The rural village of Bookham is a spring line settlement that sits between the towns of Leatherhead and Guildford, along with a smaller parish to its south known as Little Bookham. Much of the area is made up of green space, although dotted in between are a number of residential streets, predominantly lined with fairly modern family homes with large gardens, there is also the occasional older cottage. The area’s tiny high street is home to two butchers, a fishmonger, and two greengrocers, as well as a hotel. The country pubs The Anchor, The Royal Oak, The Old Crown, and Ye Olde Windsor Castle are hubs for the local community, many of whom commute into London from Bookham station, with trains running into Waterloo every half an hour, as well as a small number of trains to London Bridge between Monday and Friday at peak times.

The area of Bookham lay within the Anglo-Saxon administrative district of Effingham, and in the Domesday Book it appeared as Bocheham. At this time, it had a church and 6 acres of meadows and woodland. The area’s twenty dwellings remained fairly constant for much of its life until the opening of Bookham station in 1885, though the station remained in an open-field setting. This changed in the 1960s when the village was expanded to include a high street and housing estates, which were built in between the station and the high street.

Despite its unassuming atmosphere, the village of Bookham has actually been home to a few famous faces. Jane Austen spent time in Bookham whilst writing several of her novels, as her cousin and godfather, Rev. Samuel Cooke, was the local vicar from 1769-1820. Did you also know that C. S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia studied here, and Pink Floyd bassist, Roger Waters, was born in the neighbourhood in 1943.

The area has a tendency to feel a little isolated given its lack of convenient local public transport services, and in order to access any convenient amenities one must drive to the towns of Leatherhead or Guildford.

Whilst this sleepy neighbourhood hasn’t seen much development over the past few decades, the nearby town of Leatherhead has a number of projects underway that are set to increase interest not only in Leatherhead itself but in Bookham too. These include the development of Leatherhead’s Riverside Quarter that borders the River Mole, which will bring apartments, restaurants, and cafes. Leatherhead’s Swan Centre is also in the process of receiving significant improvements, which include a larger car park, and plans for more varied shopping space and a roof garden. In Bookham itself some locals have expressed concern about the council identifying two nearby sites as potential locations for new homes and traveller pitches. However, the position of these sites in greenbelt land near a conservation area means that these developments will likely take place elsewhere in the borough.