IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
West Grove, WALTON-ON-THAMES, KT12 5PB

Actress and singer Julie Andrews was born at Rodney House maternity home on Rodney Road, Walton-on-Thames on 1st October 1935 as Julia Elizabeth Wells. Julie’s mother Barbara Morris Wells was a piano teacher and her father Ted Wells was a woodwork teacher. During the war her parents separated and Barbara remarried tenor Ted Andrews. She was brought up by her mother and step father at a large house on West Grove in Walton named Great Meuse. The house had a large garden and a small cottage in the garden named Little Meuse. In later years, most of the garden was sold to a housing developer and all that remains to remind us of this large estate is the sign on the entrance to this cottage.

High quality office complex built for Bird's Eye Foods in 1960-62 to the designs of Sir John Burnet, Tait & Partners (and sympathetically extended in 1967). The exterior is distinguished by its curtain walling, blue vitreous enamelled panels, aluminium hexagons and mullions (Image]). Grade II listed. The site has been empty for about ten years. The hoardings have gone up since Image Developers Crest A2D want to demolish the buildings in order to build 375 homes. In a way, one can hardly blame them for trying it on - anything to avoid denting profits - but Elmbridge Council will make a mockery of the listing system if it nods it through.

This plaque is on the front wall of The White House in West Grove, Hersham. For a photo of the house see

A blue plaque on the front wall of this house, at West Grove in Hersham, states "Herbert Hoover, President of the USA (1929-1933), lived here in 1902". To view the plaque see https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6441321

Walton Court was built in 1960/1 as the headquarters office of Birds Eye to the designs of the architectural practice of Sir John Burnet, Tait and Partners. It was one of the first "out of London town" prestige offices to be built for a major company, and its high architectural quality has merited Grade II Listed status. It is based on a concrete frame with glass cladding and natural anodised aluminium on dark blue vitreous enamelled infill panels. In the centre of the building are two internal courtyards, where Birds Eye used to keep flamingoes and penguins to entertain employees! For a glimpse inside at the time please see the preview of the British Pathé video newsreel http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=2600 There is a view of the opposite end of the building here Image and a close up of the sculpture at that end here Image The sculpture is also shown at the start of the newsreel clip. Walton Court was subsequently occupied by Unilever, but its approximate 175,000 square feet or approximate 16,000 square metres of space is sadly currently empty. The building's website is here http://www.waltoncourt.co.uk/ The building was constructed on the site of a large plot of allotment gardens on Station Avenue, and very close to Walton-on-Thames station.

Close-up of the staircase and the building's distinctive exterior. Wider view: Image