The Lost Inns and Taverns of Walton-on-Thames and Hersham

The places where people once gathered tell the story of a changing community. Some survive in another form. Others have disappeared almost without a trace.

According to an 1845 Post Office directory cited by local historian A. G. Martin, a coach left Walton’s Duke’s Head for London each day at 8 am in summer and 8.45 am in winter (Martin, 1999, p. 11).

The inn stood in Bridge Street, in a village whose public houses offered considerably more than somewhere to buy a drink. Travellers could arrange transport, find accommodation or obtain refreshments. Local people gathered to conduct business, attend meetings and exchange news (Martin, 1999, pp. 10–11).

The original Duke’s Head has gone. So have the Crown, the Castle, the Ashley Arms and the Dolphin. In Hersham, the Fox and Goat, the Jolly Waggoners and the Star have also disappeared as public houses. Their losses span more than a century, from the closure of the White Hart in the early 1900s to the disappearance of familiar neighbourhood pubs in the 2000s.

Their stories are not all the same. Some establishments closed and were demolished. Others were converted into shops or restaurants, while a change of name sometimes concealed a continuing business.

And the history is still unfolding. In September 2026 the BBC reported that a planning application had been submitted to demolish the former Grove pub on Terrace Road and replace it with flats and commercial premises. The pub has been empty since 2018, and no decision on the application has yet been made (Moules, 2026; Elmbridge Borough Council, 2026).

This article concentrates on documented establishments in Walton-on-Thames, Hersham and Whiteley Village. It is not an exhaustive inventory of every former pub within the wider ancient parish, which also included much of Oatlands.

The historian who preserved their stories

Much of what is known about the area’s older establishments survives thanks to A. G. Martin, known to his friends as Tony. A founding member and first chairman of Walton and Weybridge Local History Society, Martin was an architectural technician, photographer and enthusiastic collector of material relating to historic buildings. He assembled deeds, photographs, postcards and other records concerning local inns, intending to publish a history of the subject.

Martin died on 11 March 1971, aged 49, before completing his research. The society arranged for Michael E. Blackman to edit his surviving notes and add supplementary material, and the resulting paper appeared in 1974. Blackman prepared a revised second edition in 1999, incorporating further discoveries, closures and changes of name, and retaining architectural contributions by James Lindus Forge (Martin, 1999, pp. iii–v).

Martin and Blackman’s publication remains the principal historical source for many of the older establishments covered here. Their research is supplemented by other local histories, conservation records, contemporary reporting and the public house records maintained by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). Where original historical documents have not been independently examined, discoveries are attributed to the researchers who identified them.

When the pub was part of local government

The White Hart: an inn with authority

21–27 Church Street | Closed in the early 1900s | Historic buildings survive

A public house could once be an important centre of local administration, and the White Hart demonstrates this particularly well. During the early eighteenth century, magistrates for the Hundred of Elmbridge regularly assembled at the inn. Their business included deciding which local alehouse keepers should receive licences. The White Hart thus provided a meeting place for officials who regulated the drinking trade itself (Martin, 1999, p. 19).

Its roots extended much further back. Martin identifies a seventeenth-century trade token issued by Charles Erwin, who was associated with an establishment called the White Lion. Manorial records from 1700 identify the same property as the White Hart and confirm its earlier name. Martin also recorded a possible association with an older inn called the Five Bells, although he could not establish it conclusively (Martin, 1999, pp. 18–19).

The White Hart’s functions extended beyond drinking and administration. A friendly society established there in 1781 gave people another reason to gather: such organisations allowed members to contribute towards mutual financial support. The scale of the property reflected the activities it accommodated. Nineteenth-century sale particulars examined by Martin describe drinking rooms, domestic accommodation, a butcher’s shop, stabling and a garden, with a brewery and malthouse on a nearby property. It was a commercial complex rather than simply a bar (Martin, 1999, pp. 19–20). The brewery’s own story is told in The Lost Breweries of Walton-on-Thames.

