Woking Travel Guide

From Wikitravel

Alien invaders chose Woking for their attacks in HG Wells' War of the Worlds

Woking is the other large town in Surrey apart from Guildford. Built around its large train station, it grew up in the Victorian era, but experienced a boom in the post war period when modern buildings car parks and large retail outlets were constructed in the town centre.

In the original version of HG Wells' War of the Worlds, not the recent Hollywood movie, the woodland area north east of the town known as the 'Sandpits' (due to the presence of beachlike areas of golden sands, more formerly known as Horsell Moors of Woking were the location for the aliens' attacks on Earth!

Get in

By train

Woking railway station is served by fast trains from London Waterloo (26 minutes from London Waterloo direct service) and is on the line to Waterloo from Southampton and Portsmouth

By car

Woking is situated about six miles off the M25 (Junction 11/ Wisley Interchange) and the same distance from the A3. Travelling northbound on the A3, turn off at either Painshill and follow the signs through Byfleet and West Byfleet, Burnt Common near Ripley and follow the sgins through Send and Old Woking or further south at Burpham or Stoke both in Guildford.

By plane

Woking is well connected to both Gatwick and Heathrow airports: Woking Station runs a twice hourly RailAir coaches from the Main entrance (on the non- town side) to Heathrow taking betweeen 45 to 50 minutes depending on traffic. Gatwick airport can be reached via the Gatwick express, however this requires tavel to London Victoria station which can be reached by changing at Clapham Junction. Trains leave London Victoria every 15 minutes reaching Gatwick in under 45 minutes.

Get around

Woking town centre is very compact, and is nearly completely pedestrianised with several small walkways and pasages such as Church Path which has several bijou establishments. Woking is reasonably well served by buses to the surrounding villages and districts with buses leaving from Woking Station and Cawsey Way outside the Toys'r'us and Wolsey Place shopping centre. Areas with large areas of housing rather than traditional high streets such as Brookwood and Goldsworth Park and particularly well catered for. The two main shopping centers; the Peacocks Centre and Wolsey Place both converge on the town square considered to be one of several 'central locations'. Theo thers being the Bandstand on Cawsey Street and Commercial Way, a pedestrianised street that runs nearly 400 meters to the Chertsey Road

See

• Why not visit the underpass which has a mural detailing the alien invasion of H G Well's The Time Machine?

• Henry VIII's Tudor hunting palace, off Carter's Lane no vehicle access ph: +44(0)1483 743443 (email:askus@woking-palace.org) [1] Very interesting for the history. Henry VIII grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother to Henry VII lived at Woking Palace during the reign on Henry VII, though it stopped being a royal palace in 1620 when ownership passed form James I of England and VI of Scotland to Sir Edward Zouch.

• The Shah Jehan II Mosque in Maybury was the first mosque to be constructed in the UK. Invested by the Begun of Bhopal, one of Bhopal's few female rulers in the late 1890's, it was in fact built by British architects who collaborated with the Oriental Institute to design the first religious building of its kind. The call to prayer can be heard in the surrounding areas of MAybury and Sheerwater, both of which have high numbers of Muslim families, mostly from the Indian subcontinent.

• Woking FC Kingfield Road, Woking GU22 9AA. ph: +44(0)1483 772470 [2] Good, wholesome Conference football. Woking Cards, named either after Cardinal Wolsey or in reference to the Cardinal Rd half of the team strip are a non- league team that play in the NAtionwide Conference (tier 5). The grounds situated south of Woking Park in Kingfield have a loarge stand for home supporters whilst away fans have to make do with standing terraces. Each home game brigs associated problems of parking with many cars parking the entire length of Westfield Avenue Which runs adjacent to the stadium as there is no adequate parkling inside the grounds itself.

Do

• New Victoria Theatre and The Ambassadors Cinemas Pacocks Centre, Woking, GU21 6GQ ph: +44(0)1483 545900 [3] Good cinema and theatre complex.

• Spirit of Brooklands Brooklands Road, Weybridge ph: +44(0)1932 857381 (fax +44(0)1932 855465, email [4]) [5] Open every day 10AM - 4PM. The birthplace of British motor racing, and former World War 2 airbase. Museum is full of old racing cars and planes, detailing the history of Brooklands. One of the retired fleet of Concordes is being restored here, and there's even part of the original banked racing track from the 30s which you can walk (or pretend to be a racing car) along. If you're into cars, planes or even remotely interested in them, this will be a fun day out. £7 entry price.

