Elm Grove, Walton-on-Thames: History, Royal Visitors and Future

Elm Grove is one of Walton’s most historically layered surviving buildings, a Grade II listed Georgian house that has been a private estate, a temporary home for European royalty, council offices, a courthouse, a Citizens Advice bureau, a performing arts school and, today, a nursery. Its grounds, now Elm Grove Recreation Ground, have served the town’s sporting and community life for over a century, and the wider site is currently the subject of council proposals for a new NHS Neighbourhood Health Hub.

Elm Grove at a glance

• Address: The Courthouse, Elm Grove, Hersham Road, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, KT12 1LZ
• Heritage status: Grade II listed, list entry 1377458, listed 16 November 1984
• Historic England’s date: early 19th century
• Local historian Bryan Ellis’s date: late 18th century, built for the architect George Shakespeare
• Former uses: private house, council offices and council chamber, magistrates’ courts, Citizens Advice bureau, performing arts school
• Current use: Walton Montessori Nursery, registered 6 September 2018
• Royal connection: the future Nicholas II of Russia visited his fiancée, Princess Alix of Hesse, here in June 1894
• Wider site: Elm Grove Recreation Ground, Walton-on-Thames Bowling Club, a youth centre and land proposed for an NHS Neighbourhood Health Hub

Where Elm Grove stands

Elm Grove sits at the point where the southern end of Walton High Street meets Hersham Road, historically, according to Bryan Ellis’s local history Walton Past, close to the old boundary between Walton village and an area once known as Commonside. Before the suburban growth of Walton and Hersham, the estate extended well beyond the immediate grounds of the house.

The name now covers several related but distinct things: the listed house itself (also known as The Courthouse), the wider “Elm Grove site” considered in council planning documents, and Elm Grove Recreation Ground next door. This matters for anyone reading about current redevelopment proposals, since they concern the wider site, not the listed house. Elmbridge Borough Council has confirmed that the nursery occupying the listed building is not affected by the proposed NHS development.

How old is Elm Grove?

The building’s age is genuinely disputed, and the two main sources do not agree.

Bryan Ellis’s Walton Past (2002, pp. 45–46) states that Elm Grove was designed and built by the architect George Shakespeare for his own occupation, and that the house passed to Shakespeare’s niece on his death in 1797, placing at least the origins of the building in the late 18th century.

Historic England’s statutory listing, by contrast, dates the surviving building to the early 19th century and does not name an architect. The listing describes it as: built of red brick with a hipped slate roof and end stacks to the rear; three storeys, with a rendered plat band over the ground floor; five bays, the centre three set in a pedimented break; sash windows under gauged brick heads to the second floor and glazing-bar sashes to the first; a central, half-glazed door in a moulded surround with a traceried fanlight; and a flat porch on wooden compound columns arranged in five groups of four. Single-storey, three-bay additions flank the house on either side.

Both accounts can’t be taken as describing exactly the same moment of construction. It’s possible an earlier late-18th-century house was substantially rebuilt or remodelled in the early 19th century, or that one source’s dating is approximate; the evidence assembled so far doesn’t settle which. The most accurate summary is simply that Ellis attributes the house to George Shakespeare before his death in 1797, while Historic England dates the surviving fabric to the early 19th century.

The Shakespeare and North families

According to Ellis, when George Shakespeare died in 1797 the property passed to his niece Mary and her husband, Richard North. The family name appears in historic records under several spellings: Shakespeare, Shakespear and Shakspear.

The Surrey History Centre holds a collection of deeds relating to the Shakspear and North families of Walton-on-Thames, catalogued by the National Archives as NRA 43218. The collection covers property that had become known by the 19th century as Elm Grove, The Chestnuts and Oakfield, and is likely to be the most valuable primary source for resolving the building’s construction date and the estate’s early boundaries, a genuine opportunity for future archival research.