The sources disagree on when the inn closed. The establishment disappeared from local directories in the early twentieth century, and Martin used a postcard dated April 1906, showing the inn sign removed, as evidence that it had closed around 1905 (Martin, 1999). Elmbridge Borough Council’s conservation area appraisal also gives 1905 (Elmbridge Borough Council, 2013, p. 38). John Pulford’s later article instead gives about 1902, with a photograph of that year in which the sign has already been taken from its frame (Pulford, 2019a). The sources examined here do not settle which date is right.

Unlike many of Walton’s other historic public houses, the buildings survived. They narrowly escaped redevelopment in the 1980s, and today Nos 21 to 27 Church Street are shops with offices and homes above (Pulford, 2019a; Elmbridge Borough Council, 2013, p. 38). The council’s appraisal singles out the former square carriage entrance to No. 23 as an important remnant of the group’s use as the White Hart (Elmbridge Borough Council, 2013, p. 25). It is one of the few visible clues that this part of Walton once contained an inn where local government business was conducted.

The Crown: the village landmark that vanished

Church Street and High Street | Demolished 1961

A short distance away stood the Crown, whose prominent position made it a familiar feature of Walton’s old centre. Although its documented history begins in the eighteenth century, Martin’s architectural examination suggested that later alterations concealed elements of a substantially older building. He considered that parts of its structure might date from the sixteenth century: an architectural interpretation, not an established construction date. The earliest documentary reference he found is Thomas Day’s will of 1722, and by 1729 Joseph Goodchild had received an alehouse licence for the Crown (Martin, 1999, pp. 8–9).

The Crown’s ownership reveals the influence of local brewers. William Brooker, a Walton brewer, acquired an interest in the property during the eighteenth century, and it later became associated with the Cooper family, whose brewing interests extended across the district. Owning public houses gave brewers outlets for their beer and a degree of control over the local licensed trade (Martin, 1999).

The Crown continued trading through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. Its demolition in 1961 removed one of the buildings that had defined the junction of Walton’s principal streets. The site was redeveloped as Crown House, with shops and offices; the offices were later converted into flats (Martin, 1999). Unlike the White Hart, the Crown left no historic building behind. Its position can now be reconstructed only through photographs, maps and written records.

The inns that connected Walton to the outside world

Before railways and motor vehicles transformed travel, inns provided essential services: accommodation, stabling, refreshments and access to horse-drawn transport. Walton’s position on routes towards London and beside the River Thames created opportunities for several establishments.

The Duke’s Head: where the London coach departed

Bridge Street, later Hepworth Way | Original building demolished 1970 | Replacement closed 2005 and later demolished

Martin reports that an 1845 Post Office directory described the Duke’s Head as a commercial inn and posting house, with the daily London coach timetable quoted above. The original directory has not been independently examined for this article (Martin, 1999, p. 11).

The inn occupied the western side of Bridge Street, near Church Street. Its name appears in Walton’s land tax records in 1792, although the building may have been established or rebuilt slightly earlier. When the original premises were demolished in October 1970, workmen found a brick marked 1791 and an eighteenth-century fire grate, which Martin read as evidence that the building was constructed or substantially rebuilt around that time. Its namesake is uncertain. Martin considered the Dukes of York and Newcastle, both associated with nearby Oatlands, but did not establish which was commemorated (Martin, 1999, pp. 10–11).

The Duke’s Head traded long after the coaching age had ended. The original premises closed in December 1966, when a replacement pub opened nearby in Hepworth Way; the old building stood for another four years before demolition. Martin records that the new pub traded under several identities, including Hungry Horse, before reverting to the Duke’s Head name in 1998 (Martin, 1999, p. 11). CAMRA’s record of its closure files it as the Hungry Horse, formerly the Duke’s Head, which suggests a further change after Martin wrote; the sources examined do not date one.

That record gives the closure as June 2005 and the permanent loss as July 2005. The building was demolished and replaced by housing above ground-floor shops, under planning application 2007/0234 (CAMRA, n.d.-c). The precise demolition date of the second building has not been established, but the distinction between the two losses is clear. The original coaching inn disappeared in 1970. Its modern successor closed in 2005 and was later demolished.

