• July 6, 2005

People in Kingston were living the high life near the top of the earnings league.

The borough had London’s seventh-highest proportion of households that earned six-figure salaries.

Figures released by NatWest showed a wallet-bulging 2,035 Kingston households with earnings over £100,000 a year, making up 3.17 per cent of all homes in the borough.

Gated neighbours in Richmond looked down their noses from the number two spot in London - the borough had 4,135 high-income households, more than five per cent of the total, and average earnings of £44,000 compared to Kingston’s £38,280.

But the idea of Kingston as a borough rolling in money was a dangerous one, warned Marge Grant, from family help charity WelCare.

She said: "We have had a family come in here looking for a swimming pass for her children for three weeks. We found one for £36 but she still could not afford it.

"Kingston’s reputation as being affluent is a problem. A lot of activities we offer are expensive and if you look at what Merton offers, and what we offer, there is a major discrepancy."

Areas of the borough certainly have deprivation, but one needed only wander near the private roads and gated estates of Coombe Hill to see where Kingston’s moneyed people migrate.

There were three-bedroom apartments on sale for £735,000 and a seven-bedroom house in Coombe Lane, complete with swimming pool, private drive and cavernous rooms, that sold for £3,650,000.

The average price of a detached house in the KT2 postcode, according to one property website, was £875,000 compared to the national average of £288,000.

Chelsea Football Club legend Gianfranco Zola lived in the area and there have been chairmen of multi-national companies, lords and ladies living in the hills.

The NatWest figures showed that perhaps the most important millionaire magnet was the River Thames.

The entire top 10 of the survey nationally were in London and the south-east. Many of those were within a stone’s throw of the river.

  • July 6, 2005

A prestigious group of Kingston notables gathered for the unveiling of the Leonard Bentall statue, returned to the town following a Surrey Comet campaign.

The larger-than-life bronze was originally erected in 1946 above the store’s old main entrance.

  • July 6, 1990

Violence flared in the streets and pubs of Kingston after England’s World Cup semi-final defeat.

Police swooped on Ewell Road, Surbiton, as youths ran riot and the Six Bells pub in Kingston was wrecked when a group of up to 30 men smashed windows and threw bar stools.

  • July 7, 1965

When the new school year started in September 1965, all but two primary and secondary schools in Surrey would have rented TV equipment to allow pupils to follow BBC school lessons.

Teachers went back to school themselves to learn how to use the equipment. A follow-up conference was planned a year later.