Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

Infobox London Borough | name = Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames
short_name = Kingston upon Thames
imagename =

status = London borough | area_rank = 325th
area_km2 = 37.25
ons_code = 00AX | adminhq = Kingston upon Thames| ethnicity = 82.5% White
7.8% South Asian
2.6% African-Caribbean
2.4% Chinese
url = [http://www.kingston.gov.uk/ RB Kingston upon Thames]
leadership = Leader & Executive
mayor = David Berry (Lib)
mps = Edward Davey (Lib)
Susan Kramer (Lib)
gla_constituency = South West London
gla_member = Tony Arbour (Con)

The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (audio|En-uk-LBKingston.ogg|pronunciation) is a borough in south-west London, England. The main town in the borough is Kingston upon Thames, but it covers a wider area also including places such as Surbiton, Chessington, New Malden and Tolworth. It is one of only two London Boroughs to be designated a "Royal Borough", the other being the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Districts in the Royal Borough

Areas included in the borough:

* Berrylands
* Chessington
* Coombe
* Kingston upon Thames
* Kingston Vale
* Malden Rushett
* Motspur Park
* New Malden
* Norbiton
* Old Malden
* Surbiton
* TolworthSurrounding boroughs:
* Richmond upon Thames
* Merton
* Sutton
* Wandsworth

History

The main town in the borough, Kingston upon Thames, has existed on the banks of the River Thames for many hundreds, if not thousands of years. Many Roman relics have also been found in the surrounding areas.

All Saints Church, at the centre of Kingston, has been the site of a church for over 1,000 years, its predecessors being sacked by the Vikings in 1009AD. It is one of the most important historic sites on the River Thames, alongside the Tower of London, the Palaces of Westminster, Westminster Abbey, Hampton Court, Runnymede and Windsor Castle.

Kingston was famous in antiquity for being the coronation place of seven Anglo-Saxon monarchs, listed below:

econdary Schools

Independent schools
*Canbury School
*Kingston Grammar School
*Surbiton High School

Further education

*Kingston CollegeMaryMount international School

Higher Education

*Kingston University

Transport

Kingston is one of only five London Boroughs not to have at least one London Underground station within its boundaries, although it does have a number of mainline rail stations. As well as this Kingston also benefits from its central bus station situated beside its large and thriving shopping centre. There are 64 buses currently(2008) running to and from Kingston.

Railway

When the London and Southampton Railway built the line to Southampton, the railway bypassed Kingston due to concerns that it would impact the town's coaching trade. A station was built to the southwest of the town, but later it was resited 400m west to its present site at Surbiton. Today, Surbiton is the busiest railway station in the borough.

Later, a branch was built towards Shepperton and a more centrally located station was built at Kingston, as well as another at Norbiton. The remaining stations in the borough were built on the Chessington Branch which was not built until the 1930s.

Railway stations in the borough:
*Surbiton railway station
*Kingston railway station
*Norbiton railway station
*New Malden railway station
*Surbiton railway station
*Malden Manor railway station
*Tolworth railway station
*Chessington North railway station
*Chessington South railway station

Trivia

The Kingston coat of arms is almost identical to the coat of arms of the Swedish historical province (landskap) of Ångermanland. Both coats of arms can by the way be traced back to the 16th century.

References

External links

* [http://www.kingston.gov.uk/ Kingston upon Thames Council]
* [http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/freecycle-kingston/ Freecycle Kingston - "Community re-use and recycling in action"]
* [http://www.kingstonconservatives.com/ Kingston and Surbiton Conservative Association]
* [http://www.kingston.greenparty.org.uk/ Kingston Green Party]
* [http://www.labour.org.uk/ The Labour Party]
* [http://www.kingstonlibdems.org/ Kingston Borough Liberal Democrats]