Old Woking: The former Saint Martha Printing Works (1)

Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 20 May 2008

It's extraordinary that there are hardly any references whatsoever on the internet to this massive former works building. The tablet above the main entrance door in this façade is dated M.D.CCC.XCVI which I read as 1896, while the large tablet beneath the clock in the central pediment reads:- UNWIN BROTHERS LTD THE SAINT MARTHA PRINTING WORKS. It was evidently built on a braid of the River Wey to provide a water supply to the printing works and the water still gushes out of the structure on its downstream side. The works appears to have been defunct for some time and is currently being demolished for housing development by Linden Homes, although hopefully this particular building will be incorporated into any new scheme. Postscript: Having written the above I have now looked at the Ordnance Survey's historic maps, and the 1872 Edition shows a cluster of buildings at this location with a remarkably similar footprint to the current ones. The buildings are however marked as Woking Mill (Paper), so the need for a source of water would have been the reason why the paper mill was built here in the first place. Presumably Unwins converted some or all of the existing paper mill to their printing works rather than selecting this location for a new build of a printing works. It appears also that Unwins' printing works in Ludgate Hill in London suffered from a major fire in 1894, so maybe they were having to look for new premises immediately afterwards.

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