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Oak Road, LEATHERHEAD, KT22 7PH

Crescent off Kingston Road. The two pairs of houses are late Victorian. The boarded off area on the right is the site of the Royal Oak pub which was illegally demolished by it owners in 2017. This pub dated from the early 1900s, replacing a previous pub of the same name which had been situated on the opposite side of Oak Road, beyond the two houses here.

Early 1960s housing estate off Kingston Road.

Early 1960s housing estate off Kingston Road.

Early 1960s housing estate off Kingston Road.

Early 1960s housing estate off Kingston Road.

This sign is on the end wall. The pub is a Greene King house. They are a large regional brewer based at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. In recent years the company has been expanding, including acquiring other regional brewers, and it is probably through this route that it acquired The Royal Oak. For other photos of The Royal Oak, please see:- Image

The pub has been redecorated externally fairly recently, as some photos, on other sites, show that the bottom half of the building, up to above the ground floor windows, was painted a light grey. For other photos of The Royal Oak, please see:- Image

The sign is on a post, in the pub's beer garden. A lot of pubs in England are named the Royal Oak, to celebrate the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The significance of the oak being that, before the restoration, the future King Charles II spent most of one day, hiding in an oak tree from Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarian troops. His birthday of May 29th was still celebrated by many people up to the end of the 19th century. So pubs continued to be given the name of Royal Oak, even when they were opened a hundred or two hundred years later. Today, for better or worse, the day has lost its significance, probably because the 29th May ceased to be a public holiday some time in the 1850's. This particular pub has certainly been here since the 1830's. For other photos of The Royal Oak, please see:- Image

One of Leatherhead's handful of pubs, this one is some way out of the town centre. It has been around for a long time. In the January of 1834, the body of a murdered woman was found by the local fox hunt on Leatherhead Common. It was removed to The Royal Oak, where a Coroner's inquest was subsequently held. Since then, the pub is no longer in a rural setting, as much building development has taken place around here. Behind the pub is Oak Road. Image Image Image

Car servicing centre on Kingston Road.