New Malden

New Malden was established entirely as a result of the arrival of the railway, when what is now called New Malden railway station was opened on 1 December 1846 on the main line from London Waterloo.

Building started slowly in the area just to the north of the station, gathering pace in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with two- and three-bedroom terraced houses. Further out towards Coombe Hill are larger detached and semi-detached houses from the 1930s. The name of the road which leads up the hill to Coombe, Traps Lane, is thought to derive from a farm owned by a Mrs Trap. Following the opening of the Kingston bypass in 1927, the farms to its south progressively gave way to suburban development.

Two miles (3 km) to the south is the former village of Old Malden (from which New Malden gets its name) whose origins go back to Anglo-Saxon times, the name being Old English for Mæl + duna = "the cross on the hill".

Under the District Councils Act 1895, The Maldens & Coombe Urban District Council was created (the plural relating to Old Malden and New Malden). In 1936 Malden and Coombe was granted full Borough status, with its own Mayor, and had the rare distinction of a civic mace bearing the royal insignia of King Edward VIII.

New Malden suffered damage from German bombing during the Second World War.[1] The first attack took place on 16 August 1940, killing about 50 people and damaging about 1,300 homes. After dropping approximately 150 bombs, German pilots reportedly flew over the railway station at low altitude and machine-gunned passengers as they got off a train that had just arrived at the railway station.[2] Unexploded munitions from this period are still found on occasion.[3] In 1965, the London Government Act 1963 came into force merging the boroughs of Malden & Coombe and Surbiton with Kingston upon Thames to form the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.

New Malden is home to the offices of several large organisations, including Nestlé Purina Pet Foods (before 1997 Spillers Pet Foods) - until 2012 when Nestlé moved its UK headquarters to Gatwick,[4] and Northrop Grumman.

New Malden is bounded to the north by the affluent Coombe Hill and to the south and east by Raynes Park, Worcester Park and Tolworth. New Malden includes Motspur Park, home to the training ground of Fulham FC, and also the King's College London sports ground, home to the training ground of AFC Wimbledon.

• To the west: Kingston upon Thames, Norbiton
• To the south: Old Malden, Surbiton, Tolworth, Worcester Park
• To the east: Motspur Park, Raynes Park, West Barnes
• To the north: Coombe, Richmond Park, Wimbledon

The busy A3 trunk road runs through part of New Malden. A minor tributary of the River Thames, Beverley Brook, flows through the east of the town, while its western boundary is along the Hogsmill, another Thames tributary.

The first parking meters were made in New Malden at Venners Ltd.

War memorial outside New Malden Town Hall

New Malden has its own sports centre, the Malden Centre,[11] which includes a swimming pool, gym and community facilities. It also runs several adult learning courses.

Beverley Park provides a football pitch, tennis courts, children's playground, allotments and open space.

Tudor Williams Ltd, established in 1913 but closed in 2019, was a family run department store in the High Street. The company also has shops in Cobham and Dorking and expanded by acquiring department stores Elphicks of Farnham in October 2004, and Knights of Reigate in September 2006. A branch of Waitrose is one of a number of other well known stores in the High Street.

The local newspapers are the Surrey Comet which has been in print since 1854, Coombe Monthly, and the Kingston Guardian.

A monthly publication, The Village Voice,[12] covers local history, news, topical articles and advertisements for businesses serving the community.

There is an annual Malden Fortnight, which includes a parade showcasing all the local schools and community groups and various other activities.

Each Christmas the High Street is festooned with Christmas lights with its own switching-on ceremony. The choir from Christ Church School, in New Malden sing Christmas carols to the townsfolk.

For a small town it is more than proportionately blessed with winners of the Victoria Cross. Research recently published in the Village Voice revealed the existence of a previously unknown third medal winner – see Notable Residents below.

New Malden has its own youth theatre, the Green Theatre Company, established in 1986 in a converted cricket pavilion at Barton Green. Green Theatre Company

The area's last surviving cinema, the Odeon at Shannon Corner on the A3 was replaced by a large retail area including several large stores. The other cinema in the High Street (corner of Sussex Road) burnt down on Boxing Day 1936. There was also a silent cinema on Coombe Road by the station, which became the New Malden Gentlemen's Club in 1923; this closed in August 2010, and is now a Korean karaoke and pool bar.

New Malden also has its own "Dino-Golf" course, 18 holes of dinosaur themed crazy golf overlooking the A3, as well as a floodlit golf driving range.

