Riverside west of the Tower, south bank. Egham

Riverside west of the Tower, south bank. Egham


Post to the east Egham Hythe and Lammas Lands
Post to the north Wraysbury and Runneymede, Bell Weir
Post to the south Thorpe Lea



Band Lane
This narrow passageway leads to the Band Hall for the Egham Band.  Their address is however “Wasp Farm Car Park” – which appears to be parallel with Band Lane.
Band Hall. The Egham Band is a brass band based which began in the early 20th. They play at local events and give local concerts. They also have a Youth Band and a Training Band.

Crown Street
Thames Water – small brick building owned by Thames Water. Assume that this is the successor to the Egham Urban District Council Pumping station and filter beds on site here in the 1930s


Egham By Pass
Built in 1925 and is part of the A30


Green Lane
Before the construction of the M25 Green Lane ran from The Avenue down through fields to the railway.  It was then cut off to a short road closed at both ends.  A tiny fragment of it also exists at the north end as the entry to the petrol station in The Avenue.


Herndon Close
This housing area was apparently built on the site of the Egham Urban District Council yard which itself was preceded by a small water works belonging to the council.


Heritage Court
This turning off Station Road leads to a large car park and appears to be connected to the mysterious ‘Wasp Farm’.
Virginia Lodge Day Centre. This building serves as a community hub for St John’s church.  It is the base for the church office and other staff teams. A number of youth and other activities are run from the centre and there is a food bank there.


High Street
The High Street is thought to run along the route of a branch of the London to Silchester Roman road. It became part of the main route from London via Staines to the south west and was an important staging post with many inns. Its use as a main route ceased with the construction of the bypass in the 1925.
109 Milestone encased in the garden wall. Dated 1743 it says it is 18 miles from Hyde Park Corner
115 The White Lion. This is shown on maps of 1883. There is an  Ushers' lettering on the pole sign; and earlier 'Courage' lettering can still be seen in the metalwork above. Also an oval wall plaque
Iscoeles Finance. This is yet another financial management and accountancy company in the building which was the Egham Police Station
1 Police station. The station was built at some point between 1935 and 1960. It was sold in 2016 and now houses a finance business. It was built on the site of Denham House. An earlier police station in Egham had been built in the early 1850s by the Surrey Constabulary
Denham House. This house appears to date from the mid-19th. It is named for Sir John Denham, father of the 17th poet, who founded almshouses in Egham. The poet had a house in Egham called “The Place”, demolished in the 19th. This had been the site of Imworth Manor which belonged to the Denham family and was to the west of the recently sold police station. The police station site itself may be the site of a moat which may be the remains of any even earlier manor.
Fire Station. A modern fire station here replaces an earlier fire station which appears also to have been part of the municipal offices. It is now described as a ‘community’ fire station.
85 Katharine House. This is used by Busy Bees Nurseries and by a telecommunications equipment firm. It is the site of the Katherine Wheel public house which was extant in the 17th as one of the principal inns locally. It served long-distance stage coaches, and trade tokens associated with the inn have survived. In 1898 the early 18th building was destroyed and it was rebuilt. The Hotel existed in 1992 and was redeveloped in 1996.
132a Egham and District Social Club. This was earlier the site of the Liberal club
Lych gate.  This is the 15th lych-gate to St John the Baptist from the old church. This had been the entrance porch of the north door in the old church. A plaque records that John Wesley passed this way and preached in 1744. The gate was put here in 1938. It had been for many years in the garden of a house in Bakeham Lane. It was restored again in 1986.
War memorial. This is outside the church. It is a cross on a plinth which said “To the glory of God and to the hallowed memory of those residents of this urban district who lost their lives in the world wars 1914 - 1918 1939 – 1945”
149 Royal Standard Pub. This pub was there in 1938 and has now been demolished
158 Oldridge’s Forge came here from Hummer Lane in 1881
United Church of Egham. This is a local union of the Methodist and the United Reformed Churches. It was formed in 1970 when Egham Hill Congregational Church and Egham Methodist Church combined together. The Methodist Church had been opened in 1880, in response to a growing membership.
46 The Old Bank. This is a branch of Barclays and has ‘Ashby’, the Staines brewers written over the door as well as : 'Established 1796' - 'The Old Bank' - 'Rebuilt 1896'. This might be explained by the owners of Ashby's Bank of Staines and Ashby's Staines Brewery being from the same family.
52 Red Lion. In the 18th and 19th this was a coaching inn with stabling for 70 horses. It has 16th origins and was attached to the Assembly Rooms in the late 18th.
Egham Museum. Established in 1968. This is in the Literary Institute and is volunteer run.
Literary Institute. In 1845 the Assembly Rooms were sold and became ‘The Literary Institute’ which houses Egham Museum. The Assembly Rooms began in the last decade of the 18th as part of the Red Lion pub. . It was used for entertainments like dancing, dining, card-playing, and theatricals, and also public business and club meetings, in 1805 a Reading Room was added. The Egham Literary and Scientific Institution was set up in 1846, and in 1854 the Assembly Rooms was sold and to the Institution. It had a wide variety of users and functions and in 1859 consideration was being given to the idea of establishing a small museum. The focal point of the Institute was however the Library and Reading Room
55-55a This was the Nags Head Inn which is recorded from 1689. The name is shown in the mosaic floor of its replacement building called White House development, , its licence was not renewed in 1915 and the premises was initially taken over by fishmongers.
Magna Carta fountain. With an interpretive plaque
Mosaic shields. Laid into the pavement here and elsewhere in the High Street representing the barons who dealt with King John
66 Hop Blossom pub. This pub was closed in the 1930s. It was a beer house catering for “the respectable working class”.
153 Savoy Cinema. This began as the Bohemia Cinema opened around 1922. It was re-named Savoy Cinema before 1944 and closed in the late-1950’s.
Gem Electric Theatre. This opened in 1910 designed by architect J. Wornell of Ludgate Hill. It had a very ornate facade, and seating in the auditorium was on a single floor. It operated until 1940.
Sculpture by David Parfitt showing King John sighing Magna Carta. This is on a traffic island and masked by planting. There is a plaque and some interpretive panels.
144 Kings Head. The pub which dated form at least the 18th was on the south side of the Street and later became the site of the Arndale Shopping Precinct.
159 Egham Constitutional Club.  Local members club established in 1893 in an 18th house


