Happy TravellerWelcome to New Malden, a vibrant area located in South West London, England. This charming town is situated within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Merton, just 9.4 miles (15.1 km) from Charing Cross. Neighbouring localities include Kingston, Norbiton, Raynes Park, Surbiton, Tolworth, Wimbledon and Worcester Park. Prior to the creation of Greater London in 1965, New Malden was in the administrative county of Surrey.
History:
New Malden was established as a result of the arrival of the railway. What is now New Malden railway station was opened on 1 December 1846 on the main line from London Waterloo. Building started slowly in the area just to the north of the station, gathering pace in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with two- and three-bedroom terraced houses. Further out towards Coombe Hill are larger detached and semi-detached houses built in the 1930s. The name of the road which leads up the hill to Coombe, Traps Lane, is thought to derive from a farm owned by a Mrs Trap. Following the opening of the Kingston bypass in 1927, the farms to its south were progressively developed for housing. Two miles (3 km) to the south is the former village of Old Malden the origins of which are Anglo-Saxon, the name being Old English for Mæl + duna = the cross on the hill. Under the District Councils Act 1895, The Maldens & Coombe Urban District Council was created (the plural relating to Old Malden and New Malden). In 1936 Malden and Coombe was granted full Borough status, with its own Mayor, and had the rare distinction of a civic mace bearing the royal insignia of King Edward VIII. New Malden suffered damage from German bombing during the Second World War. The first attack took place on 16 August 1940, killing about 50 people and damaging about 1,300 homes. After dropping about 150 bombs, German aircraft reportedly flew over the railway station at low altitude and machine-gunned passengers as they disembarked from a train. Unexploded munitions from this period are still found on occasion. In 1965, the London Government Act 1963 came into force merging the boroughs of Malden & Coombe and Surbiton with Kingston upon Thames to form the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. New Malden contains offices of several large organisations. One such was Nestlé Purina Pet Foods (before 1997 Spillers Pet Foods) – until 2012 when Nestlé moved its UK headquarters to Gatwick, and Northrop Grumman.
Description:
New Malden is bounded to the north by the affluent Coombe Hill and to the south and east by Raynes Park, Tolworth and Worcester Park. New Malden includes Motspur Park, home to the training ground of Fulham FC, and also the Kings College London sports ground, home to the training ground of AFC Wimbledon. To the west: Kingston upon Thames, Norbiton To the south: Old Malden, Surbiton, Tolworth, Worcester Park To the east: Motspur Park, Raynes Park, West Barnes To the north: Coombe, Richmond Park, Wimbledon. The busy A3 trunk road runs through part of New Malden. A minor tributary of the River Thames, Beverley Brook, flows through the east of the town, while its western boundary is along the Hogsmill, another Thames tributary. The first parking meters were made in New Malden at Venners Ltd.
Demographics:
New Malden is home to one of the largest expatriate communities of South Koreans in Europe, and is said to be one of the most densely populated areas of Koreans outside South Korea. According to different sources, as of 2014 there were about 10,000 ethnic Koreans in New Malden proper, and as of the same year the Korean population in the area around New Malden is around 20,000, including about 600 originating from North Korea, giving it the largest group of North Koreans in Europe. In the 2001 census, some small areas of New Malden had Other Asian populations of over 25%, though no whole ward reached over 20%. Many of the Koreans living in New Malden work for Korean companies, and they are either permanently settled and formerly expatriate, or they are still expatriates. The New Malden area has Korean language churches and nursery schools as well as restaurants and shops with Korean clientele. New Malden functions as the shopping and cultural centre for a Korean population spread more widely across South-West London and the neighbouring counties. The area has Korean supermarkets, about 20 Korean restaurants and cafes, including those serving bulg
