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Woking
Town Square
Woking shown within Surrey
Population	90,700
OS grid reference	TQ003584
District	Woking
Shire county	Surrey
Region	South East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Woking
Postcode district	GU21, GU22
Dialling code	01483
Police	Surrey
Fire	Surrey
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Woking
European Parliament	South East England
List of places: UK • England • Surrey

Coordinates: 51°18′58″N 0°33′40″W / 51.3162, -0.561

See Woking (borough) for the administrative district.

Woking is a large town and civil parish that shares its name with the surrounding local government district, located in the west of Surrey, England. It functions as a dormitory town of the London commuter belt and is located 23 miles (37 km) south west of Charing Cross in central London. Woking town itself, excluding the district, has a population of 62,796,^[1] and the administrative civil parish, which covers part of the urban area inclusive of Sheerwater and Knaphill, has a population of 30,403.

Woking also plays a role in literature: it is the town in which the Martians landed in H. G. Wells science fiction novel The War of the Worlds. It also features in Douglas Adams's The Meaning of Liff, as the word for when you go to the kitchen but forget why.

Contents 1 Twin towns 2 History 3 Politics 4 Facilities 5 Energy policy 6 Transport 6.1 Rail 6.2 Road 6.3 Bus 7 Suburbs 8 Sport 9 Education 10 Healthcare 11 Notable residents 12 Literature 13 Emergency services 14 See also 15 Notes 16 Further reading 17 External links

• Rastatt in Germany
• Amstelveen in the Netherlands
• Le Plessis-Robinson in France^[2]

For more details on this topic, see History of Woking.

Woking's history starts in 673AD. Woking began around this time as a settlement of a Wessex tribe, followers of Wocca. The name has been corrupted and was spelt as Woccingas, Wochinges, Wokynge, Wochynghe at different times.

Woking appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Wochinges. It was held partly by William the Conqueror and partly by Ansgot and Godfrey from Bishop Osbern of Exeter. Its domesday assets were: 3½ hides; 1 church, 2 mills worth 13s 10d, 31 ploughs, 46 acres of meadow, woodland worth 161 hogs. It rendered £24 10s 0d. Also 15s to the sheriff each year.^[3]

Modern Woking was formed around the railway station built over 150 years ago at the junction between trains to the south coast, the south-west of England and the necropolis railway to Brookwood Cemetery. This cemetery was developed by the London Necropolis Company as an overflow burial ground for London's dead. Later, Woking was home to the first crematorium in the United Kingdom (St Johns) and the first mosque in the UK (on Oriental Road). The Shahjehan Mosque was commissioned by Shahjehan, Begum of Bhopal (1868-1901), one of the four female Muslim rulers of Bhopal who reigned between 1819 and 1926.

The constituency of Woking has historically been a Conservative party safe seat, with the Liberal Democrats the principal opposition in the last two general elections. Its current Member of Parliament is Humfrey Malins, who has a majority of around 6,500. The borough council is currently run by the Conservatives.

Woking has a modern shopping centre called The Peacocks and an older shopping area, Wolsey Place.^[4]

The main area for evening entertainment is around Chertsey Road^[5] which contains restaurants serving a number of cuisines and there are also numerous bars and pubs. The Ambassadors cinemas^[6] and New Victoria Theatre^[6] can be accessed via the top floor of The Peacocks.

Woking has indoor swimming pools, "Pool in the Park",^[7] and a separate leisure centre. Outdoor facilities include a skatepark, tennis courts, five-a-side football pitches, a cricket pitch (during the summer), bowling greens, a crazy golf course, and a children's adventure playground. These leisure facilities are all located within the attractively landscaped Woking Park^[8] near to the town centre. Woking also has the largest public library in Surrey.

The scene at St Peter's Church, Old Woking is an inspiration for many local artists, as is another local beauty spot at the lock at St John's Lye.^[9]

There is also a Hawker Hunter jet fighter painted silver and mounted on a pole roughly ten metres tall outside the Big Apple family entertainment complex. This was used to promote the previous Planets family entertainment complex, designed to look like a space craft, and has never been removed. However, originally the craft was black with various logos and livery on it. These were removed when the Planets complex was taken over.

The nationally acclaimed and award winning rock club ‘Schism’ is held in Woking each month at Quake Nightclub.

