Lost Guildford

By Spencer Johnson, M.D.

Guildford has grown from a Saxon settlement town to become a major commercial centre in Surrey today. William the Conqueror built the Norman castle that still overlooks the town, which became prosperous during the medieval period. The building of the Wey Navigation brought wealth to the town, but its real growth followed after the railway arrived in 1845. Today Guildford is a thriving commercial town with its cathedral, university and extensive redevelopment on its borders.Lost Guildford presents a portrait of a town and a way of life that has radically changed or disappeared today, showing not just the industries and buildings that have gone, but also many popular places of entertainment and much more. This fascinating photographic history of lost Guildford will appeal to all those who live in the town or know it well, as well as those who remember it from previous decades.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• Release date: Aug 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781445692951

Spencer Johnson, M.D.

Spencer Johnson, MD, is one of the most admired thought leaders and widely read authors in the world. His books, including the #1 bestseller Who Moved My Cheese?, are embedded in our language and culture. Called "The King of Parables" by USA Today, Dr. Johnson is often referred to as the best there is at taking complex subjects and presenting simple solutions that work. His brief books contain insights and practical tools that millions of people use to enjoy more happiness and success with less stress. Over 50 million copies of Spencer Johnson's books are in use worldwide in 47 languages.

Book preview

1

A Long, Long Time Ago

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A glimpse of the entrance to Guildford railway station in the early 1900s. These buildings were from the 1880s when the station was largely rebuilt. To the right are taxi carriages and a motorcar. The ornate canopy, known as a porte cochère, was where well-off passengers alighted from their horse-drawn carriages.

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A London & South Western Railway locomotive waits to depart Guildford with a passenger train for Portsmouth in 1922. The London Waterloo to Portsmouth main line was electrified in 1937, doing away with steam-hauled passenger trains on that route. However, the steam train era continued until July 1967.

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The crossing point of the River Wey has been at the foot of the High Street for centuries. Seen here, in the late nineteenth century, is the old stone bridge with three arches, which dated back to medieval times. It was widened and strengthened with iron arches and railings in 1824, and lasted until 1900.

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Looking downstream from the Town Bridge in the 1910s reveals just how industrial the riverside once was. Crooke’s St Nicholas Brewery is on the left, while on the right is the town wharf with the now-preserved timber shed housing the treadwheel crane and hoist.

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This small cottage is an indication of the houses that once existed in the centre of Guildford. It had been an alehouse known as the Three Mariners, and was also the birthplace of the town’s most famous citizen, Archbishop George Abbot (1562–1633). It was pulled down in the 1860s and stood where there is a car park today, adjacent to the George Abbot pub near the Town Bridge.

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The High Street on the west bank of the river looking towards The Mount. The Queen Anne-style building on the right was the home of the Crooke family of brewers. When their brewery closed in 1929 the house became the unlicensed Connaught Hotel. It was demolished in 1942 and the site later became one of Guildford’s bus stations.

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A scene that surely will never happen again: sheep being driven along Quarry Street! Captured here and published as a picture postcard in the 1900s, this would have been a common sight back then – Guildford being an important market town for west Surrey.

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The heyday of the coaching age was the early 1800s when twenty coaches a day passed through Guildford. The inns prospered too, but the era was short-lived with the coming of the railways. However, there was a brief revival towards the end of the nineteenth century into the early 1900s. Here the Reliance coach is pictured leaving Guildford’s Lion Hotel for the Victoria Hotel in London.

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By the 1930s motor vehicles were everywhere. Traffic lights had been installed and, hanging from a canopy of the Lion Hotel, there is a sign for the RAC (Royal Automobile Club). This view, looking towards St Nicolas Church, is recognisable, but most of the buildings on the south side of the street have long since gone.

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Looking up Tunsgate when it was one of the many lanes and passageways, often called gates, that led from the High Street. The gates and the posts were removed in 1907, while the buildings on the right must now be beyond living memory.

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This was the view looking north from the castle keep around 100 years ago. Buildings and features that no longer exist include: the lantern lights of the Castle