Hummer Road
In the 17th this was Little Humber Lane, connecting the High Street with the causeway and Runnymede.
Oldridge’s Forge started work here 1872, moving later to the High Street
The Old Bakery – there is said to have been a Royal Coat of Arms on this building.
Children’s nursery in building marked as ‘Meeting house’. This was originally a Friends Meeting House, and later used by the Plymouth Brethren.


Lovett Road
British Gas – huge office blocks


M25
The M25 carries up to 200,000 vehicles and 10,000 terrifying HGVs per day since its opening in the 1980s.
The Runnymede Interchange is where the M25 crosses the Thames along with the Staines Bypass. On the south side is the Runnymede Roundabout which opened in 1961 for the A30 crossing. In 1983, a new bridge opened for the anti-clockwise M25 and the original bridge is now used for the Clockwise M25 and eastbound A30. There are also two spurs for local traffic,
The M25 is carried over the Thames on Runnymede Bridge which is a motorway. It is also a road, pedestrian and cycle bridge built in the 1940s, 1980s and expanded in the 2000s for the motorway. The oldest part was designed by Edwin Lutyens and is a   single-span arch bridge built to carry the A30 as part of the Staines bypass. The New Runnymede Bridge on the eastern side was built in the 1980s and simply named the Runnymede Bridge. It too is a single arch bridge made of a series of parallel concrete frames which allow light to penetrate upwards underneath and transfer loads vertically to avoid disturbing the foundations of the older bridge.  In the early 21st it was widened to six lanes each way, to become the widest bridge in Britain.


Malt House Lane
This is one vast car park.
Runneymede malt house.  The Malt House dates from 1852 amend had been restored and converted into offices. There is an oast house type kiln at the west end of the building.
Model Railway Society. The club was started in 1965 with a site in Staines. The current site is in the huge car park which makes up Malthouse Lane. They have six layouts n the clubhouse. On the land behind the Clubhouse is a garden railway track base.


Manor Farm Lane
Manor Farm Day Care Centre. New build old people’s centre
Manor Farm. 16th farmhouse thought to be partly 14th. It is a timber framed building completely encased in brick originally an open hall with a chimney-stack inserted in the 16th and then refronted in 1822 and restored in the 20th. Inside there are decorated wooden beams and panels of painted plaster
St. John's Church.  The current church is on the site of a Saxon church and is on slightly higher ground that its surroundings.  There is a slab which explains how the previous church was built by John Rutherwyke Abbot of Chertsey in 1327 using timber beams from the Chertsey Abbey Estate. It was built for the tenants of the Abbey. The present church was built in 1817, and partly funded by George III. It is in the style of Soane by Henry Rhodes. In 1896 the box seating was replaced with pews and refurbished again in 1999. There are a number of important monuments and also sculptures by Flaxman.
Graveyard. There is a large graveyard with listed monuments.
Church Centre. The current Church Centre is being replaced.
Stewart and Budgen’s Almshouses. The history can be traced as far back as 1627. They were rebuilt in 1999.


