Kingston The growth of London through transport Map of London’s boroughs 10 The map shows the current boundaries of London’s Key boroughs. The content of 2 1 Barking 17 Hillingdon this album relates to the & Dagenham 15 31 18 Hounslow area highlighted on the map. 14 26 2 Barnet 16 19 Islington This album is one of a 3 Bexley 20 Kensington series looking at London 17 4 6 12 19 4 Brent & Chelsea boroughs and their transport 1 25 stories from 1800 to the 5 Bromley 21 Kingston 9 30 present day. 33 7 6 Camden 22 Lambeth 23 Lewisham 7 City of London 13 20 28 8 Croydon 24 Merton 18 11 3 9 Ealing 25 Newham 22 32 23 26 Redbridge 27 10 Enfield 11 Greenwich 27 Richmond 28 Southwark 24 12 Hackney 29 Sutton Kingston 13 Hammersmith 21 5 & Fulham 30 Tower Hamlets 29 8 14 Haringey 31 Waltham Forest 15 Harrow 32 Wandsworth 16 Havering 33 Westminster A3 RICHMOND RIVER A307 THAMES ROAD KINGSTON A308 UPON Kingston Hill THAMES * * Kings Road Kingston A238 Turks Pier Norbiton * * Bentalls A3 * Market Place NEW * Cambridge* A2043 Road MALDEN Estates New Malden A307 Kingston Bridge Berrylands KINGSTON SURBITON RIVER THAMES UPON KINGSTON BY PASS THAMES Surbiton A240 A3 Malden Beresford Avenue* Manor Worcester Park A243 A309 A240 A3 Tolworth Haycroft* Estate HOOK A3 0 miles ½ 1 Manseld* Chessington Road North 0 kilometres 1 Chessington South A243 A3 A243 * RBK. marked are at theLocalHistoryRoom page. 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Asterisks indicate a 1 Timelines World events Local stories 1800– 49 1825 Opening of the world’s first steam-powered passenger 1828 New stone bridge at Kingston opens to deal with railway, the Stockton & Darlington, UK increase in horse-drawn traffic 1838 Slavery abolished throughout British Empire 1838 First ‘Kingston’ railway station opens at Surbiton, on the London to Southampton line 1850– 99 1861 Start of American Civil War (ends 1865) 1863 Railway station opens in Kingston town centre 1863 Opening of world’s first underground passenger railway, 1870 Kingston Bridge declared toll free, helping the movement of London, UK local traffic 1900– 49 1912 Ocean liner RMS Titanic sinks after hitting an iceberg 1927 Kingston bypass opens, easing local traffic congestion 1947 India gains independence from Britain. Country is partitioned 1931 London’s first trolleybus service starts in Kingston into India and Pakistan 1950– 99 1969 American Neil Armstrong becomes first person to walk on 1962 London’s last trolleybus service runs in Kingston the moon 1989 One-way road system introduced in Kingston to ease 1994 Channel Tunnel opens linking Britain to European mainland congestion and direct traffic away from town centre for first time 2000 onwards 2001 World Trade Centre in New York destroyed in terrorist attack 2001 Kingston Bridge is widened and strengthened to cope 2005 London is awarded the Olympic and Paralympic Games with increased traffic for 2012 2007 Council plans to run Park & Ride scheme all year round 2 Image of Titanic courtesy of Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Kingston’s transport story Kingston has been an important market town for centuries. Until 1729 Kingston Bridge was the only fixed crossing point on the Thames upstream from London Bridge. It was Surbiton or ‘Kingston- on-Railway’, rather than Kingston itself, that received the first railway station in 1838. Houses quickly sprang up and the suburb grew. In the 20th century, Kingston suffered from growing traffic congestion. The 1927 bypass helped, but traffic problems continued as Kingston grew in popularity as a shopping area. Postcard of Kingston Market Place, c1900. RBK 3 The age of the stagecoach Kingston was a busy stagecoach town in the 19th century. Several coaching inns, such as The Sun and The Griffin, were located in Kingston’s Market Place. Some survive today as shops. In 1828, Kingston Bridge was widened and rebuilt in stone to accommodate growing traffic. Anyone crossing it now had to pay a charge or ‘toll’. People went to great lengths to avoid paying, even walking across the frozen Thames in winter. Kingston Market Place by Thomas Rowlandson, c1800. RBK Drawing of old wooden and new stone bridge, c1828. RBK 4 Surbiton – London’s first railway suburb In 1834 the London & Southampton Railway Company proposed a railway route which bypassed Kingston. It was nearby Surbiton, not much more than a country hamlet, which became London’s first railway suburb in 1838. Originally called Kingston station, the station was rebuilt in 1840 on land given by Thomas Pooley, a local housing developer who went bankrupt in 1842. Kingston station was renamed Surbiton in 1863. Surbiton was known as ‘Kingston-on-Railway’. By the 1880s the population had reached 