READERS have been in touch with extra information about the scenes shown in photos of the 1980s Woking town centre featured in Peeps into the Past a fortnight ago.
Nigel Searle emailed to say the road running from the left in Picture 1 is Church Street West. The photo was probably taken at around the same time as Picture 2, that also featured the same road, looking east.
Regarding Picture 3, a wide-angle view showing the Civic Offices on the left and the roof and spire of Christ Church on the right, Nigel says he thinks the light-coloured building on the right is the short-lived library, “with the Centre Pool, or was it Pools, off to the right”.
He added: “The large brick monolith in the centre is probably what was the Centre Halls. But these buildings only existing for a relatively short time when I wasn’t spending much time in the town. And with it having changed so much, I’m not certain.
“That whole area is, of course, now occupied by The Peacocks centre and multi-storey car parks.”
Of Picture 4 and Ryde House, Nigel said “It is looking across Chobham Road from roughly the location of 1 Christchurch Way, the back of the Civic Offices.”
He said an older house of the same name originally occupied some or all of this site. Nigel added: “The building to the left, what had been Terry’s Confectioners & Tobacconist, appears to be boarded up, so probably due to be demolished to make way for what is today McLaren’s Victoria Gate building.”
He said the photo also shows a section of Chobham Road that would originally have crossed Boundary Road and Boundary Lane before crossing the canal. He adds that today Victoria Way follows the line of Boundary Road to where it once joined Chertsey Road, and that of Boundary Lane in the opposite direction.
Nigel recalls: “Prior to the construction of Victoria Way and this photo there was Riverside House, an annex to the Victoria Hospital, between Boundary Road and Terry’s.
“Terry’s was well placed to be a regular stop off for my sister and I for sweets, drinks and ice cream and for my father for his favourite Gold Block pipe tobacco.”
Readers John Wheeler and Graham Coombs both agree with Nigel that Picture 5 shows leather shop JH Barrenger Ltd on the corner of Chertsey Road and Duke Street. To its right would have been Woolworths. Both shops are now Woking’s Wetherspoon’s pub, The Herbert Wells.
This week we feature two more photos taken by the late Tony Dorman.
Picture 6 shows Woking’s former police station in Heathside Road.
Picture 7 is of electronic instrument maker Medelec’s building on the Manor Way trading estate in Old Woking.
The company was formed in 1955 and its instruments were used in hospitals and clinics to assist in the investigation of neuro-muscular diseases.
Tony joined the firm in 1977 as a planning engineer and later as a draughtsman, until 2006 when the Old Woking site closed.
If you have some memories or old pictures relating to the Woking area, call David Rose on 01483 838960, or drop a line to the News & Mail.
David Rose is a local historian and writer who specialises in what he calls “the history within living memory” of people, places and events in the west Surrey area covering towns such as Woking and Guildford. He collects old photos and memorabilia relating to the area and the subject, and regularly gives illustrated local history talks to groups and societies. For enquiries and bookings please phone or email him at: [email protected]