Stoneleigh, Surrey

The Roman road Stane Street passed through the eastern area of what is now Stoneleigh (along the modern day London Road/A24) on its way from London to Chichester via the nearby spring at Ewell.[2] Between the early 16th and early 18th century, the area which is now Stoneleigh was part of the Great Park of Nonsuch Palace. In 1731 the Nonsuch estate was sold off and the Great Park, by then known as Worcester Park was divided up and turned into farmland.

Bowling Green and Coldharbour farms in the north of the park were run jointly and in 1860 were acquired by John Jeffries Stone. He had a large house he called 'Stoneleigh', close to the Bowling Green Farmhouse, which gave its name to the district (a map published in 1871 names a cluster of buildings located between the modern-day Elmwood Drive and Ewell Park Way as "Bowling Green Farm", yet a map published in 1897 names a cluster of buildings on the same plot as "Stoneleigh"[3][4]).

In 1859 the London and South Western Railway opened the Wimbledon and Epsom Line, passing through Stoneleigh, although no commuter station was opened for a further 60 years.[5] Farming was at its peak at the start of the 20th century when there were nearly twenty farms, but the number reduced rapidly after the First World War, as there was great demand for housing it became profitable to sell off the farmland for development.

Maps from 1911 show the many areas of farmland in what is now the Stoneleigh area. There was also a brick, tile, and pottery works, called the Nonsuch Works and two flour mills.[6] In 1915 only London Road (A24) contained homes, which could be found along the length of Nonsuch Park, although most were close to the large 'Stoneleigh' house.[7]

St John the Baptist Church, Stoneleigh

Stoneleigh Inn, beginning of the 1980s

Between the world wars, demand for housing on commuter routes into London meant the area grew rapidly. Maps from 1931 show the land was mainly "Meadowland and permanent grass" with patches of "Forest and woodland" and "Heathland, moorland, commons and rough pasture".[8]

Stoneleigh railway station was opened in July 1932, on land acquired from the Stoneleigh Park Estate in July 1931.[9] Stoneleigh railway station was originally to be named 'Stoneleigh Park' to denote that it was an area of market gardening, but this did not happen, probably due to the next three stations on the line north all being called 'Park' (Worcester Park, Motspur Park and Raynes Park).[9]

The first houses were built in 1933 and the first shops on Stoneleigh Broadway opened in November of the same year. The Stoneleigh Hotel, now a Grade II listed building, opened in November 1935[10] and additional shops were built on the Broadway in the late 1930s.

In 1938, Stoneleigh Methodist church was completed, the same year that the Rembrandt cinema opened next to the railway line on the Kingston Road. The cinema operated for 60 years until its closure in April 1998. The building was subsequently demolished and replaced by flats.[11] The red-brick Anglican church of St John the Baptist, next to the station, was built in 1939.[12] Two large schools (Stoneleigh East and West) were built in Stoneleigh in the 1930s to accommodate the large suburban growth in the area. These schools still exist under different names.[9]

The vast majority of the Stoneleigh area had been built on before construction was halted by the onset of World War II in late 1939, with almost all the new homes being semi-detached. A small section in the northwest of Stoneleigh Broadway was built in the 1960s. Additionally, an area in the far north of Stoneleigh was developed into housing around this time following the closure of the Worcester Park Brick Works.

The Ewell Court Stream of the Hogsmill River runs through Stoneleigh, rising in Nonsuch Park. It runs underground throughout Briarwood Road and Stoneleigh Park Road before re-emerging at the nearby Ewell Court Lake.[13] The Beverley Brook's source is at the extreme north of the suburb at Sparrow Farm Road before it flows into Worcester Park through Cuddington Recreation Ground.

Ordance Survey maps suggest that the suburb is located between 25 and 52 metres above sea level, peaking at 52 metres in Stoneleigh Crescent just north-west of Stoneleigh Station and dropping to 25 metres in the extreme west at Timbercroft/Salisbury Road. The high point is a summit between the Ewell Court Stream, the Beverley Brook and the Hogsmill River, with the low near to the Hogsmill. The cente of the suburb (Stoneleigh Broadway) is at about 37 metres on a gentle incline just north of the Ewell Court Stream.[14][15]

The Organ Inn was a landmark pub located on the southern boundary junction of Stoneleigh where the A24, A240 and B2200 roads intersect. It opened in the 1780s as the drinking place of the workmen who fitted the Father Willis organ in St Mary's Church in Ewell.[20] It was later converted into a bar/restaurant, firstly under the name Jim Thompsons and finally The Organ and Dragon.

The pub closed on 18 July 2012 after around 230 years of business. The building was demolished in June 2014 after supermarket chain Lidl bought the site. The demolishing of the Organ and Dragon was criticized by local MP Chris Grayling.[22] Kentucky Fried Chicken had previously owned the site and had unsuccessfully applied for planning permission to turn it into one of their restaurants .[23]