Berrylands

Berrylands
Surrey
Location
Grid reference:	TQ195675
Location:	51°23’35"N, 0°17’13"W
Data
Population:	9,437  (2011)
Post town:	Surbiton
Postcode:	KT5
Dialling code:	020
Local Government
Council:	Kingston
Parliamentary constituency:	Kingston and Surbiton

Berrylands is suburb on the east side Surbiton and south of Kingston upon Thames, in Surrey. Developed as a commuter development, its station, Berrylands railway station, is 24 minutes from Waterloo.

The neighbourhood is primarily residential and houses a large commuter population. The majority of houses in the neighbourhood were built in the 1930s and have features typically found in housing stock of the inter-war period. Although most houses are semi-detached there are also many detached properties and a small number of flats. On the fork of Grand Avenue and Elmbridge Avenue is a cluster of Modernist Art Deco houses, built as part of the Parkside estate in 1934 (developer Bell). There is also a little variety in architecture with small flat blocks on Surbiton Hill Park just north of the railway station.

The Hogsmill River marks much of the border between Berrylands and New Malden. Its small tributary, a man-made brook, runs through the nature reserve on the site of the former Surbiton Lagoon and through Alexandra Park before leaving the neighbourhood.

History

Though Berrylands is a settlement of Anglo-Saxon origin, most of the present housing development took place in the 1930s on the former Berrylands Farm.

Old maps from the 1860s show the western banks of the Hogsmill River and everything around them to be mostly empty apart from a few small trails and farm buildings with no evidence of real human settlement. The area had absolutely no annotations of the word Berrylands to mark the area. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the only prominent structure was the Regent House, the main building of Berrylands Farm.

The land was developed around the early 1930s and was complemented in 1933 with the opening of Berrylands Station. The construction of all the homes in one go was the reason why they all look similar. The Regent House was demolished to make way for new housing, with the street where the building used to stand appropriately being named Regent Road. In some gardens, parts of the regent house's foundation are still visible.

The Surbiton Lagoon lido opened in 1934, but later closed in 1980, and was demolished at the end of the decade. This area was subsequently transformed into a park now owned and managed by Kingston Council, known as Berrylands Park, with a small area to the south developed into housing, creating Meldone Close. By Meldone Close a small car park was also constructed.

Name

Berrylands is a place-name that misleadingly suggests "land where berries grow". It actually means "land on a tumulus or hill", from the Old English beorg, meaning either a hill or a tumulus. The name is recorded as Berilendes in 1126, and as Berulind in 1148 (wrongly suggesting the Old English lind; 'lime-tree' as the second element), and more recently as Barrilands in 1378. The name has occasionally been thought to mean the bottom of the hill as opposed to the hill itself.

Sport

The Surbiton Racket and Fitness club on Berrylands was established in 1881. It was founded and was known as the Berrylands Lawn Tennis Club. There were 200 members and 11 grass courts. Adjacent to the grass courts are a variety of clay courts often used by Christ Church Primary School, which is south of it. A building on the other side of the grass courts contains various squash courts which are also used occasionally by the nearby school. Grand Avenue Primary school has a swimming pool which serves both schools in Berrylands and also offers private lessons.

Berrylands Festival

Each year the local scout group organises a summer festival opposite their scout hut on the site of the old Surbiton Lagoon, now known by Kingston Council as Berrylands Park.