History
Kingston upon Thames, on the south bank of the River Thames has existed for many hundreds of years. Many Roman relics have been found in the surrounding areas. A church has stood on the site of All Saints Church, in the centre of Kingston, for more than a thousand years. An earlier church was sacked by the Vikings in 1009AD. Kingston was the site of the coronations of seven Anglo-Saxon monarchs:
- Edward the Elder, son of Alfred the Great), 900AD
- Athelstan, 925AD
- Edmund I, 939AD
- Eadred, 946AD
- Eadwig, 956AD
- Edward the Martyr, 975AD
- Ethelred the Unready, 979AD
The Coronation Stone, on which they are said to have been crowned stands outside the local council offices, the Guildhall. A coin from the reign of each of those kings is set into the base of the stone.
The borough was formed in 1965 by the merger and the transfer from Surrey to Greater London of the Municipal boroughs of Kingston-upon-Thames (which itself was a Royal Borough), Malden and Coombe and Surbiton.
The current name of the borough omits hyphens to distinguish it from the similarly named former municipal borough.
Kingston, administratively part of Greater London, contains County Hall, the seat of Surrey County Council, and except for the Kingston Vale area in the north-east which has a London SW15 postcode, was part of Surrey for postal purposes until postal counties were abolished in 1996.
Read more about this topic: Royal Borough Of Kingston Upon Thames
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–c. 120)
“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“In front of these sinister facts, the first lesson of history is the good of evil. Good is a good doctor, but Bad is sometimes a better.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)