Berrylands is a residential neighbourhood in Surbiton, London, originally forming part of the Municipal Borough of Surbiton, and since 1965 is part of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. It is a suburban development situated south west of Charing Cross. Nearby places include Surbiton, New Malden, Old Malden, Tolworth and Chessington. Berrylands railway station is 24 minutes from London Waterloo by train.
History
Berrylands is a settlement of Anglo-Saxon origin that is close to the Thames. Berrylands originally formed part of the Municipal Borough of Surbiton, but in 1965 it was incorporated as part of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.
Most of the present housing development took place in the 1930s on the former Berrylands Farm.
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.
Etymology
The place-name of Berrylands means "land on a tumulus or hill", from the Old English (modern dialectal "barrow" meaning "hill"), cognate with the Old Norse , and which mean the same thing, and the Old English land ("land"). The name was recorded as Berilendes in 1126, and as Berulind in 1148 (wrongly suggesting the Old English "lime-tree" as the second element), and more recently as Barrilands in 1378, which shows the true origin as being from the Old English . The name has occasionally been mistaken as meaning the bottom of the hill as opposed to the hill itself.
In a sense, the name corresponds to the modern English "Hill Farm", a common name for farms (and some new residences) across the United Kingdom.
Politics
Berrylands is part of the Kingston and Surbiton constituency for elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
Berrylands is part of the Berrylands ward for elections to Kingston upon Thames London Borough Council.
Housing, shops and transport
thumb|Shops on Alexandra Drive
There are four separate parades of shops: Alexandra Drive, Berrylands Road, Chiltern Drive and a smaller parade along Surbiton Hill Park. Chiltern Drive is at the centre of Berrylands, and houses over 22 businesses as well as the Berrylands public house, ‘The Berrylands’, known locally as 'The Berry'. The shops were built in the 1930s, and currently consist of a newsagent's, doctor's surgery, hairdresser's, beauty salon, CCTV shop, barber's, coffee shop, printer and bookshop, as well as the Berrylands railway station.
The neighbourhood is primarily residential. It houses a large commuter population using Transport for London travel routes, including two bus routes, the K2 and 665, and the Berrylands, Surbiton or Tolworth links to London Waterloo.
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.
Geography
Berrylands Station is the closest station to the sports ground of the London School of Economics and Political Science, which is in New Malden. There is a large water treatment plant on the opposite side of the railway. There are two large parks in Berrylands - Fishponds and Alexandra Park. The nearby Green Lane park is officially located in New Malden, but most locals consider it to be within Berrylands.