The London/Surrey border - Seething Wells

A square by square look at London
Tq 17 68

The London/Kingston/Surrey boundary comes northwards from the eastern edge of the Victoria Recreation Ground, crosses Balaclava Road and down Seething Well, goes through the works, crosses the Portsmouth Road, through more works and into the middle of the river, where it turns west upriver.

This post covers sites south of the river only. North of the river is Hampton Court Palace Golf Clubhouse

Post to the west Thames Ditton and Hampton Court Park
Post to the south Long Ditton
Post to the north Kingston Portsmouth Road  and Hampton Court Park Rick Pond

Sites on the London, Kingston side of the border

Balaclava Road
The name has clear associations with the Crimean War

Brighton Road
73 Lamb. Small one bar local pub. Gent’s toilet on the site of an old brewery.

Cadogan Road
Built by Woods in the 1850s. Land in Surbiton was owned by Henry Paget, Earl of Uxbridge who had fought a duel with the Earl of Cadogan following an elopement with Cadogan’s sister.

Catherine Road
Mid-19th development

Cottage Grove
Originally George Street but the name changed quite quickly to be clear what sort of class it was built for.
Electric Parade

Grove Road
Developed by William Woods

Maple Road
Was known as Terry’s Road until 1844 when the name was changed following scandals concerning Pooley’s finances. The road was developed to a reasonable standard when the water company laid their pipes and the Commissioners insisted on road improvements at the same time.
Site of Maple Farm, which was 150 acres of good land suitable for a gentleman farmer.
Claremont Hall is on the site of Maple Farmhouse, which was later known as Maple Lodge. In 1815 it was the home of Mr. Terry. In the late 1830s, after Terry’s death, it was bought by Thomas Pooley who, despite bumper crops from the farm, had houses being built within eighteen months. It became the home later of Thomas Brassey the railway contractor
Waggon and Horses
Oak Pub
St. Andrew. Built by A. W.Blomfield, 1871 in red brick. Has an almost separate tower. Stained Glass By Layers, Westlake & Co
Congregational Church. Built in 1865 with its predecessor nearby Built by James Wilson of Bath.

St Andrews Square
Tall ornamented terraces, which were never completed. They are built round a square developed by the firm of Corbett and McClymont before 1878

Portsmouth Road (some of these sites in Surrey)
Portsmouth Road was part of the turnpike road between London and Portsmouth. In the 18th it was lined with trees.
Seething Wells. Lambeth Water Works. Site 1849. This water works was one of the first to be built above Teddington Lock pre-dating the Metropolitan Water Act but actually opened in 1853. The inlets here sucked up too much mud from the Mole, Ember and Rythe and therefore the intake was moved to West Molesey. Which was filtered here. Their engineer was Sir James Simpson
Lambeth Uncovered Coal Store. Listed Grade II. Built 1851 developed by James Simpson with some minor 20th changes. A roughly rectangular unroofed enclosure with a hydraulic accumulator tower and underground tunnels, which connect to track under the main road to the riverside.
The Lodge designed by Simpson 1860 for Chelsea Water Works. One storey in stock bridge with a campanile tower, which is the ventilation shaft for a railway tunnel below which serves the coal store. Used by the porters for the students.
Chelsea coal store. By Simpson for Chelsea Water Works. Single storey with a square tower there is a tunnel under it to the coal wharf on the river.
Chelsea Fountain by Simpson ornamental and circular
Chelsea boundary wall. Built 1854. Stock brick capped with stone. Cast iron railings with lotus leaf designs on the uprights and pyramids on the horizontals.
Single storey building by the filter beds described as having merit.
Surbiton Water Works of the Chelsea Company. They moved up- stream from Chelsea in 1856 being the last company to do so. They originally had two reservoirs of 3 acres. Thefre were six engines since 1866 and seven filter beds in 1894 hydraulic machinery for coal handling, cottages. The neo-Norman pumping station buildings were by James Simpson and he, or James Taylor, designed the works on the slow sand filtration system featuring a network of tunnels, many with original plant still intact. These filter beds provided the perfect double-blind study for Dr Snow because they piped clean water to some of the homes in Lambeth while others in the same street had their provision from the river locally. The intake was moved, like Lambeth’s to West Molesey
Seething Wells development – the water works site has been developed as student accommodation for Kingston University
Ravensview Court. On the site of 51 St.Leonard’s Lodge. Home of Dr.Barnardo and where he died in 1905.
Palmyra Farm land was used for an extension to Chelsea Water Works in the 1870s
Ring Main Shaft. The London water ring main passes under this site about 45 metres underground. This was a construction site and there is an access shaft. The ring main connects to these shafts at a depth of 40m
Electricity Sub Station. Has merit
63 has merit
64 has merit
85 former Chelsea Water Works engineer’s house

Raven’s Ait
Training School Activity Centre. On the island in the Thames, a pleasant boathouse and club by Hubbard Ford & Partners, 1971-2. White-boarded upper floor, pitched roof of distinctive shape

Riverside
Westfield Ferry Boat House

Seething Wells Lane
Seething Wells. Named from a spring called the Seething-Well in 1719, from the word seething 'bubbling or foaming (as if boiling)'. The spring was thought therapeutic and was much visited in the 1700s and early 1800s but plans for a spa never took off. The spring was in a well house behind a Fox and Hounds pub
1-3 Dover Cottages. Has merit

Uxbridge Road
Built by developer Woods on the site of the grounds of Surbiton Hall.

Victoria Road
Was originally called Alexander Road after Thomas Pooley’s son until 1844 when the name was changed following scandals concerning Pooley’s finances.

Westfield Road
Houses built in the early 1850s with no drains or water supply.

These notes have been compliled over many years and from many sources. I would however like to specially note June Sampson's All Change and notes about London's waterworks by members of GLIAS.
Sampson  The Kingston Book

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