Ellis records that Mary and Richard North’s son, the Reverend William North, inherited the estate in 1835. After a chapel of ease was founded at Hersham in 1839, William officiated there for a period, though the 1851 census recorded him as a clergyman “without the care of souls”, meaning he held no parish responsibility at that time. William North died in 1859, and his will directed that his estate be sold to provide for his three daughters. The sale was delayed until August 1868, when five properties, Elm Grove, Oakfield, The Chestnuts, Tithe Farm and Hersham House, were offered at auction. Ellis records that Elm Grove then stood in around 17 acres, and suggests it failed to reach its reserve price because it remained with William North’s married daughter, Laura Hickley, until her death in 1907.

A future tsar at Elm Grove, 1894

Elm Grove’s best-known moment came in the 1890s, when Laura Hickley leased the house to Prince Louis of Battenberg, a senior Royal Navy officer then serving as a naval adviser at the War Office, and his wife, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

In June 1894, Victoria’s younger sister, Princess Alix of Hesse, was staying with the Battenbergs at Elm Grove when she was visited by her fiancé, the Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia, the future Emperor Nicholas II. Elmbridge Museum’s own history timeline independently confirms the visit: “The future Russian Tsar Nicholas II visited his fiancée, Alexandra, who was staying with the Battenberg family at Elm Grove, Walton, in June 1894.”

Ellis reproduces part of a letter in which Nicholas recalled spending three particularly happy days at the Battenbergs’ “cosy cottage” beside the Thames, boating, picnicking and enjoying the summer weather, a visit he considered delightful but far too short. Nicholas’s description of a substantial English country house as a “cottage” says more about the scale of the Russian imperial palaces he’d grown up in than about Elm Grove itself.

Nicholas and Alix went on from Walton to Windsor to see Alix’s grandmother, Queen Victoria. Nicholas succeeded his father as Emperor of Russia later in 1894, and the couple married on 26 November 1894, after which Alix became Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Their story ended in tragedy: Nicholas, Alexandra and their children were killed at Ekaterinburg in July 1918, in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution.

The royal connection didn’t go unnoticed by local businesses at the time. Ellis reproduces an advertisement for S. Rosewell, a Walton boat and punt builder with boathouses at Walton Bridge and Walton Wharf, which claimed patronage from “the Emperor and Empress of Russia” and Prince Louis of Battenberg. As an advertisement, it’s promotional material rather than an independent record, but it’s an evocative link between Elm Grove’s royal visitors and the town’s riverside trade.

The Wilkinson family and a reported ghost story

After the Battenbergs, Elm Grove was occupied by the Wilkinson family. Ellis records that one of the six Wilkinson children later wrote of an apparent poltergeist encountered in the house. No corroborating evidence has been found, so this belongs to Elm Grove’s folklore rather than its documented history, worth a mention, but not an established event.

From private estate to council property

In 1921, Walton-on-Thames Urban District Council acquired the Elm Grove estate. The house was converted into council offices and a council chamber, and its grounds were laid out as a public park and recreation ground: the beginning of Elm Grove’s long civic life.

Elmbridge Museum’s photographic collection documents the site’s role as a base for local fire services during this period: a 1921 photograph shows the Walton and Weybridge Fire Brigade posed outside Elm Grove with a new Dennis motor tender and an older Shand Mason steam fire engine, under Chief Officer Ralph Wilds. A separate 1932 photograph, from Clifford Spain’s Newsreel, records a fire-brigade hose-reel drill competition at Walton Recreation Ground, Elm Grove, and a 1933 photograph shows brigade members outside the house again following the combination of the Walton and Weybridge brigades.

In 1932, the urban district was enlarged to include Weybridge, and Elm Grove continued to serve the enlarged Walton and Weybridge Urban District Council for more than three decades, before the authority moved to a purpose-built town hall. Elm Grove itself remained in public use.

