IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Ashley Centre, EPSOM, KT18 5DB

A handsome mid-Georgian house, dated 1769. Of white stock brick, a standard Georgian composition of two-and-a-half-storeys and five bays, with the central three bays projecting slightly and surmounted by a pediment. The floors are articulated by plat bands. A fine doorcase with "composite Tower of the Winds and Ionic columns and back pilasters". Grade II* listed. For a time I think this was Epsom and Ewell's registry office, but it is now used as offices.

Epsom Methodist Church is in the centre of the picture with the Town Hall behind it and to the left. The white building to the left is the Odeon cinema in Image

Along the High Street

The clock tower dates from 1847.

Looking east along the High Street, with the base of the Clock Tower visible on the left, and the entrance to Boots on the right. Just ahead, below the tree, is a drinking trough provided by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association. The white sided building on the right, projecting slightly (and now the Nationwide Building Society), and to its right, the much smaller Nell Gwynne House, are the only historic buildings on the right hand side of the High Street visible here and in this Francis Frith photo dating from 1924: http://www.francisfrith.com/epsom/photos/high-street-1924_75371a/ and http://www.geograph.org.uk/stuff/frith.php?id=2361498 . On the left side of the road can be seen a three-storey building which now houses (among others) the post office. There is now no sign of the King's Head, which was on the site now occupied by Boots.

Just three days before Christmas and a selection of fruit and veg is available from open stalls in the Centre of Epsom overlooked by the clock tower.

High Street, looking east from the junction with South Street and West Street. On the right is the Assembly Rooms, built in the late C17 when Epsom was a thriving spa, subsequently used as shops, and in the late C20, as the headquarters of the National Counties building society. Now a JD Wetherspoon pub, following restoration. This part of the High Street was formerly two-way, with the clock tower isolated in the middle. Compare with this Francis Frith photo dating from 1897: http://www.francisfrith.com/epsom/photos/high-street-1897_39015/ and http://www.geograph.org.uk/stuff/frith.php?id=2361441 : the Assembly Rooms feature in both, as do one or two buildings on the right of the High Street, and the large white fronted building (just in front of the bus) on the left (partially obscured by a tree in 1897).

A prominent feature of the High Street, pictured as I sat in stationary traffic in the Friday evening rush hour in a gloomy drizzle. It looks as if I would have been better off in the other lane!