Wallington, Surrey

Wallington
Surrey
Wallington Green
Location
Grid reference:	TQ294645
Location:	51°21’53"N, 0°8’25"W
Data
Post town:	Wallington
Postcode:	SM6
Dialling code:	020
Local Government
Council:	Sutton
Parliamentary constituency:	Carshalton and Wallington

Wallington is a suburban town in Surrey, contiguous with the conurbation stretching out from London.

Wallington's shopping streets have enjoyed something of a boom since 2007 as new retailers have been attracted to the town, including several of the larger high street chains, more than filling the gap left by the fall of Woolworths. These join existing High Street names. The town has a full range of banks an building societies too. The result is a vibrant, thriving town centre.

A farmers' market is held on the second Saturday of each month. This is usually located outside the old town hall, but occasionally in the car park at Shotfield.

Wallington is part of the inner commuter belt, well connected to London by bus and train; rail services operate from Wallington Station to London Bridge and Victoria by way of West Croydon, and southward to Epsom and beyond by way of Sutton. (The northbound platform extends over the bridge that crosses Woodcote Road, forcing the road into a dip. The road here occasionally floods during heavy rain and achieved some notoriety on 20 July 2007 when it was severely flooded, making it impassable for several hours.)

History

The name "Wallington" derives from the Old English language, first appearing in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Waletone". It is thought perhaps to derive from the Old English Weala tun, meaning "village of the Britons".

In Domesday Book, Wallington is recorded as belonging to the King. Its assets were 11 hides. It had 2 mills, worth £1 10s 0d, 11 ploughs, 8 acres of meadow. It rendered 10 pounds.

The historic village was situated somewhat to the north of the current town centre around what is now Wallington Bridge over the River Wandle.

"English Lavender" sculpture in Wallington Town Centre

In the Middle Ages, Wallington was a quiet, agricultural village. In modern times Wallington was an important centre for the production of lavender oil, which came to an end at about the time of the First World War. The days of lavender are still remembered in a number of ways, for example:

• There is a large sculpture at the junction of Woodcote Road and Stafford Road representing a lavender plant.
• The Christmas lights also represent lavender plants.
• One of the local lavender farmers - John Jakson of Little Woodcote Farm - lent his name to a public house in Woodcote Road.

Change came to the village in the nineteenth century as development began to spread over the fields of Surrey from the north. The particular spur to development was the coming of the railway. Carshalton railway station (which is now Wallington Station) was opened in 1847 in the open fields to the south of Wallington, some distance from Carshalton because the owner of Carshalton Park objected to its being built near Carshalton village itself. The station acted as a spur to the development of the area and in the 1860s Nathaniel Bridges created a prestigious housing estate of gothic revival villas (designed by E L Brock) and a new church, Holy Trinity.

The area around Holy Trinity Church is now known as Wallington Old Town. In particular Clifton Road, Belmont Road and Park Road exhibit some remarkable Victorian and Edwardian villas.

This southward development continued towards Woodcote and by the time of the First World War the section of Woodcote Road to the south of the station had become the new high street. By this time the quiet village had gone for good, and Wallington was well established amongst the new suburbs.

Wallington County Grammar School (for Boys) was opened on London Road, close to Beddington Park, in 1927. A town hall (by Robert Atkinson) and public library were built for the Municipal Borough of Beddington and Wallington in Wallington town centre in the 1930s, as was the fire station in Belmont Road.