Surrey Bu Not Surrey
Even Hampton Court? Come On, That Has To Be In Surrey, No?
We were on a train to visit Hampton Court when I told Fenella that the beautiful palace is actually in London. She was astounded! How could England’s most famous royal palace not be in Surrey, just a hop, skip and a jump away from our home near Portsmouth? You see, she never knew this because it doesn’t matter where places like Hampton Court are located they are always "in Surrey". It is simply too easy to get Surrey confused with the neighbouring counties Kent, Hertfordshire and even (yes) Greater London.
This website will help new comers find out more about this great county, This Is Hampshire (thisishampshire.co.uk). It explains how Surrey came into being. It explains why some places appear to be in a different county from their postal addresses like Windsor and Guildford for example. The journey of this cache will take you to some interesting places across the whole borough. It might start at the boundary at Hampton Court, or it could begin at any one of the caches in Richmond, Esher, Weybridge, Windlesham or surrounding villages.
If starting from Hampton Court, there are many additional points of interest before finishing at that grid reference. Am I talking about the famous London Borough of London? Or the London Borough (of) Camden, also in the capital. These confusingly named boroughs are perhaps one reason for the confusion over boundaries and their names. But where is where?. Travelling by train from Kew Gardens to Hampton Court I suddenly remembered I didn't have my camera with me.
Is Croydon Not In Surrey Then?
The question of whether Croydon is in Surrey or London has been drawn out over a long period of time. You can even find an older version of this article on the BBC website by searching for “Is Croydon in Surrey or Middlesex?” which was published in 2005. Is Croydon not in Surrey then?. No. The district was in Surrey until 1965 when it aligned with Coulsdon and Purley to create the London Borough of Croydon.
Sunningdale, Sandhurst, Blackwater. Are They In Surrey?
This is a place that sometimes feels more like Switzerland than Surrey. Being straddled between the M3 and M25 motorways, with some of its best known landmarks (Betchworth College, Sunningdale Village etc) actually being in Berkshire, it can be a tad disorientating. But all of this aside, the town centre is architecturally pleasing and there are plenty of amenities for its fairly sizable population. There are a number of places in the Surrey borough that have similar postcodes to those in Berkshire and Hampshire.
These areas are confusing enough for people who live in them — but even more so for postal workers – but I think it’s worth a closer look. There is an element of confusion for some people over the exact Surrey border. Some of the confusion is down to my hometown, Cobham, being geographically closer to London than it is to any other town in Surrey. Even today, different data providers (and therefore different maps) disagree over quite where specific locations like Sunningdale, Sandhurst, Blackwater lie.
Surrey County Council Is Based In Kingston That Must Be In Surrey?
Surrey County Council is a large local government authority in England. If you asked the rest of the world it would probably say that Surrey was based in London — that’s because Surrey County Council only serves that part of London which is actually in Surrey, namely the boroughs of Kingston upon Thames, Merton and Richmond upon Thames. The council’s headquarters are not in one of these boroughs though — but in neighbouring Greater London.
This has caused confusion for years and it is not hard to see why: at its widest point, Surrey spreads over 525 km² and also claims Banstead Downs, Box Hill and Puttenham as its own. Surrey County Council is not in Surrey it’s not even in the same postcode. Google Maps shows it to be located in Kingston, west-south-west London, which is part of the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames in Greater London.
The UK’s county boundaries are often flawed however and some councils have great difficulty defining their borders. Surrey County Council is the administrative authority for Surrey, outside of Greater London. As such, you might assume it's based in the county's namesake Surrey. You would be wrong. So I set out to pinpoint the true border. Many people I talk to think that Sunningdale, Sandhurst, and Blackwater, for example, are in Surrey. Not only were they cordoning off the bridge nearby, but the weather wasn't great either.