Elm Grove Recreation Ground and the bowling club

The council’s 1921 acquisition made the grounds available for public recreation, and Walton-on-Thames Bowling Club has been part of that story for over a century. The club was founded on 28 July 1922, when eighteen men met at Walton Infants School under the chairmanship of a Mr F. Bennett and resolved to form a club, with Mr A. Perring as honorary secretary and Mr E. S. Lemarchand as honorary treasurer.

The Elm Grove bowling green was administered by Walton-on-Thames Urban District Council and was open to public use for a small hourly charge (threepence an hour, according to the club’s own history). A ladies’ section was formally established in 1937. The club remains one of Elm Grove’s longest-standing community organisations, and, as set out below, its future on the site is currently under discussion as part of the council’s redevelopment proposals.

Citizens Advice at Elm Grove

Elm Grove was also the first home of the area’s Citizens Advice service. The Walton, Weybridge and Hersham Citizens Advice Bureau began operating from Elm Grove in 1942. After 72 years there, the service moved in 2014 to the Elmbridge Community Hub at the Old School House on Walton High Street, and took the name Citizens Advice Elmbridge West the following year.

Courthouse and Stagecoach Theatre Arts

Elm Grove later served as Walton’s magistrates’ court. When Historic England added the building to the statutory list in 1984, it was described as a “house, now courts”, confirming the judicial use was current or recent at the time of listing. Records relating to Walton Magistrates’ Courts, Elm Grove, are held at the Surrey History Centre, and could support further research into the court’s history and when this use ended.

After the courthouse closed, the building was occupied for a period by Stagecoach Theatre Arts, offering part-time performing arts education for children. A 2011 photograph by Nigel Cox, taken on 23 October and available under a Creative Commons licence, records the house during this period and identifies its earlier uses as a courthouse and the offices of Walton and Weybridge Urban District Council.

The building has kept the name “The Courthouse” ever since, even though it no longer functions as one.

Elm Grove today

The listed house is now home to Walton Montessori Nursery, addressed as The Courthouse, Elm Grove, Hersham Road, Walton-on-Thames, KT12 1LZ. Ofsted’s register shows the nursery as an open early-years provider at this address, registered on 6 September 2018.

Elmbridge Borough Council has stated that Walton Montessori will remain in the listed building under current redevelopment proposals, alongside Surrey County Council’s youth centre.

The 2024 Elm Grove Development Brief

Elmbridge Borough Council formally adopted the Elm Grove Development Brief on 18 April 2024, following a public consultation that ran from 5 December 2023 to 29 January 2024. A development brief isn’t itself a planning application: it sets out the council’s parameters and expectations to guide future development, and once adopted becomes a material consideration when any planning application for the site is decided.

At the time the brief was prepared, the wider Elm Grove site included Walton Montessori Nursery, Walton-on-Thames Bowling Club, the Elmbridge Community Eco Hub, Surrey County Council’s youth centre, Elm Grove Recreation Ground, and associated car parking and hard-surfaced areas. Its stated objectives include conserving the listed building and its setting, bringing underused land back into productive use, and investing in the recreation ground.

How the proposals have changed since 2024

The council’s earlier position, in 2023 and 2024, was that the bowling green could potentially be recreated elsewhere within the recreation ground, with the bowling club remaining part of the Elm Grove site in a different location. As the emerging NHS proposal turned out to need more land than first anticipated, the council concluded by late 2024 that neither the health hub nor an optimum level of housing could be accommodated while the bowling club and Eco Hub stayed in their existing positions.

By 2025 and into 2026, the council’s position had shifted from relocating the bowling club within Elm Grove to discussing alternative arrangements elsewhere, including possible financial support towards a merger with another club, or improvements to bowls facilities at a different site in the borough. Anyone relying on older council material describing the bowling club as remaining at Elm Grove should treat the 2025–26 position as the more current one.

