“Tolworth is the centre of the universe, just no one knows it yet” A look inside Kingston’s newly opened history rooms

Charters that shaped the borough’s laws and buildings, hundreds of years of electoral roles, thousands of Kingston photographs and 161 years of Surrey Comet newspapers were finally put on display in the new History Centre housed in the former Kingston Magistrates’ Court under the Guildhall building in High Street.

It has not been a smooth ride for the archives since they were forced to leave their permanent home in the North Kingston Centre last year after it was earmarked as a site for one of the borough’s first free schools.

To add further misery, plans to move the borough’s history to a referral unit for excluded schoolchildren were ditched at the 11th hour, leaving the archives homeless for six months. After an interim spell at Surbiton library where history buffs could order specific archives to view one day a week, the archives finally settled into Guildhall.

For borough archivist Gillian Butler, finally having a permanent home in a historic building in the heart of Kingston, has been a dream come true.

She says: “The courts closed in 2011 and there is a lot of history in these walls.

“What has really blown my mind are the regatta pictures. There have been lots of fetes, street parties and regattas in Kingston.

“Community sprit really is part of the town and you can see this in the archives.”

Having started her career as a Saturday girl in Croydon’s history rooms, Miss Butler moved from the National Army Museum to take the new job looking after Kingston’s treasures.

A woman who loves her local history, Miss Butler says she is happy to have a job where she can share this love with likeminded people.

She says: “The vast majority of our archives are only available here. You can’t get them online.

“You are always worried no one is going to turn up and then when you open you realise so many people want to know about their history.

“There are so many people in this borough that are really invested in the history.

“We have people like Bob banging on the door on day one.”

The aforementioned Bob is The Story of Tolworth co-writer Bob Phillips who interrupted the interview with some breaking news – from 1928.

He had been searching the archives for information about Cleveland Road, Old Malden, for an upcoming Street Museum event being hosted next month.

He said: “I was going through a box of deeds and I have just discovered one with Hiram Maxim’s name on it.

“He invented the first recoil-operated machine gun, that won the First World War. This deed means he could have bought a house in the borough. I found it out three minutes ago and I don’t know anything more.

“It’s very exciting.”

Mr Phillips was the first man into the history rooms when they opened to the public on Wednesday, October 27. He was euphoric.

Having previously researched and written about Tolworth, he argued it should never be thought of as the “forgotten end of the borough”.

There is plenty of information in the new History Centre to back this up, he said.

“Tolworth is the centre of the universe, it’s just nobody knows it yet.

“If you look through the archives, Tolworth is a fascinating and very important place. It is reviving itself at the moment. “David Bowie started his Ziggy Stardust tour in the Toby Jug pub. Tolworth Manor was owned by Queen Isabella who had the terrible Hugh le Despenser brutally killed.

“Tolworth is a place with a much wider history than anyone thinks.”

Historian Shaan Butters also had her nose buried in ancient documents on day one.

Mrs Butters wrote That Famous Place: A History of Kingston upon Thames, and was scouring 19th century court assembly minutes looking for evidence that a Prussian general visited the borough.

She said: “I am so grateful that the archives have opened, I just wish they had more space.

“I attended a talk by Alison Carter Tai who mentioned that General Blucher could have visited the borough in 1814.

“I’m looking for the evidence. If I can find it, it’s always nice to be able to help out fellow historians.”

Kingston’s History Centre has archives that include maps, photographs, microfilmed newspapers and books with some ancient finds dating back to 1208.

Kingston Council leader Kevin Davis visited the History Centre this week too.

He said: “I think it’s the first time in the borough’s history that we have had a proper history centre in the middle of the borough, which is where most people are when they come to Kingston.”

• To find out more about ther history centre and check opening hours visit kingston.gov.uk/history.