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High Street, HORLEY, RH6 7BH

Shops on the north side of High Street.

An ornate terracotta fronted building on High Street.

Named after the long since defunct Gatwick Racecourse, and hence the horseshoe sign, the pub is a Hall & Woodhouse outlet on the High Street. At the time of submission the owners were seeking new landlords.

The site here was a garden at the back of the Horley Bookshop which fell into terrible repair and was effectively redundant. The buildings were refurbished and the garden was reused for a single storey Domino's Pizza fronting on to the car park at Consort Way East. Smart really, hopefully others will follow and a new public space will develop.

Originally built in the 1850s as a private house called Raglan House, it is not clear when it formally became a pub or acquired its name, although there was a brewery, the Station Brewery, situated immediately behind the building between at least 1867 and 1874. Records show that it certainly was fully running as a pub by 1890. The name "The Gatwick" is nothing to do with the airport, but instead Gatwick racecourse (on which the current airport is built), with horses being unloaded from trains in the nearby station yard, for leading to the racecourse.

An ugly duckling becomes a swan. One big ugly building is split into two shops with a local charity and Subway in occupation. Honouring the past the building has been named The Stapley Building after the former men's outfitters who occupied the site in the early half of the 1900s. Still has nice mosaic floor in the entrance with Stapley written on it. Lovely shop fronts, better than the aluminium alternative! Modern materials used and better than the chocolate colour it was before.

The former fire station in Albert Road. It was built in around 1902 by Arthur Jennings, to a design of Mr C H Burrows of Horsham, and was in use as a fire station until 1966, after which it saw various commercial uses. It has since been refurbished and extended and is now a Surrey County Council youth centre, opened on 6 September 2010. The building is locally listed. For photo in 2008, when still in commercial use and before being extended, see Image

In the early part of the 1900s this building was a men's outfitters known as Stapley's, a beautiful building really with wooden shop fronts . . . and a focal point in a busy high street. Obviously The Horley Bookshop didn't care and it became a pretty ugly building in a poor state of repair. People just walking past. Sad.

Please see Richard's Image] for a view in 2006 prior to the extension on the right being built, and Ian's Image] for a view in 2011 and a good history of the building. In each image the clock is resolutely stopped at 1:46! The letters HPC are carved into the stone tablet underneath the cupola, possibly standing for Horley Parish Council who might have had responsibility for the fire service in the early 1900s?

London to Brighton line looking north. View from footbridge that connects Yattendon Road/High Street to Station Road/Station Approach