Buy

Woking has a large shopping area which consists of the Peacock Centre and the Wolesley Place shopping malls. Most major UK High Street shops can be found here including Debenhams in the Peacocks Centre which occupies 3 floors of retail space reaplcing Allders which went into liquidation in 2004.

Wolsey Place is a single level precinct that runs from the Bandstand Mall, next to the Telewest Tower (still known locally as the BAT building (British American Tobacco))to Commercial Way at two seperate entrances and Mercia Walk at the Town Square and Christ Church. The centre recently experienced significant and surprizngly pleasant refurbishment, including a small cafe in central square, in the previous two years though there have been questions raised as to whether the centre could be redeveloped again as a series of pedestrianized walkways with a more conventional street atmosphere. Wolsey PLace has over 65 retail outlets including Boots, a farily large Sainsburys, Topshop/Topman and WHSmiths.

The Peacocks Centre constructed in 1992 encompassing three floors of retail space in over 80 outlets. Built around a food hall (serving mainly fast food) on the lower concourse the shopping centre has an all glass ceiling providing light and warmth with all levels except level one having panoramic galleried floors looking down. The Peacocks Centre has a number of well known stores including HMV, Virgin, Marks and Spencers, NEXT, River Islands and Monsoon. The precinct is also famous for its Christmas displays in which the atrium above the food court is extravagantly decorated with moving models, lights and decorations such as tinsel and banners. Occasionally the food court plays to msucial and artistic productions run by local schools, organizations and groups.

The rest of Woking has other smaller shops most notably north of Commercial Way and the High Street towards the canal, though much of this are has unfortunately been taken up by the rapid expansion of estate agents where the Commercial Way market was once held.

Eat

Woking is reknowned for its plethora of Curry houses crowding Chertsey Street the High Street and Broadway. There are seven long established curry houses in the town centre and over 15 in the surrounding villages. Woking also has a good amount of Italian and French cuisine establishments as well Chinese restaurants and takeaways dotted arond the outskirts of the town centre.

• Peter's Palace 48 Chertsey Rd, Woking GU21 5BG, ph: 01483 770605. All you can eat Chinese buffet. Very reasonable price, and very good food. Be warned that it can get quite busy in the evenings, especially on Fridays and Saturdays, but as the place is so big it is never quite full!

Food can also be sought at many of Wokings' public houses lining Chertsey Street.

Drink

Woking major drinking spot is based on Chertsey Road with several pub chains asuch as Wetherspoons operating pubs. Eight pubs and bars cab be found on this street alone with two or three others situated on the south and west side of the town. However drunkeness and bad behavoiur can all to often be found here due to increased alocohol intake on 'pub crawls' and 'benders'. This has improved in the past five years with increased policing and i.d. requesting though the fault rests entriely with the young adult drinking population. Woking's clubs include Chameleon, a small bar with a packed dancefloor, playing mainly pop and hip-hop music, Chameleon is seen as the terendier bar by many. On the other side of the block is Quake. A larger establishment, with three floors of space plays mainly classic pop music and ihp-hop though occasionally it is used more appropriately with outside DJ's visiting. Someting which hopefully will grow in future years. RSVP bar plays mostly urban and is popular with Wokings' Asian and newly growing African and Caribbean populations. The Boston Experience on Church Path is an over 21's nightclub that too plays a variety of 'classic' pop music to an older scene of over 30's.

Sleep

For some reason a huge Holiday Inn was constructed in Woking. And apart fro the PLanets hotel on Chertsey Road this is the sole chain accomodaton provider, however there are bed and breakfasts dotted around some of the villages though thes are hard to find.

Get out

• London is 30 mins away by train (London Waterloo to Woking non- stop).
• Portsmouth is 50 mins away by train (Woking to Portsmouth fast service)
• Windsor is just under 40 minutes by car.
• Farnham is under 40 minutes away by train.

Woing also has fine countryside and is extensively wooded with forests and copses beginning within 1-2 miles of the town centre. Woking Park to the south east has two large greens, flower beds and a miniature golf course as well as tennis and cricket facilities. There is also Horsell Moors, the Hoe Stream, the Basingstoke Navigaton System which reaches the villages of St Johns, Brookwood, Woodham, Sheerwater and New Haw