Quaint interwar residential streets and green space make South Stoneleigh and Nonsuch encapsulates the essence of the southwestern suburbs. Around 11 miles from central London and with much of the village falling into the county of Surrey, it’s not surprising that the transport links into town are a tad limited, despite having Stoneleigh, East Ewell, and Ewell stations all located nearby. These trains are relatively infrequent and there is a distinct lack of bus routes through the area, but it is better connected than some of the nearby towns. The area’s main draw is its fantastic sweep of former royal parkland, Nonsuch Park, which once contained Nonsuch Palace and now contains Nonsuch Mansion, as well as some attractive lakes and waterways. Nonsuch High School for Girls is an excellent educational facility and serves much of the population. Its distance from London means that South Stoneleigh and Nonsuch is a reasonably affordable commuter town, making it popular with families of a range of sizes and ages, meaning that it possesses a diverse yet quiet and close-knit community feel.

There is evidence that the area was once home to an Iron Age settlement long before it was cut through by a large Roman road known as Stane Street (now London Road/A24), as it passed from London to Chichester via the nearby spring in Ewell. It remained and was part of the Great Park of Nonsuch Palace, built as a hunting lodge for Henry VIII until the grand house was pulled down in 1683 and the materials sold to pay off the gambling debts of Charles II’s mistress Barbara of Castlemaine. The estate was sold off in 1731 and turned into farmland, which it remained until well into the 20th century, when commuter routes and houses were demanded following the expansion of the city after the First World War. Most of the area’s farmland was developed into housing, but much of Nonsuch Park thankfully remains in the southern half of the locale.

Probably looking for somewhere far from central London to escape any chances of being noticed, the famous detective Robert Honey Fabian (1901-1978) lived at 40 Fairfax Avenue from the early 70s until his death. After he had risen to the rank of Detective Superintendent in the Met Police, he retired to the area to become a crime writer, whose work was dramatised by the BBC, and he appeared on Desert Island Discs in 1956.

The park is named Nonsuch apparently as there was “none such place like it in Europe”, and as well as being beautiful it was also useful, with much of the land being used as a chalk quarry and clay pit to produce fine pottery.

Samuel Pepys often visited the area, staying in nearby Ewell, once complained of briefly losing his dog in the park after it chased after a flock of sheep! Today the park exists as a fantastic nature reserve and an ornithologist’s dream as it is home to over 70 species of bird.

It is no surprise that the main problem that locals, young and old, cite is the area’s lack of convenient transport links into the city. However, this isolation from bustling London is for many one of its charms.

One of the biggest developments that will affect the southwestern suburbs in the coming decade is the introduction of Crossrail 2, which will pass directly through Stoneleigh station. This is predicted to help with congestion on the South Western Mainline, which is one of the busiest routes in the country. However, plans have been on hold since the covid-19 pandemic began in 2020 meaning the project could take a long time to come to fruition. More immediately, Esso is in the process of constructing an aviation fuel pipeline from the Fawley Refinery in Southampton all the way to Heathrow Airport. Construction began in 2021 and involves the pipe being taken through areas of Surrey, including this neighbourhood; which some residents have cited as a major source of disruption.