See related article: Energy policy of the United Kingdom

Woking council is one of country's leaders in adopting greener energy technologies. Several combined heat and power stations provide district heating and electricity, and electricity is also provided by a combination of hydrogen fuel cells and solar cells dispersed throughout the borough. These are linked via an innovative private electricity distribution system operating completely off the public power grid.

In order to do this the local government laid new power lines to all locations on the Woking sustainable community energy system (due to Department of Trade and Industry regulations). Should the public power grid fail, central Woking would continue to have an energy supply.^[10]

The cost for providing this is approximately UK£0.01/kWh less than for public electricity. It has been reported that the borough saves UK£974,000 a year in energy costs if the installation costs are ignored.^[10] By March 2004 the initiatives had also cut the borough's carbon emissions by 17.24%, and those of the council by 77.4%.^[11]

Woking Station Canopy, which was approved by Woking Councillors in March 2004, is being built in 2007. It is equipped with photovoltaic cells to collect sunlight and convert it into energy.^[12]

On Friday 23rd March 2007, Prince Charles opened a climate change exhibition in Woking. The exhibition, which is a joint venture by Business in the Community and BCSC and endorsed by the Climate Group, featured display stands with information on issues like recycling, energy use, transport, waste reduction and food sources. He also inspected work on the Albion Square canopy. After the launch, the prince took lunch at Auberge. He then gave a speech to introduce Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth, which was being viewed by local business leaders.

Woking railway station is situated on the Alton Line, Portsmouth Direct Line, South Western Main Line and West of England Main Line. Accordingly, there are frequent trains to and from London Waterloo (via Clapham Junction), a journey taking approximately half an hour. There is also the twice hourly Waterloo/Woking stopping service that calls at many stations between Waterloo and Woking.

A canopy has been built between the station and the main shopping area of the town. It stretchs from the railway station entrance (town - platform 1 - side) to Albion House and includes landscaping of the area which, along with the canopy, creates a new entrance to the town from the railway station.^[13]

Woking is accessible from M25 motorway, M3 Motorway & the A3.

A320, the main access road, passing through the centre of town connects to the M25 junction 11 to Woking's north and to the A3 to its south at Guildford. M3 Motorway Junction 3 connects to Woking either via Chobham (B3046) or A322 & A324.

RailAir coach service connects Woking and London Heathrow airport. The service runs approximately every 30 minutes from the railway station main entrace to all airport terminals. Gatwick Airport can be accessed via Guildford railway station or Clapham Junction.

The bus services in Woking are mainly operated by Arriva, Countryliner and Travel Surrey. The main bus terminal is just outside the station and provides services to Byfleet and West Byfleet, Camberley, Guildford, Kingston, Ripley and Staines.

The Bustler community transport service operates in and around Woking, serving people with a transportation disadvantage.^[14]

Woking has several suburban districts including :- Horsell, Hook Heath, Mount Hermon, Maybury, Goldsworth Park, St Johns, Pyrford, Kingfield, Westfield, Ridgway and Old Woking. The adjacent sub-towns of Knaphill and Sheerwater are often considered outer suburbs of Woking. Old Woking is often cited as a separate village.

Football

Woking has a non-League football club, Woking F.C., that competes in the Nationwide Conference (tier 5). The origin of the club's nickname, the "Cards", is disputed. One attractive proposal is that the name was acquired because Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, after whom the smaller of the two shopping centres is named, was staying with King Henry VIII at Woking Palace (the remains of which can be seen near the River Wey at Old Woking) when he heard he had been made a cardinal by Pope Leo X in 1515. A more prosaic alternative is that the Cards are so named because of the cardinal red in one half of their home strip. It is interesting to note that this colour was chosen because of the town's link to Cardinal Wolsey.

Rugby

Woking has a rugby union union club^[15] that competes in Surrey League 3 (Level 11).

Chobham ^[16] Rugby club won their league in 2006/07 and now play in London 2 South (Level 6) and have over 1200 members. They have recently had Dan Frazier (prop) signed by NEC Harlequins from their Youth Development system.

Hockey

Woking Hockey Club^[17] women's first XI compete in the English Hockey League Women's League 1 (tier 2); the men's first XI compete in a regional league. The club has two AstroTurf pitches at a clubhouse based in Goldsworth Park.

Cricket

Woking also has a number of cricket clubs including Old Woking CC, Woking & Horsell CC, and Westfield CC.

Motor Racing

The McLaren Formula One motor racing team is based near to the town, as is Räikkönen Robertson Racing, begun by Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen.