The Castle: an inn facing the parish church

Church Street | Closed 1972 | Demolished February 1973

The Castle stood at the top of Church Street, opposite the gates of St Mary’s Church. When the property was offered for sale in 1821, it came with a coach house, stables, a yard and a garden, and the particulars emphasised its position on the coach route between Walton and London. John Farnell, an Isleworth brewer, bought it (Martin, 1999, pp. 6–8; Pulford, 2019b).

The Castle also carried a record of the damage Walton suffered in the Second World War. Its pitched roof was damaged by a bomb and replaced by a flat roof concealed behind a brick parapet, substantially altering the building’s appearance (Pulford, 2019b).

The pub survived the war but not the redevelopment of the following decades. It closed in 1972 and was demolished in February 1973, and St Clements House, a residential development, was built on the site (Pulford, 2019b; Lost Pubs Project, n.d.-b).

A local legend held that an underground passage ran between the Castle and the parish church. Investigations during demolition did not confirm it, and the passage remains folklore rather than a proven feature of the inn’s history (Pulford, 2019b).

The Dolphin: the little pub in the photographs

Church Street | Closure date uncertain

The Dolphin presents a different problem. It was a small beerhouse, and its documentary record is fragmentary. Martin identified it through photographs of Church Street and the reference book accompanying Ryde’s map of Walton, published in 1865, which records a beerhouse at the site; later photographs show the Dolphin near the Crown (Martin, 1999, p. 9). Wendy Hughes’s photographic history of Walton reproduces a view of Church Street dated 1897 in which the Dolphin can be identified among the businesses along the street (Hughes, 2003, p. 10).

Its closure date is less certain. The Lost Pubs Project gives 1907, while Martin refers to photographs assigned a broader and potentially later date range (Lost Pubs Project, n.d.-b; Martin, 1999, p. 9). Without knowing when those photographs were taken, or whether the old name remained visible after the business closed, a precise closure date would be speculative.

The Dolphin shows how hard it is to reconstruct the history of smaller beerhouses. Unlike substantial coaching inns, they could leave few deeds, sale particulars or architectural records behind.

How the railway created a new pub landscape

The railway reached Walton in 1838 (Pulford, 2020b). The station stood away from the old village centre, creating a route for passengers travelling between the railway and the town, and public houses developed along this corridor and around the growing residential districts.

The Halfway House: the railway tavern

Hersham Road and Station Avenue | Demolished September 2003

The Halfway House stood on the corner of Hersham Road and Station Avenue, beside Halfway Green. Its first known appearance is in Pigot’s Directory of 1839, shortly after the railway arrived. For part of its history it was also known as the Railway Tavern, and later directories combined both identities as the Halfway House and Railway Tavern (Martin, 1999, pp. 12–13; Pulford, 2020b).

Its twentieth-century history was one of successive reinventions. Owned by Watney Mann from 1959, it became one of Watney’s “Schooner Inn” chain of pub-restaurants. A 1972 refurbishment gave it a giant ornamental tree, built as though growing from the ground floor up to the restaurant above, and through the 1970s and 1980s it was probably better known locally as the Schooner. In 1991 it was remodelled again and renamed the Old Colonial Restaurant. Its traditional appearance was restored in 1998, but the revival was short-lived. The building was demolished in September 2003, and an office block with a tapas bar and restaurant at street level replaced it (Pulford, 2020b).

The Ashley Arms: Halfway Green’s Little Ashley

Halfway Green, Station Avenue | Closed August 1991 | Demolished 1992

The Ashley Arms was a much smaller establishment. Known locally as the Little Ashley, it occupied one of a pair of nineteenth-century cottages on the far side of Halfway Green. Martin’s examination of property records suggests the cottages were built around 1862 and that the beerhouse began trading in the same decade (Martin, 1999, pp. 2–3).

