Woking
Woking (/ˈwoʊkɪŋ/ WOH-king) is a town and borough in northwest Surrey, England, around 23 mi (36 km) from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as Wochinges, and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The earliest evidence of human activity is from the Paleolithic, but the low fertility of the sandy local soils meant that the area was the least populated part of the county in 1086. Between the mid-17th and mid-19th centuries, new transport links were constructed, including the Wey Navigation, Basingstoke Canal and London to Southampton railway line. The modern town was established in the mid-1860s, as the London Necropolis Company began to sell surplus land surrounding the railway station for development.
This article is about the town in Surrey. For other uses, see Woking (disambiguation).
Woking
Borough of Woking
Borough of Woking
Woking
1 April 1974
Non-metropolitan district council
24.6 sq mi (63.6 km2)
232nd (of 296)
103,900
226th (of 296)
4,200/sq mi (1,600/km2)
- 47.6% Christianity
- 33.3% no religion
- 9.4% Islam
- 5.8% not stated
- 2.4% Hinduism
- 0.6% Buddhism
- 0.5% other
- 0.3% Sikhism
- 0.2% Judaism
43UM (ONS)
E07000217 (GSS)
Modern local government in Woking began with the creation of the Woking Local Board in 1893, which became Woking Urban District Council (UDC) in 1894. The urban district was significantly enlarged in 1907 when it took in the parish of Horsell, and again in 1933 when it took in the parishes of Byfleet and Pyrford. The UDC was granted a coat of arms in 1930 and Woking gained borough status in the 1974 reorganisation of local government. In 2022, a total of 30 elected representatives serves on the council, each with a term length of four years.
The Borough of Woking covers 64 km2 (25 sq mi) and had a population of 103,900 in 2021.[2] The main urban centre stretches from Knaphill in the west to Byfleet in the east, but the satellite villages of Brookwood, Mayford, Pyrford and Old Woking retain strong individual identities. Around 60% of the borough is protected by the Metropolitan Green Belt, which severely limits the potential for further housebuilding. Recent developments have included the construction of two residential tower blocks in the town centre and the conversion of former industrial buildings to apartments. There are six Sites of Special Scientific Interest within the borough boundaries, of which three form part of the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area.
Almost the entire town centre dates from the 20th and 21st centuries. Elsewhere in the borough, there are several historic buildings, including the ruins of Woking Palace, a royal residence of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Parts of St Peter's Church in Old Woking date from the reign of William I and Sutton Place, built for Richard Weston c. 1525, is one of the earliest unfortified houses in England. The Shah Jahan Mosque, constructed in 1889, was the first purpose-built Muslim place of worship in the UK. There are numerous works of public art in the town centre, including a statue of the author, H. G. Wells, who wrote The War of the Worlds while living in Maybury Road. Much of the novel is set in the Woking area.
Economy[edit]
In the early 21st century, Woking has a strong economy relative to the rest of the UK; the borough was awarded first place in the UK Vitality Index of Local Authorities, compiled by Lambert Smith Hampton in 2021,[166] and was placed in the top 20% of all Local Authorities for economic vibrancy by Grant Thornton in 2016.[167] University graduates comprise more than 60% of the workforce,[168] although around 53% of all working residents commute out of the borough on a daily basis. According to the 2015-16 Annual Population Survey, 85% of the working-age population are in employment (compared to the Surrey average of 80%) and 14% are self-employed (compared to the county average of 12%).[167] However, economic prosperity is not spread uniformly across the borough; two areas of Sheerwater are the most deprived parts of Surrey.[169]
In the mid-2010s, the industries providing the largest number of jobs in the borough were information technology, food and beverage services, and motor vehicle design and manufacture. Woking also has a significant cluster of companies operating in the oil and gas industries, financial and business services industry, as well as the environmental technologies sector.[167]
In May 2023, a government review revealed that the council would have debts of £2.4bn by 2026, 100 times the size of its annual £24m budget, including investments in hotels and residential skyscrapers and a £6.4m loan to a local private school.[170][171] On the same day, the Minister for Local Government Lee Rowley announced that the council was to be overseen by a team of expert commissioners until the council could "address their commercial and financial challenges, and make transformative change across its entire operations."[172]
On 7 June 2023 Woking council declared bankruptcy with £1.2bn deficit due to risky investments involving hotels and skyscrapers overseen by its former Conservative administration.[173]
Public services[edit]
Utilities[edit]
Woking Gas and Water Company began supplying the growing town with drinking water in 1883.[174] The supply was pumped from a 40 m deep (130 ft) borehole at West Horsley,[175] allowing the villages to the south of the town to be fed from the same supply. Horsell and Pyrford were connected to the Woking mains by 1895, and in 1900, the South West Suburban Water Company started to supply Byfleet.[176] The water companies serving the borough merged with their neighbours in 1973 to form the North Surrey Water Company, which became part of Veolia Water UK in October 2000. Following further changes of name in 2009 and 2012, Veolia Water UK is now known as Affinity Water.[177][178]
Education[edit]
Early schools[edit]
The oldest surviving record of a school in the modern borough is from 1725 when there appears to have been a small school at Byfleet. In the same year, the vicar of Woking reported that there was "one poore writing master" living in his parish and that younger children attended dame schools to learn to read. There is a record of a Church of England-affiliated school in Horsell in 1788 and, in the 1790s, a school for non-conformists opened nearby. National schools were established at Pyrford in 1847 and at Old Woking in 1848.[226]