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The site for Alexandra Park, as Alexandra Recreation Ground was called when it first opened, was purchased in the late C19th/early C20th in order to provide public recreational facilities in the quickly developing town of Surbiton. The park provided various sporting facilities, which in 1944 included a miniature railway, and it is the home of a number of clubs, with hedged croquet and bowling greens. A fine avenue of trees leads towards the pavilion and trees line some boundaries including the main entrance on King Charles Road. Red Lion Gardens, just south of the gates, is a triangular area of formal planting by the main road.
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There was a large parish church in Kingston by the C12th, an earlier church having been rebuilt by Gilbert, Sheriff of Surrey, who gave it to Merton Priory. The foundations of a small chapel of earlier date, which was possibly the site of coronations, were excavated in 1926 and are visible in the churchyard, with a plaque marking the site. The churchyard to the north of the church has been cleared of gravestones, except for some table tombs and a sarcophagus, and some headstones have been placed on the boundary facing the east end of the church and on the south side. The ornamental gates were donated as a war memorial. Trees in the churchyard include mature limes, a yew and a number of chestnuts.
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Athelstan Recreation Ground is an interwar park laid out on former fields as the area south of Kingston town centre was being developed from the early C20th. Its name recalls the Anglo-Saxon King Athelstan, who was crowned at Kingston in 925 AD. The town gets its name for once being the residence of Surrey under-kings, as well as of King John, and reputedly 7 Saxon kings were crowned here although this number is disputed.
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The borough boundary between RB Kingston and LB Sutton cuts north-south across the park, which is a remnant of commonland, the boundaries of which have not changed for at least 150 years. It was shown on a Tithe Map of 1839 as Back Green and prior to the building of the railway in the 1850s it used to be linked to the main area of Lower Green, which is now the main road through Worcester Park. Upper Green was located near the junction of Malden Road and Church Road. Nearby is a further remnant of commonland, Malden Green, which remains as a strip of grass by the main road with Lombardy poplars, but otherwise has disappeared.
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Berrylands Park is on the site of Surbiton Lagoon, a fine open-air swimming pool that was opened on 30 April 1934 by Surbiton Borough Council. In the 1960s it was used as the setting for swimwear and soft drinks advertisements. Constructed near Raeburn Avenue it had an impressive entrance, landscaped areas and other recreational facilities included a sandpit. It eventually closed in 1979 and part of the site reverted to landscape and later became Berrylands Park. Meldone Close to the south of the present park was built over the site of the Lagoon. The Tolworth Brook runs through Berrylands Park, a tributary of the Hogsmill River, passing through the rural landscape of Raeburn Open Space to the north of Berrylands Park.
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Beverley Park was laid out in c.1890 on part of the land that used to be Hoppinghood Farm, demolished in 1911, part of whose land is also now Malden Golf Course. The park has a pavilion and tennis courts, open grass, some mature trees and an extensive rose garden in the south west corner. The Beverley Brook flows along its eastern boundary and on the other side of the stream are school playing fields and sports grounds. An avenue of trees runs east-west across the centre of the park and there are various specimen trees including catalpa, gingko, oak, copper beech as well as conifers and a number of raised beds at the entrances.
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Once the southern part of Surbiton Common, on the 1838 Enclosure map what is now Causeway Copse was marked as Gooseberry Hill, prior to which it had been known as Gosborough Hyll or Gosbury Hill. The woodland was owned by Merton Priory, and in 1537 was leased to William Saunders, requiring high standards of management. It remains partly wooded and is now a small park with a playground, surrounded by housing, reached through a narrow path from The Causeway by Durbin Road.
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The creation of a public garden here was first proposed by Samuel Gray, who was then elected to the local council and work began in 1889. The first section was completed in 1890 and continued in stages during the 1890s and early 1900s. A bandstand was erected in 1891, donated by a former Mayor of Kingston, and Canbury Gardens became one of the most popular amenities in the town with weekly concerts and beautiful planting displays. By 1933 a pavilion, second bowling green and further tennis grounds were added, infilling the remaining areas of land bordering the Corporation Depot and sewage works, and this remains the extent of the gardens today.
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The borough boundary is on an ancient lane called Chessington Park Lane, which is on the eastern boundary of Castle Hill. Earthworks here are believed to be the remains of a medieval hunting lodge that was at the northern end of a medieval deer park owned by Merton College, Oxford, so-called after William Merton, Lord of the Manor, who had enabled poor scholars to go to Oxford University. The deer park had extended to Park Farm in the south, and Bonesgate Stream to the west. Previously oak woodland, it was cleared of trees by the C19th for fields and meadows. A small area of woodland near the earthwork was planted in the C19th and a path runs through the site to Horton Country Park. It is managed as a local nature reserve.
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Church Fields Recreation Ground was laid out on fields adjacent to Chessington Parish Church of St Mary to serve the expanding population of the area in the C20th. At the end of WWII, VE Day Services were held in the recreation ground. It is largely open fields with scattered trees, the grass left long in parts and otherwise used for sports with a playground, playing fields and a bowling green leased to a club. Shrubs and trees are on the perimeter and there are small nature conservation areas.
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The Crescent was built in the early 1840s; a map of Surbiton Estate in 1847 shows the gardens fronting The Crescent informally laid out with a simple path meandering through them; trees were later planted and by 1910 the gardens were railed and the clock tower had been built to the south. The railings were later removed as part of the WWII war effort. A large circular paddling pool was constructed by the early 1930s. The gardens were re-landscaped in the 1990s when a new water feature and pergola were constructed, an earlier rock feature recreated, new paths and planting.
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Cleave's Almshouses were founded in 1668, built at the bequest of William Cleave, who left a legacy of land and money to build the almshouses, ‘for the maintenance of twelve poor people of the parish of honest life and reputation, for ever'. Additional homes were built in 1880, 1910 and 2003, eventually creating a quad surrounding a quiet garden. The almshouses remain among the oldest surviving buildings in Kingston. The London Road frontage has a strip of garden with lawn, flower beds and a line of trees inside the low brick wall to the road, with an internal garden overlooked by the houses.