Despite its modest size, it offered entertainment. A postcard from 1905 records a concert room that seems to have amounted to little more than a piano and some tables, and the pub had public and saloon bars with a tiny snug squeezed between them. Its ownership passed through brewing interests including the Isleworth Brewery and Watney Combe and Reid (Pulford, 2020a).

The Ashley Arms closed on 21 August 1991 and was demolished in 1992. An office building, Surrey Court, replaced the cottages that had stood beside Halfway Green for about 130 years (CAMRA, n.d.-a; Pulford, 2020a).

Pubs created by Walton’s industrial expansion

Not every Victorian public house owed its existence to the railway. Some grew up in areas shaped by industrial projects, housing and changes to the surrounding countryside.

The Apps Court Tavern: an inn beside London’s waterworks

Terrace Road | Demolished 1965

The Apps Court Tavern stood near the junction of Terrace Road, Walton Road and Hurst Road. It was associated with the small Eastonville development and appears to have been established in the early nineteenth century. A fire in 1865 led to its rebuilding, and for a time it was also known as the Eastonville Inn (Martin, 1999, pp. 1–2).

Its later history was shaped by changes nearby. During the nineteenth century, London’s water companies acquired large areas of land in the Walton and Molesey district. The Southwark and Vauxhall Water Company obtained powers in 1898 to build the Knight and Bessborough reservoirs on the Apps Court estate, and the Metropolitan Water Board completed them in 1907 (Tarplee, 1998, p. 2).

Construction brought large numbers of workers into the area, and Martin suggested they probably provided extra custom for the tavern. He also proposed that nearby sewage works may have discouraged housebuilding and contributed to its decline (Martin, 1999, pp. 1–2). These are Martin’s interpretations, not conclusions established by surviving financial records. The tavern stopped trading after the Second World War and was demolished in 1965.

The Plough: a pub that outlived its original building

Ashley Road | Original building replaced 1928 | Closed as a pub 2010

The Plough stood at the Walton end of Ashley Road, next to the town’s former school building. There had been a drinking establishment on the site since at least the eighteenth century. Martin traced its ownership through several local brewing families, including William Brooker and the Coopers, before the Farnell family acquired it (Martin, 1999, pp. 14–15).

For much of its early history the inn occupied a pair of cottages. These were demolished in 1928 and replaced by a purpose-built public house in the Arts and Crafts style, and the Plough’s name survived the rebuilding. In 1985 it was renamed the Last Viceroy, although the traditional name was later restored (Martin, 1999, pp. 14–15; Pulford, 2019c).

CAMRA records the Plough’s closure in January 2010 and its later use as a restaurant or café (CAMRA, n.d.-e). The original cottages disappeared in 1928, but the public house kept trading for more than eighty years afterwards.

Hersham: the public houses that served a village

Hersham’s drinking establishments grew up around the village green and the roads towards Esher, Walton and Molesey. The Barley Mow and the Waterman’s Arms were established by the eighteenth century and gave continuity as the village grew. Others were smaller and sometimes short-lived, and several vanished before detailed photographic records became common (Martin, 1999, pp. 21–26). The village’s wider history is covered in our Hersham history pages.

The Fox and Goat: worship behind a beerhouse

Berry Lane and Pleasant Place | Closed during the Second World War

According to Edward Cleal’s The Story of Congregationalism in Surrey, as reported by Martin, local Wesleyans began holding services and a Sunday school in a room behind the Fox and Goat, a modest beerhouse near Hersham Green, in 1820. For about twenty years that room was Hersham’s only place of worship (Cleal, 1908, as cited in Martin, 1999, p. 23). Elmbridge Museum independently records that when a Sunday school was set up for Hersham and Walton in 1820, its services had to be held in local public houses: the Fox and Goat in Hersham and the Bear Inn in Walton (Elmbridge Museum, n.d.).

The arrangement offers a glimpse of Hersham before its later religious buildings existed, with a room attached to an ordinary commercial establishment serving for organised worship and education.