Infant and junior schools in the area include: Goldsworth Primary School, Knaphill Junior School, Knaphill Lower School, Horsell CofE Aided Junior School, Horsell Village School, The Prins Willem-Alexander school (Dutch private primary school), St Hugh of Lincoln Catholic Primary School, St. Dunstan's Catholic Primary School, Barnsbury Primary and Infant School, Westfield Primary School, The Hermitage Junior School, Sythwood Primary School and The Oaktree School,Beaufort Primary School and St John's Primary School.

Secondary schools in the area include:Bishop David Brown School , St. John the Baptist School, St Andrew's School The Winston Churchill School, and Woking High School.

Woking College is located in Old Woking and provides post-16 education.

There are also private sector schools. There are several private preparatory schools in Woking: Hoe Bridge, St Andrew's, Greenfield, Oakfield School and Ripley Court are all mixed, while Halstead School is girls only.

Peer Productions, a large theatre company, is based at the Woking Youth Arts Centre in Knaphill. It provides dramatic education for students of all ages.

Woking comes under Surrey PCT (Primary Care Trust), administered and run by NHS. Group of GP's together with Woking Community hospital ^[18] serves the local resident's primary healthcare needs. Specialist hospitals near by are St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey (for A&E) and Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford.

For Private healthcare needs, Nuffield Hospital^[19] mainly serves Woking's local residents.

Woking was home to author H.G. Wells, who had the Martians in The War of the Worlds land on Horsell Common, close to the town centre. There is a large sculpture of a (Wellsian) Martian Fighting Machine in the town centre commemorating Woking's fictional destruction.

The English composer Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) lived and died in Woking.

The Jam are from Woking, and its singer/songwriter Paul Weller (who later, together with Mick Talbot, formed the The Style Council) was born there in 1958. The song A Town Called Malice was written about Woking^{[citation needed]}, and Weller's 1995 solo album, Stanley Road, is named after the street in which he was born and lived.^[20]

Other notable people who were born in Woking include: Ian Ogilvy, actor, 1943; Ron Dennis, CEO/Chairman of the McLaren Group, 1947; Liz Lynne, Liberal Democrat politician, 1948; Rick Parfitt, guitarist for Status Quo, 1948; Douglas Pearce, musician behind Death in June, 1956; Sean Lock, comedian, 1963; Susie Dent, a lexicographer and the dictionary expert on Countdown, 1964; and Harry Hill, comedian, 1964.

McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso also live in Woking. Matt Willis; band member of Busted and winner of I'm A Celebrity... lived in Woking attending Woking High School

Douglas Adams describes Woking in The Deeper Meaning of Liff (ptcbl. vb.) as:

Standing in the kitchen wondering what you came in here for.

Woking is served by these emergency sevices:

• Surrey Police.
• South East Coast Ambulance Service as of 1st July 2006, is the local NHS Ambulance Services Trust. The Surrey Ambulance Service, Sussex, and Kent Ambulance services have all merged, and have now ceased to exist.
• Surrey Fire & Rescue Service.
  • 2 x Water Tender Ladder

• Brookwood Cemetery, Woking
• Horsell Village, Woking
• Goldsworth Park estate, Woking
• Knaphill Village, Woking
• Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom

1. ^ Surrey Country Council census data
2. ^ Woking borough twin town info
3. ^ Surrey Domesday Book
4. ^ Wolsey Place web site
5. ^ Map showing Chertsey Road
6. ^ ^{a b} Web site for the Ambassadors cinemas and New Victoria Theatre
7. ^ Pool in the Park web site
8. ^ Woking Park web site
9. ^ (a) (b) Two sites on David Drury, a local artist
10. ^ ^{a b} Brown, Paul. "Woking shines in providing renewable energy", The Guardian, 2004-01-26. 
11. ^ London Climate Change Authority Press Release
12. ^ Woking government news Final stage of the canopy to Albion Way
13. ^ Woking borough press release
14. ^ Woking Bustler web site
15. ^ Woking RFC
16. ^ Chobham Rugby
17. ^ Woking Hockey Club
18. ^ List of GP's & Woking Community hospital
19. ^ Nuffield Hospitals, Woking Community hospital
20. ^ Map with Stanley Road indicated

• Guardian article: Woking to teach London to be a world leader in tackling climate change

• Woking Borough Council
• Aerial photographs of Woking
• Photographs of Woking