The proposed NHS Neighbourhood Health Hub

Elmbridge Borough Council is working with the NHS North West Surrey Alliance and its development partner, Prime plc, on proposals for an NHS Neighbourhood Health Hub at Elm Grove. The plan would bring together services currently delivered from the Walton health centre and community hospital site on Rodney Road into a purpose-built building, expanding from around 13 existing services and increasing GP practice rooms from 19 to 26. Other services under consideration include complex wound care, specialist heart-failure nursing, community mental health support, talking therapies, maternity and outpatient services, and ultrasound provision, with the aim of operating seven days a week.

Public engagement in November and December 2024 drew responses from around 500 residents. Feedback showed strong support for preserving and improving the recreation ground; views on the health hub itself were more divided, with support for expanded local healthcare balanced against concerns about parking, traffic and the future of existing facilities. The future of the bowling club generated particularly strong feeling, with many respondents opposing its relocation given its century-long association with the site.

On 30 April 2025, the council’s Cabinet agreed to enter into an option agreement with Prime plc, intended to enable the potential disposal of the land needed for the health hub, while acknowledging the impact on the bowling club and committing to keep considering alternative arrangements and reasonable financial assistance.

As of the council’s most recent substantive update, dated 16 January 2026, Elmbridge Borough Council remains committed to the project and continues to work with Prime plc to progress the land sale, with discussions about the bowling club’s future still ongoing. No planning permission has been granted and no construction has begun: the health hub remains a proposed development, not an approved or active building project. Elm Grove Recreation Ground itself remains open and in public use.

Elm Grove timeline

• Late 18th century: Bryan Ellis attributes Elm Grove’s construction to the architect George Shakespeare
• 1797: On Shakespeare’s death, the house passes to his niece Mary and her husband, Richard North
• 1835: The estate passes to the Reverend William North
• 1859: William North dies; his will directs the estate to be sold
• 1868: Elm Grove and four related properties are offered at auction
• 1890s: Laura Hickley leases Elm Grove to Prince Louis and Princess Victoria of Battenberg
• June 1894: The future Nicholas II visits his fiancée, Princess Alix of Hesse, at Elm Grove
• 1907: Laura Hickley dies
• 1921: Walton-on-Thames Urban District Council acquires the estate; the house becomes council offices
• 1922: Walton-on-Thames Bowling Club is founded, using the Elm Grove green
• 1932: The urban district is enlarged to include Weybridge
• 1942: The Walton, Weybridge and Hersham Citizens Advice Bureau opens at Elm Grove
• 1984: Elm Grove, then in use as courts, is listed Grade II on 16 November
• 2014: Citizens Advice moves to the Elmbridge Community Hub
• 2018: Walton Montessori Nursery registers at The Courthouse on 6 September
• 2024: The Elm Grove Development Brief is adopted on 18 April
• 2025: The council agrees an option agreement to enable a proposed NHS Neighbourhood Health Hub
• January 2026: The council reports it remains committed to the project, with land sale and bowling club discussions ongoing

Why Elm Grove matters

Elm Grove’s significance isn’t just architectural or royal: it’s that the building records several distinct chapters of Walton’s development in one place. It began as a private estate on the edge of the old village, became briefly connected to the royal families of Britain, Germany and Russia through the Battenbergs’ tenancy, and then spent a century in public use as council offices, a courthouse, a citizens’ advice service and a school, before its current life as a nursery. The site’s next chapter, as a possible NHS health hub alongside its recreation ground and bowling club, is still being decided.

Open questions for further research

A handful of questions remain genuinely unresolved, and would benefit from further work in the Surrey History Centre’s Shakspear and North family deeds and other archives:

1. Was the present house built by George Shakespeare before 1797, or was an earlier building substantially rebuilt in the early 19th century?
2. Which surviving parts of the building, if any, date from its earliest phase?
3. Who occupied Elm Grove between Laura Hickley’s death in 1907 and the council’s purchase in 1921?
4. When precisely did Elm Grove’s use as council offices and as a magistrates’ court begin and end?
5. Do any Wilkinson family papers describing the reported poltergeist survive?

We’ll update this page as the NHS Neighbourhood Health Hub proposal progresses and as further primary sources come to light.