Mead lake ditch
The ditch runs in this area between Vicarage Lane and Pooley Green Road


Pooley Green Road
Stewart and Budgen’s Almshouses. These have been rebuilt in 1925


School Lane
School. The parochial schools were built on Crown Land in 1870 out of Poor’s Allotment Fund. It was taken over by the School Board in 1884 and enlarged in 1895. It became the Manor County Primary School and closed in 1975 and was demolished. There is now housing on the site


Station Road
Before the railway was built in 1856 this was Gravel Pit Road b the name deriving from a local gravel pit. The road is now in two parts – a short Station Road North between the High Street and Church Road and a longer section south of Church Road.
Corn warehouse, possibly belonging to Walter Bosher, a coal and forage merchant who maintained a depot at Egham Station goods yard. Although no longer used as a corn warehouse some parts of the building appear to have lasted until the 1960s.
36 Centrum House. Intel. Regional office for massive US multinational technology company based in California. One of the world’s largest semiconductor chip makers, based on revenue. It also produces the microprocessors used in most personal computers supplying many other manufacturers. It was founded in 1968
40 Baja. This was The New Railway pub.  It also is/was called the Alma Mata. It has also been the ‘Tap and Spile” ands may originally have been The Railway Hotel.
Fourfront. The Old Post Office. This is a commercial interior specialist. The
Egham Station. The London and South-Western Railway reached Egham in 1856.  The station is managed by South West Trains and is on their line from Waterloo to Reading between Virginia Water and Staines Stations. A new station building was built by British Rail in 1985. The A goods yard supported a wide range of commercial traffic. Walter Bosher coal and forage merchant had a depot here in the 1890s.  Now used as the station car park.
Rail line spur. In the 1890s a rail link ran northwards from the goods yard to a corn warehouse in Station Road
Prince of Wales. Once owned by Meux’s brewery, this was described as a lodging house in 1892 catering for a “low class of people” It was built on a gravel pit,. The pub was demolished in the 1970s to make way for the new ring road
17 Optical and Mechanical Devices Co. This was reformed as in 1958 as Optical-Mechanical (Instruments) moving here from Staines. They made measuring instruments and gauges and marketed devices for Wray of Bromley.
Stewarts Almshouses. These relate to a bequest from a Mr. Stewart in 1840. The almshouses are shown as being next to the railway. The bequest is now part of the Stewart and Budgen Almshouse management with buildings in Pooley Green Road and Manor Farm Road


The Avenue
This was once part of the High Street.  At the end of the 19th century the Rural District Council, having been granted powers to name streets, defined The Avenue as a separate road planting flanking limes and horse chestnuts, illustrating the origin of the street name. The road was subsequently widened and raised to prevent flooding in an area prone to such inundations
19 Victoria Inn. This pub closed in 2009, the name having been changed to Iguana. It is now a burger bar.
Wesleyan Chapel. This was extant by 1824. In 1880a new chapel in the High Street replaced it.
Brewery. This is shown as disused by 1897.  It may have been owned by a Mr. Herbert
Baptist chapel. This was extant from the 1890s and seems to be the site of Runneymede Close
A factory is shown on 1930s maps on the north side of the road which appears to say ‘overalls’ or a similar word.
35 Coach and Horses Pub. This 17th pub was demolished for the construction of the M25


The Glanty
This piece of road is a continuation of the Causeway to the Runneymede Roundabout


The Arndale Precinct
Much of the centre of the town, in the area south of the High Street is taken up with the 1960s built Arndale Precinct. This shopping mall area has since been augmented by a Waitrose, Travelodge and other chains.

Vicarage Road
Grassroots Garden centre. Offering leisure and life skills for the special needs community.  Appears to be on the site of the old Vicarage, later a Civil Defence training centre.
Achieve Lifestyle. Egham sports centre
Manor Leaze Gardens
Level crossing


Windsor Road
Pair of octagonal lodges by Sir Edwin Lutyens 1930-32.
Pair of commemorative urns by Sir Edwin Lutyens 1929.
Inscribed 'Donation of Meadows to the Nation in memory of Urban
Hanlon Broughton 1857-1929 by his widow and two sons. Dedicated 18 December 1929'.


Woodhaw
Old Brown Windsor Soap Works owned by the Paris family. Manufacture ended and details of the process were lost when Mr Paris’s widow died in about 1851. Remains of the firm's wharf can still be seen

Sources
Brewery History Society. Web site
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Egham Churches. Web site
Egham Constitutional Club. Web site
Egham Social Club. Web site
Egham United Charity. Web site
Grace’s Guide. Web site
Intel. Web site
London Remembers. Web site
London Transport. Country Walks 
Lost Pubs. Web site
Parker, North Surrey 
Penguin. Surrey
Pevsner. Surrey
Pub History. Web site
Middlesex Churches
Runneymede Council. Web site
St John’s Church. Web site
Surrey Archaeological collections web site
Surrey County Council. Web site
Surrey Industrial Archaeology
War Memorials Online. Web site
Wikipedia. As appropriate

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