In recent times New Malden played host to the biggest B&Q, Tesco and Currys. This Currys is the biggest electrical store in London. These are situated away from the High Street, which focuses more on smaller, more upmarket shops and restaurants.

• Burlington (primary and nursery)
• Christ Church (primary and nursery, Church of England)
• Coombe Boys' School (secondary; "Beverley" prior to 2006)
• Coombe Girls' School (secondary; mixed-gender sixth form)
• Coombe Hill Junior School (primary)
• Corpus Christi (primary and nursery, Roman Catholic)
• Holy Cross (secondary, Roman Catholic School)
• King's Oak (primary and nursery; formerly, "The Mount")
• Malden Manor (primary and nursery)
• Richard Challoner (secondary, Roman Catholic)
• Sacred Heart (Primary)
• Study School (Primary)

Notable former or current residents include:

• Cyril Barton – posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross during World War II[15]
• Ian Bazalgette – posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross during World War II[16]
• Bernard Braden – TV personality, mainly of the 1960s
• Jane Campbell, Baroness Campbell of Surbiton – British peer and Commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission
• Anthony Caro – sculptor, born here in 1924
• Vernon Corea – Sri Lankan TV pioneer
• Paul Geraghty – author/illustrator
• Barbara Kelly – TV personality
• David Kynaston – author, historian[17]
• John Martyn – singer-songwriter
• Sally Morgan – celebrity psychic medium
• Jamal Musiala – footballer, attended Corpus Christi RC Primary School
• October – singer-songwriter
• Diana Rigg – actress
• Dave Swarbrick – fiddler of Fairport Convention, was born in the town
• Max Wall – actor, comedian and entertainer
• Eileen Way – actress, activist[18]
• Jamie Woon – singer-songwriter
• Luke Sital-Singh – singer-songwriter
• Stormzy – rapper, singer and songwriter

New Malden also has links to a third recipient of the Victoria Cross, Humphrey Osbaldston Brooke Firman VC, whose parents lived in Coombe at the time of his death. A plaque bearing his name was unveiled on the war memorial in the High Street during April 2008 and a road in a new housing development near the High Street has been named Firman Close.

• In the BBC TV series The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, New Malden features twice in the list of excuses Perrin made to his boss for his late arrival at work; one of the claims made is that a badger ate the signal box there.[19]
• The house on the corner of Dukes Avenue/Howard Road featured in the exterior shots of 1970s ITV series Bless This House, which featured comedian Sid James.
• In 2004, Tesco reported that the New Malden store was the biggest consumer of fruit and vegetables in the country, in relation to items of fruit purchased per customer. It is thought that the Korean diet contributes significantly to this.[20]
• In the BBC One television series Little Britain, character Marjorie Dawes hosts weekly FatFighters meetings at a community centre in New Malden.
• Mentioned in a mid-1990s MasterCard advert – "New York? The furthest he's ever been is New Malden!"
• Mentioned briefly on the radio traffic report in the BBC television series Outnumbered.
• Mentioned in Stephen Fry's autobiography Moab is my Washpot. "I suppose some rat faced weasel from New Malden will be interviewed at any minute to give the other side of the hunting debate" (page 45)
• The Duke of Cambridge pub, now a Krispy Kreme doughnut store, was acquired during the early 1960s by the notorious Kray twins who ran it as a bar and club; the then current world heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston attended the reopening night.[21]
• Malden features in an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, in which the "North Malden Icelandic Saga Society" change the script to the BBC's production of the Icelandic legend "Njorl's Saga" to incorporate references to Malden in an effort to attract investors. (Episode 1, Series 3)
• In the BBC sketch-comedy series Tracey Ullman's Show comedian Tracey Ullman's OAP character Kay Clark lives with her 103-year-old mother in New Malden.
• At the start of series 3 of the British spy thriller television series, Killing Eve, Sandra Oh's character, Eve Polastri, is living and working in a Korean restaurant located in New Malden. The location is clearly identified on screen as New Malden.
• In BBC One sitcom Not Going Out series 10 episode 3, Lee Mack's character visits and buys various items from an adult shop, to spice up his love life with wife Lucy (Sally Bretton). The shop used (and renamed 'Untold Pleasures' for this episode) is the Private adult shop at 203 Kingston Road, New Malden.

• Koreatown, Los Angeles
• Spring Branch, Houston, the centre of the Korean community in Houston, Texas
• Oseyo-H Mart