The Fox and Goat kept trading long after those gatherings began. Nineteenth-century directories name several licensees, including Thomas Mann, who was also described as a coal and coke merchant. The beerhouse closed during the Second World War (Martin, 1999, p. 23).

The Jolly Waggoners: a missing piece of Hersham Green

Queen’s Road | Closure date uncertain | Demolished 1973

The Jolly Waggoners was one of several public houses that once faced Hersham Green. It stood on Queen’s Road, near the Waterman’s Arms, and directory evidence places its establishment around the middle of the nineteenth century.

Its final years are less certain. Martin suggested that it closed around 1939, while the Lost Pubs Project gives around 1960 (Martin, 1999, pp. 23–24; Lost Pubs Project, n.d.-a). The discrepancy has not been resolved. The building itself stood until the summer of 1973, when it was demolished (Martin, 1999, pp. 23–24).

The Red Deer: a beerhouse that left little behind

Mills Road area | Licence cancelled 1904

The Red Deer shows how easily a small beerhouse’s history can be obscured. Martin examined a deed of 1886 describing a beerhouse on the south side of Mills Road, with a stable and coach house, connected with brewing interests in Mortlake and Staines. A separate local reference placed it in Faulkners Road, near Hersham Green, leaving its precise location uncertain (Martin, 1999, p. 24).

The evidence establishes that the business operated in the late Victorian period. Its licence was cancelled in 1904 and the property was advertised for sale in 1905 (Martin, 1999, p. 24). What became of the building is not known.

The Ship: a public house without a known address

Hersham | Exact location unknown | Last recorded in the early nineteenth century

Some lost establishments can be found on old maps. Others survive only as names in official records, and the Ship belongs to the second group. Martin found evidence of an alehouse called the Ship in Hersham as early as 1729.

Its later history is complicated by an entry in Walton’s parish vestry minutes from the 1790s. The minutes indicate that a former licensee named Haynes had become bankrupt and that the justices had declined to renew the licence, apparently considering that Hersham already had enough public houses; the Barley Mow and the Waterman’s Arms were then the other established inns (Martin, 1999, p. 25).

Yet the Ship appears in later land tax records, including an entry of 1795 that explicitly places it in Hersham. References continue into the early nineteenth century, although some are ambiguous about whether they mean Walton or Hersham (Martin, 1999, p. 25). The conflicting evidence makes it impossible to say when the business disappeared, and its location remains unknown.

The Star: Burwood Road’s lost local

39 Burwood Road | Closed March 2008 | Demolished for housing

Unlike the Ship, the Star survived into living memory. It appears in directories from 1876, and Martin suggested it originated around 1875, with the later building probably replacing an earlier one (Martin, 1999, p. 25).

Its disappearance can be dated more precisely. CAMRA records the Star’s closure in March 2008 and its permanent loss in July 2011. The site was redeveloped for housing under planning application 2011/0739 (CAMRA, n.d.-g).

The Old House at Home: a pub older than the station

Molesey Road | Closed February 2010 | Later demolished

The Old House at Home stood beside the railway in Molesey Road. Its position close to Hersham station might suggest it was built to serve commuters, but the dates tell a different story. Martin identified the pub in a directory of 1876, and Hersham station did not open until 1936, so the pub preceded the station by at least sixty years (Martin, 1999, p. 24).

It traded until February 2010. The building was then demolished and replaced by homes (CAMRA, n.d.-d).

The changing names of Walton’s twentieth-century pubs

By the later twentieth century the traditional pub was increasingly joined by branded bars, themed restaurants and establishments chasing different audiences. Several Walton venues changed their names repeatedly, and their stories deserve recording even where the buildings survive.

The John o’ Gaunt, Knights and the Walton

42 Terrace Road | Closed October 2002 | Demolished for housing

The John o’ Gaunt was established around 1938 in a substantial building at the corner of Terrace Road and Cottimore Lane, with a statue of an armoured knight outside reflecting its name. In 1984 a major refurbishment turned it into Knights, and in 1993 it was renamed the Walton (Martin, 1999, pp. 16–17).