5000. Bird’s-eye view of Surbiton’s early genteel development, c1875. RBK Surbiton station, c1905. A horse bus waits outside the station, which had been rebuilt in 1840. RBK 5 Kingston joins the railway boom In 1863 the London & South Western Railway opened a branch line from Waterloo to Kingston via Twickenham. Services from Kingston were infrequent, slow and expensive compared with the Surbiton service. The bus was cheaper. As the Surrey Comet commented in 1863, ‘no one would think of paying 9d to Richmond when the omnibus serves to take them there for 6d’. In 1869 the ‘Kingston loop’ opened from Kingston to Wimbledon via the new suburbs of New Malden and Norbiton. Commuters at New Malden station, c1908. RBK First Kingston station, opened in 1863. RBK 6 The heyday of the horse In the 19th century, stagecoach services ran to and from London. They provided services between stations and aligned their timetables with those of the railways. From the 1840s horse buses and cabs competed for trade between the new railway station in Surbiton and Kingston town centre. Horse bus services also competed directly with the railway companies. The Griffin Hotel in Kingston’s Market Place ran its own bus service to and from Surbiton station. Horse bus on the Kingston to Richmond route, Kingston Market, c1912. RBK Thomas Tilling Richmond and Kingston horse bus livery, c1910. 2003/10200 7 Messing about on the river River traffic in Kingston increased as it became fashionable to enjoy day trips aboard pleasure boats. One famous local family, the Turks, have built and hired out boats in Kingston since 1777. Today, the Turks still run many of the borough’s pleasure boat services. Pleasure steamer on the Thames at Kingston, c1925. RBK Turks’ boatyard, c1930. RBK 8 The bridge is free! Kingston Bridge was finally made toll free in 1870. The borough’s residents celebrated with a grand procession, a firework display and the burning of the old toll-gates on Hampton Green. The lifting of the toll at such a strategic river crossing was crucial in the development of Kingston’s transport connections. Kingston Bridge becomes toll free, 1870. RBK 9 Tram trouble ‘I can remember that if you weren’t very careful walking over Kingston Bridge, a tram knocked you over. They were so close to the kerb.’ Kingston’s trams were Ernest Bright recalls the trams in 1914. delayed by a bitter battle for RBK interview, 1987 control between Kingston Corporation and London United Tramways (LUT), which LUT won. When LUT introduced electric trams to Kingston, the benefits included cheap fares, street lighting and wider roads. At the opening ceremony in 1906, Mayor Henry Minnitt drove Kingston’s first tram across the bridge. On the return journey down Kingston Hill, the tram collided with two brewery wagons, injuring LUT’s Managing Director, James Clifton Robinson. Kingston’s first tram, 1906. Beside the Mayor is Lewis Bruce. He was a senior LUT motorman and personal driver to Robinson, who stands in front of the tram. 1998/85000 10 First and last with the trolleybus In 1931, LUT introduced London’s first trolleybuses over 27km (17 miles) of former tram routes. They needed new overhead wiring, but could use the trams’ power supply. By the 1950s diesel buses proved more economical than trolleybuses. London’s last trolleybus service ran between Kingston and Twickenham on 8 May 1962. The driver was 70-year-old Albert West, Fulwell depot’s oldest driver. Poster by F Gregory Brown, 1933. 2000/9518 A ‘Diddler’ trolleybus, Kingston town centre, 1934. 2004/12344 Ron Hadland was London’s first trolleybus conductor in 1931. Picked for his immaculate uniform, Hadland was also aboard the last service in 1962. London Transport Magazine, 1960. 2007/8670 11 Growth of the suburbs In 1800, Kingston was a small town centred around Kingston Market Place. During the 19th and 20th centuries, growing rail and road transport links attracted new housing development. Kingston’s population grew dramatically in the 20th century. The first council estate was built in 1921 on Cambridge Road. Private estates followed along Richmond Road in the 1930s. Post-war estates such as Mansfield Road were built on sites cleared by prisoners of war. Beresford Avenue, Tolworth, c1930. The estate is typical of those built between the two world wars. RBK Haycroft Estate, Surbiton, c1930. RBK 12 Kingston at war On 16 August 1940, German planes attacked New Malden station with machine guns and bombs as a train was pulling in. Eighty people were killed and 1300 homes damaged by the assault. During both world wars, the HG Hawker Engineering factory in Kingston employed hundreds of local people, most of them women, to work round the clock making parts for military aircraft.