The Development of Woking over the Decades.

Woking is a commuter town with a train journey of about 30 mins. Compared with other towns in the region, Woking has continued to grow.

Other than being a commuter town in Surrey, Woking is well known for a number of things.

McLaren F1 Racing – the home of the F1 motor racing team

McLaren Automotive – the manufacturer of McLaren Road Cars

The head office of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

The 1st Mosque in the UK – Shah Jahan Mosque built by a British Orientalist GW Leitner

The homes of

HG Wells – the famous novelist whose writings include – The Invisible Man, The Wars of the World

Sir Alec Bedser – regarded as one of the best English Cricketers in the 20th Century

Paul Weller – singer-songwriter

Other commuter towns with the names starting with W

Sidebar:

There is a story in the newspapers a few decades ago.

There were a group of “City gents” as they were known, then formed the W club. They congregated in the bar of a train departing from Waterloo on a Friday evening going home. Every time the train passed a station with a W in the first letter, a round of whisky was made. They started with Waterloo, Wimbledon, Walton-on-Thames, Weybridge, West Byfleet and Woking.

They were pretty sloshed at the end of the journey!

When you compare Woking to the other W towns, Walton, Weybridge and West Byfleet, Woking is having continual development on a massive scale.

Let me go through some of the developments over time.

A. 1960s Woking was a collection of shops on the road like the Pizza Express mentioned in Prince Andrew’s interview in 2019.

B. 1970s.The development of Wolsey Place (shopping centre) and BAT Export House (Centre)

C. 1970s Albion House (now known as Spaces).

D. 1980s. The Peacocks Shopping centre

E. 1990s Residential tower blocks near the station (Eastgate, Centrium, The Exchange)

F. 2000s More residential tower blocks (Olympian Heights, Bradfield Close Complex, Deilamy Homes (serviced apartments)

G. 2010s– The refurbishment of Central Woking and Harrington Place (above - residential apartments), together with The Premier Inn, Travel Lodge and DoubleTree Hotels.

H. The 2020s – The development of Victoria Square (2 residential tower blocks 34 and 37 storeys), The Marches (2 residential tower blocks 30 and 34 storeys) and the Hilton Hotel (23 storeys - 189 rooms)

I. Goldsworth Road Development by Property Developer Ecoworld has received planning permission  –3 tower blocks with tallest at 34 storeys high.

Why is it that development continues with Woking but not the other towns?

It cannot be solely because of the railways (only 30 min from Waterloo).

The easy access to the major roads – A3, M25 and M3

Easy access to two of London’s airports - Heathrow (30 minutes) and Gatwick (45 minutes)

Secondly, since 2010, there are have 3 hotels – Premier Inn, Travelodge and DoubleTree. The most significant development is the Hilton Hotel. This is a business hotel which indicates that there are sufficient business travellers to support the Hilton and the other 3 hotels. Then there is the Deilamy Home - serviced apartment for short and long term lets. 

Woking is becoming a significant business hub and a desirable residential area. 

So the question is, why is the development of Woking so much faster than other towns in Surrey? The Answer is in this link.