KingstonThe growth of London through transport

Map of London’s boroughs

The map shows the current boundaries of London’s boroughs. The content of this album relates to the area highlighted on the map.

This album is one of a series looking at London boroughs and their transport stories from 1800 to the present day.

Kingston

Key

1 Barking & Dagenham

2 Barnet

3 Bexley

4 Brent

5 Bromley

6 Camden

7 City of London

8 Croydon

9 Ealing

10 Enfield

11 Greenwich

12 Hackney

13 Hammersmith & Fulham

14 Haringey

15 Harrow

16 Havering

17 Hillingdon

18 Hounslow

19 Islington

20 Kensington & Chelsea

21 Kingston

22 Lambeth

23 Lewisham

24 Merton

25 Newham

26 Redbridge

27 Richmond

28 Southwark

29 Sutton

30 Tower Hamlets

31 Waltham Forest

32 Wandsworth

33 Westminster

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Map of Kingston upon Thames

London Transport Museum would like to thank the staff of the Kingston Museum & Heritage Service, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, for their help with this album.

The Museum has worked closely with local partners to produce the series. Details of the partner contributing to this album can be found at the back of the book.

References for the images are at the bottom of each page. Those in the collection at the Local History Room are marked RBK.

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* Asterisks indicate a story in the text.

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1825 Opening of the world’s first steam-powered passenger railway, the Stockton & Darlington, UK1838 Slavery abolished throughout British Empire

1861 Start of American Civil War (ends 1865)1863 Opening of world’s first underground passenger railway, London, UK

1912 Ocean liner RMS Titanic sinks after hitting an iceberg1947 India gains independence from Britain. Country is partitioned into India and Pakistan

1969 American Neil Armstrong becomes first person to walk on the moon1994 Channel Tunnel opens linking Britain to European mainland for first time

2001 World Trade Centre in New York destroyed in terrorist attack2005 London is awarded the Olympic and Paralympic Games for 2012

1828 New stone bridge at Kingston opens to deal with increase in horse-drawn traffic1838 First ‘Kingston’ railway station opens at Surbiton, on the London to Southampton line

1863 Railway station opens in Kingston town centre1870 Kingston Bridge declared toll free, helping the movement of local traffic

1927 Kingston bypass opens, easing local traffic congestion1931 London’s first trolleybus service starts in Kingston

1962 London’s last trolleybus service runs in Kingston1989 One-way road system introduced in Kingston to ease congestion and direct traffic away from town centre

2001 Kingston Bridge is widened and strengthened to cope with increased traffic2007 Council plans to run Park & Ride scheme all year round

2000 onwards

1800– 49

1850– 99

1950– 99

1900– 49

Timelines

World events Local stories

Image of Titanic courtesy of Ulster Folk & Transport Museum2

Postcard of Kingston Market Place, c1900. RBK

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.

Kingston’s transport story

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Kingston Market Place by Thomas Rowlandson, c1800. RBK

Drawing of old wooden and new stone bridge, c1828. RBK

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.

The age of the stagecoach

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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

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Commuters at New Malden station, c1908. RBK

First Kingston station, opened in 1863. RBK

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.

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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

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Pleasure steamer on the Thames at Kingston, c1925. RBK

Turks’ boatyard, c1930. RBK

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.

Messing about on the river

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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

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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

Kingston’s trams were delayed by a bitter battle for 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.

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.’ Ernest Bright recalls the trams in 1914. RBK interview, 1987

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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

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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

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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.

Mabel Edna Notley gave up her job at Bentalls department store to become a wartime ‘clippie’ (bus conductor), 1941. 2003/13125

The front mudguards are painted white so pedestrians could see the bus in the blackout, 1945. 1998/66789

‘One Saturday Mum took my brother and me from Tolworth to Kingston on a trolleybus. When we arrived in Kingston, the sirens went and we spent the hour or so in a shelter.’ Derek Hickman recalls the Second World War.BBC website ‘WW2 People’s War’ 13

The motorbus

Kingston’s first motorbus service began on 1 April 1905. It ran from Surbiton to Kew Bridge via Kingston and Twickenham.

The London General Omnibus Company opened Kingston bus garage in 1922. By 1964 recruitment issues and cost cutting led to the introduction of ‘one man operation’ buses, which were first trialled in Kingston.

Kingston claimed another first when Jill Viner became London’s first woman bus driver in 1974.

Single deck Central Omnibus Company bus in Eden Street, c1905. 1998/88968

Passengers in Kingston bus station, 1979. 1998/58963

Jill Viner, London’s first woman bus driver, drove the number 65 bus, 1974. 1998/83575

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Solving Kingston’s traffic congestion

Traffic congestion has been a problem in Kingston for many years, and its narrow medieval street layout continues to make transport planning difficult. Around 50,000 vehicles a day use Kingston Bridge to drive in and out of the town centre.

The Kingston bypass, opened in 1927, was designed to ease longstanding congestion. But it caused factories and housing estates to spring up, attracting an even larger population which only made congestion worse.

Kingston’s traffic problems are summed up in a cartoon in the Surrey Comet, 1955. Surrey Comet

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Shop till you drop

With the arrival of the railway in 1863, Kingston’s commercial area gradually spread outwards from the medieval Market Place. In 1867, Frank Bentall opened his first shop (later to become the flagship department store) on Clarence Street in Kingston.

In 1989, Kingston introduced a radical one-way system to help safeguard businesses threatened by the choking traffic. In a move popular with shoppers, Clarence Street was pedestrianized.

Shopping in Clarence Street, 1958. RBK Bentalls’ 1938 facade overlooks a bus locked in traffic, c1963. RBK Bentalls, 2007. The site was completely redeveloped and reopened in 1992 as one of the largest shopping centres in southern England. 2007/8280

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Plans for the future

Kingston’s popularity with shoppers increases traffic and parking problems. Improved public transport and walking facilities will encourage alternative ways of getting around. The council plans to introduce more cycling corridors, as well as cycle training for 1000 schoolchildren each year.

The successful Christmas Park & Ride service takes 5000 cars off the town’s roads. It may soon be used all year round.

Park & Ride bus service, c2006. Kingston Town Centre Management

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Kingston now

Kingston’s unique character has survived centuries of change. The Market Place looks much the same, and the medieval street layouts, outdoor markets and ancient river crossing co-exist comfortably alongside Victorian housing estates and 21st-century shopping malls.

Cycling, walking and increased use of the public transport network of road, rail and river services are a key part of the borough’s long-term transport strategy.

Kingston Market Place, 2007. 2007/8283

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Want to know more?

Kingston Museum & Heritage ServiceLocal History Room (Room 46)North Kingston Centre Richmond RoadKingston upon Thames KT2 5PE

Tel: (020) 8547 6738Email: local.history@rbk.kingston.gov.uk

Kingston MuseumWheatfield WayKingston upon ThamesKT1 2PS

Tel: (020) 8547 6460Email: kingston.museum@rbk.kingston.gov.uk

www.kingston.gov.uk/museum

North Kingston Centre, 2007. 2007/8284

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