Ashely Park Hotel. Listed Building. Ashley Park Road, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. 1890-91. [Click on this image and those below to enlarge them.]
The land here was originally part of the estate of Joseph Sassoon, the last owner of the grand Jacobean house which the Sephardic Jewish Sassoon family had bought in 1860 (see Hughes 34). Joseph, who inherited the estate from his father David, sold this portion of his land to Friary Holroyd and Healy's Brewery, specifically for a hotel (again, see Hughes 34): it is on the junction with Station Avenue, opposite Walton-on-Thames railway station, and originally serves as a station hotel. A 1917 postcard of it in Wendy Hughes's book about this Surrey commuter town carries its address and phone number (a three-digit figure), and the information, "30 minutes Waterloo L. & S. W. Rly [London & South Western Railway]" (35). The station was opened in 1838 (see Body 206).
Left: Diamond-patterned chimney stack. Right: Central portion of the façade, above main entrance facing Ashley Park Road.
The building is typical of its time and shares several features of the Queen Anne Revival style with local residences of the period.
Sunflower motif, one of several terracotta panels on the façade.
Photographs and text by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Body, Geoffrey. Railways of the Southern Region. Cambridge: Patrick Stephens, 1984.
Hughes, Wendy. Walton-on-Thames (Images of England series). Stroud, Glos.: 2003.
Created 27 December 2019; last modified 31 October 2023