The changes did not secure its survival. CAMRA records the Walton’s closure in October 2002 and its permanent loss the following month. The building was demolished and replaced by housing, under planning application 2002/1364 (CAMRA, n.d.-h).

The Kiwi and the Wellington: Walton’s New Zealand connection

60 High Street | Closed November 2013 | Converted to other uses

One of Walton’s former pubs carried a name with particular local meaning. Originally the Builders’ Arms, it stood at the junction of the High Street and New Zealand Avenue. Its later name, the Kiwi, commemorated the New Zealand soldiers treated at Mount Felix during the First World War. It reopened as the Kiwi after refurbishment in November 1956, and around 1986 it was renamed again as the Wellington, after New Zealand’s capital (Martin, 1999, p. 18; Hughes, 2003).

The Wellington closed in November 2013. CAMRA records that the upper floors were converted to homes and at least one ground-floor unit became a shop, and that the premises were permanently lost as a pub in February 2019 (CAMRA, n.d.-l). The Kiwi and Wellington names have gone, but Walton’s connection with the New Zealand servicemen treated at Mount Felix is still remembered elsewhere in the town.

Walton’s lost wine bars and modern drinking places

A town’s hospitality history does not end with the closure of its traditional public houses. The late twentieth century brought wine bars, restaurant-bars and branded chains to Walton, and their changing identities are part of the town’s more recent social history.

The Slug & Lettuce: two different Walton addresses

The Slug & Lettuce name appeared at two separate places in Walton-on-Thames. The first was the Anglers, the long-established riverside pub, whose owners adopted the name in 1997 before reversing the change later that year (Martin, 1999, p. 1).

The second was at 29 High Street. CAMRA’s record lists the former names Parisa, Slug & Lettuce, Noble Vine and Craft & Grill, and the premises now trade as Walton Village, which CAMRA lists as open in September 2026 (CAMRA, n.d.-j). At this address the Slug & Lettuce is a lost name rather than a lost building.

29 Bridge Street: from wine bar to restaurant

29 Bridge Street | A restaurant since June 2023

Some losses are recent. CAMRA’s record for 29 Bridge Street lists a sequence of names from the past few decades: Ruby’s, Blasé, Mort’s, and Vittles & Vine. Until June 2023 the premises operated as a restaurant and bar, hosting events such as live music and quizzes. On 16 June 2023 Walton Meze Grill opened there purely as a restaurant, without those activities, and CAMRA no longer counts it as a pub (CAMRA, n.d.-i).

The address belongs to a different generation of local social life from the coaching inns and Victorian beerhouses. Its significance lies in the evenings people spent there.

Whiteley Village: a different tradition of hospitality

Whiteley Village developed under circumstances quite unlike those of Walton or Hersham. It was a planned community, created through the charitable bequest of William Whiteley, the department store entrepreneur, who left £1 million to provide homes for older people of limited means. The trustees bought the estate of about 225 acres in 1911 and began developing a village that combined housing with communal facilities (Whiteley Homes Trust, 1949, pp. 2–6).

Rather than growing up gradually around a traditional inn, the village was designed with shared buildings and recreational spaces. The account the trustees prepared for the royal visit of 28 May 1921, revised and published in a fourth edition in February 1949, records the development of the village hall, library and recreational buildings where residents could meet (Whiteley Homes Trust, 1949).

No commercial inn within Whiteley Village has been identified in the historical sources examined for this article, and its hospitality history is better understood through these purpose-built communal facilities. CAMRA’s guide still lists a Whiteley Village Social Club on Octagon Road, noting that it may be open only to members; the record does not give the club’s history (CAMRA, n.d.-m).

From the Clubhouse to the Whiteley Community Café

In May 2024 the Whiteley Village Clubhouse was closed at short notice over health and safety concerns. The Whiteley Homes Trust’s annual report for that year recorded plans to reopen the space as a community café, and work towards a solution that would let the bar open again (Whiteley Homes Trust, 2024, pp. 7, 10).

