Sandwiched between the riverside thoroughfare of Portsmouth Road and the bustling Victoria Road, this Surbiton neighbourhood combines the picturesque, the residential, and the high street in equal measures. The suburban residential roads are made up of the Edwardian and inter-war semis that typify this part of town, and which sit only a couple of minutes’ walk from Surbiton’s vibrant high street, while remaining quiet and leafy. The centrepiece of this town is the impressive Grade-II listed Art Deco station that offers a regular service to Waterloo that takes under 20 minutes despite Surbiton’s zone 6 location. Only a 5-minute bus ride away, Kingston is the nearest shopping centre, but Surbiton high street’s own conveniences are in no short supply. With an abundance of community-minded pubs to suit anybody from the craft beer connoisseur to the riverside Pimm’s sipper, large, reasonably priced homes, and plenty of great local schools, Surbiton has long been a popular destination for families, and the recent influx of students from nearby universities has only added to the diverse and interesting community.

With its name deriving from the Old English for south granary – as opposed to the north granary of Norbiton – Surbiton has been settled since at least 1179, albeit sparsely. It began to prosper with the development of the railway, which was eschewed by nearby Kingston because of uproar from the coaching monopolies and so introduced at Surbiton in 1838, with extensions added systematically over the next hundred years, hence the town’s great transport links today. The railways turned Surbiton into a very desirable location, attracting artists John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt, as well as Thomas Hardy and Enid Blyton. In 1937, under the guidance of Scottish architect James Robb Scott, the station was entirely rebuilt as a compendium of individual buildings in a number of shapes all joined together in a continuous Art Deco style. Surbiton finally became part of London in 1965, along with Kingston and Richmond, after a long period of uncertainty about whether it would rather remain part of the historic county of Surrey.

While the railways attracted many famous faces to Surbiton, few lived in this area surrounding the high street, likely because there were larger, quieter houses in what would have been nearby more rural neighbourhoods. One individual who did brave the hustle and bustle was the actor Allan Cuthbertson (1920-1988), who lived at 20 St. Mark’s Hill from the 1950s onwards. A former Australian Airforce pilot, Cuthbertson is best known for playing military roles in films such as The Guns of Navarone (1961) and appearing in much loved television shows such as Fawlty Towers and Terry and June.

Besides being renowned as an architectural masterpiece, Surbiton station is also known as one of the filming locations for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009). In the scene, Harry meets Dumbledore on Platform 3 before they apparate off to the village of Budleigh Babberton.

Surbiton is home to a number of bizarre traditions such as Surbiton Ski Sunday, when locals strap blocks of ice to their feet and slide down St. Mark’s Hill, and the Seething Sardine Festival, where an annual procession is held to celebrate the ctional haul of sardines from the local waterways.

Surbiton’s zone 6 location means that commuters have to fork out almost £2500 for an annual travelcard to zone 1, which seems extortionate for a 20-minute journey twice a day. However, as one local commuter mentioned, “even though the travel is very expensive, the amount of money saved by living so far from town more than makes up for it. It is quicker to get to Waterloo than from closer areas like Richmond, and the houses are half the price!”

Despite the hustle and bustle of the neighbourhood, centred around Surbiton’s main highstreet and busy station, the area is few and far between by way of new and upcoming developments. The only nearby building project is that of Siden Mews on Brighton Road, a short walk from the station, which will provide a number of new apartments and maisonettes on the site of a former builders yard. Beyond this, Crossrail 2 is slated to pass through Surbiton Station, speeding up the already rather rapid journey into London and out further afield, reducing the sometimes serious overcrowding that can occur at the busy transport hub. Though confirmation is yet to be made, and a completion date still very much up in the air - perhaps in the 2030s, it is likely Crossrail will bring further investment to Surbiton over the coming decade. That said, Kevin Davis, leader of Kingston Council, is confident that this can be done while still maintaining the area’s unique culture and suburban feel. It is also likely that the area will feel the effect of the population increase accross the borough of Kingston, with the population expected to increase by 20,000 by 2030.