This section is from the book "Chambers's Concise Gazetteer Of The World", by David Patrick. Also available from Amazon: Chambers's Concise Gazetteer Of The World.
Kingston-upon-Thames, a municipal borough of Surrey, 12 miles SW. of London, lies on the right bank of the Thames, here crossed by two bridges - one of stone completed 1828 and freed 1870, and the other an iron railway viaduct. Of late years, with its suburbs of Norbiton, Sur-biton, and New Maiden, it has grown rapidly, its easy access to London, coupled with its facilities for boating and its pleasant surroundings, notably Hampton Court, Bushy and Richmond Parks, having attracted large numbers of residents. The borough is within the London Metropolitan Police District. Pop. (of parish, 1801) 4886 ; (1891) 27,059; (1901) 34,375. The parish church has some fine monuments; the county council buildings, costing £36,000, were undertaken in 1890. Seven of the Anglo-Saxon kings were crowned here, as recorded on the coronation-stone still standing near the market-place ; King John, who granted the town its first charter, was a frequent visitor in 1204-15 ; in 1264 Kingston Castle (of which no traces now remain) was captured by Henry III.; Fairfax made the town his headquarters in 1647 ; and a year later took place in the neighbourhood the last fight between the royalists and Roundheads. At Ham Common lived Gay's 'Kitty,' Duchess of Queensberry. See Biden's History of Kingston-upon-Thames (1852).
 
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