The refurbished Clubhouse reopened to the public as the Whiteley Community Café on 21 July 2025. The work refitted the kitchens, added a fully accessible toilet, refreshed the interior and made the side area and rear terrace safe and accessible. The café is open to residents, the local community and visitors, serving drinks including beers and wines alongside food (Whiteley Homes Trust, 2025).

The Grove: another chapter in Walton’s lost pub history?

68–70 Terrace Road | Closed September 2018 | Demolition proposed in 2026

The history of Walton’s lost public houses is not confined to the past. The Grove, formerly the Magpie, stands on Terrace Road. After a refurbishment in April 2015, CAMRA described it as an over-21s pub with a spacious open bar and seating area and a large beer garden. It closed in September 2018 and has not reopened (CAMRA, n.d.-b).

On 19 September 2026 the BBC reported that Terrace Ventures had submitted plans to Elmbridge Borough Council to demolish the building. The scheme would replace the former pub, two existing flats and associated structures with a mixed-use building: commercial space on the ground floor and nine flats above, with a car park for the commercial unit reached from The Grove and no parking spaces for the flats. The developer argued that the new building would enhance the street frontage, pairing shopfronts at street level with a more residential appearance above (Moules, 2026).

The application, numbered 2026/1977, was received by the council on 13 August 2026 and validated on 11 September (Elmbridge Borough Council, 2026). Its target decision date is 6 November 2026, although a target date does not guarantee a decision by then (Moules, 2026).

The Grove is therefore a closed public house, not yet a demolished one. Its future remains undecided.

What remains of the old pubs?

Not every historic drinking place has gone. Walton-on-Thames still has the Bear, the George, the Swan, the Anglers, the Old Manor Inn, the Weir and the Regent, among others, and Hersham has the Barley Mow, the Waterman’s Arms, the Bricklayers Arms and the Royal George (Kingston & Leatherhead CAMRA, n.d.; CAMRA, n.d.-k; Craft Union, n.d.). Our guide to pubs and bars lists those trading today.

Their buildings, ownership and character have sometimes changed considerably. The Regent is a good example of a building finding a new use. It was built as the Palace Cinema in 1915, later renamed the Regent, and reopened as the Regent public house in December 1994 (Martin, 1999, p. 15; Tarplee, 1998, p. 54). Other pubs have survived the loss of their original buildings. Hersham’s Royal George dates from around 1870, but its original premises were replaced in the 1960s; CAMRA gives 1964 for the present building (Martin, 1999, p. 25; CAMRA, n.d.-f).

The survival of a pub’s name, its business and its building are therefore three separate questions. The White Hart survives as a building but not as a public house. The Duke’s Head outlived its original building before disappearing altogether. The Slug & Lettuce name has gone from the High Street, but the premises continue as Walton Village. And the Grove has closed, but its building still stands while a decision is awaited on its redevelopment.

A history written into the streets

The public houses of Walton and Hersham were once part of the everyday geography of village life. At the White Hart, magistrates decided who could sell alcohol. At the Duke’s Head, passengers boarded coaches for London. In Hersham, a room behind the Fox and Goat served as a place of worship before the village had one of its own.

Later generations found other uses for their locals. The Halfway House became a themed restaurant, the Kiwi commemorated Walton’s connection with New Zealand, and 29 Bridge Street passed through a run of wine bar and restaurant names. Some businesses survived by changing their names or buildings. Others closed, leaving their premises to be demolished or converted.

The resulting losses are uneven. The Crown and the Castle have disappeared entirely, while the White Hart’s buildings survive in Church Street. And on Terrace Road, the Grove still stands while a decision is awaited on plans for its demolition.

There is still much to discover about these places, particularly the smaller beerhouses whose histories survive only in scattered records. But the evidence already assembled shows that Walton and Hersham’s public houses were not simply commercial premises. They were places where journeys began, business was conducted, communities gathered and ordinary lives unfolded.