

Was called Station Road

34 First Post Office Exchange, opened in 1905.  It was originally a manual exchange but converted to automatic operation on 18 May 1912 by the Automatic Electric Company of Chicago – first in the country. The site has been redeveloped.

Epsom Town Station Site In 1844 the London and Croydon Railway Company (L&CR) decided that an atmospheric railway should be built between London and West Sutton, with an extension to Epsom. The system proved to be unworkable and trains were locomotive- hauled when, following a merger in I 846, the line to Epsom opened in 1847 as part of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway (LB&SCR). The first station to be built in Epsom was Epsom Town, where there were goods sidings, engine sheds and a turntable, together with a branch siding to Nonsuch brickworks in East Street. The station closed in 1929, however some of the original station buildings may still be seen behind the shops at numbers 47 - 57. A housing development now occupies the site of the goods yard.


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