Where Is This? No. 51

Published on: 2 Apr, 2013
Updated on: 2 Apr, 2013

By David Rose

Plenty of correct replies to last week’s mystery photo that featured some of the shops that once stood in Onslow Street. Part of the Friary centre now occupies the site.

To read all the comments at the foot of last week’s post, click here and scroll down the page. Once again, some interesting facts have been added.

We were looking for the location of the sculpture in the second photo. So although regular responder and very knowledgable Guildfordian Bernard Parke was again first with his reply, he referred more to the building in the background. So no Green Shield Stamps for him this week!

The sculpture stands outside the Electric Theatre, as many of you noted. All I know about it is that it’s called Masquerade, it’s 5m high and is made of stainless steel. It is by Allan Sly and was commissioned by the Electric Theatre. It was unveiled in September 2005.

Do you remember this tea shop a few miles from Guildford?

This week’s mystery vintage photo shows a thatched building that was once a tea room. It was on the outskirts of Guildford, but do you know where? Not really a clue, but a son of the owners is a founder member of, and still plays bass guitar in, the rock band the Stranglers.

Here’s another piece of public art somewhere in Guildford, as photographed by Peter Bullen. Do you know where this sculpture is?

Recognise where this chap is?

If you know the answers please leave a reply in the box below. All replies will be posted at about the same time next week, along with a new post with the answers to this week’s photo and mystery sign, and the next pair of images.

Responses to Where Is This? No. 51

Norman Hamshere Reply

April 2, 2013 at 9:13 pm

Little Thatch Restaurant, Meadrow Farncombe
Bernard Parke Reply

April 2, 2013 at 10:20 pm

1) No Green shield stamps again for me !

Could be Ripley

2) The old town wharf , Donated by the Guildford Society.

I still remember the old horse drawn barges. when the horse were tied to the post by the bridges whilst the barges were sent through the arches,

Some of these posts are still there .

One by the Town Bridge.
Bernard Parke Reply

April 3, 2013 at 5:21 am

1) Newlands Corner ?
David & Ann Bailey Reply

April 3, 2013 at 5:44 pm

This Thatched Restaurant (not tea rooms) was on Meadrow going into Godalming, next to Rayners Garden Buildings. We went their for dinner on our first Wedding Anniversary. Houses are there now.

The Barge Man on the Town Wharf.
Carol Norris Reply

April 3, 2013 at 7:56 pm

Photo 1 : Little Thatch Cafe was on Meadrow, Godalming. I think it was probably between Hare Lane and Llanaway Road. There are now houses on the site on roads called Little Thatch and Little Thatch Close.

Photo 2 : On the riverside near-ish to the old town bridge in Guildford.
Peter Bullen Reply

April 4, 2013 at 10:07 am

The Meadrow, Farncombe, where Rayners the garden buildings firm is today.
Ray Springer Reply

April 4, 2013 at 11:07 am

My research confirms that there was a Little Thatch Restaurant in Meadrow Godalming, although I can’t remember ever seeing the building depicted in your photograph.
There is a road called Little Thatch just behind Meadrow with newly built houses – is this where the restaurant used to be ?
Our first thoughts were that it was at Newlands Corner, but I cannot find any record of any such cafe.
The sculpture is of the Bargeman situated by the River at the Town Wharf. This was presented for the Millenium by the Guildford Society in 2000
- Clive Downes Reply
  
  April 14, 2013 at 4:19 pm
  
  The Little Thatch used to be at Meadrow, but the land was previously owned by the Hallam sisters at Llanaway Estate, next to the Three Lions public house.
  
  The land used to extend to the Railway Hotel, but Meadrow School, Hallam Road and Llanaway Road, including Rayner’s property.
  
  Around 1920 two timber framed houses were erected, but the first was severely damaged and was converted from Rayner’s.
  
  Next became The Little Thatch as a restaurant and changed the name as La Chaumiere, with a thatched roof and homely appearance, but was never successful and finally demolished. Now it is The Little Thatch Estate with many more houses.
Brian Holt Reply

April 4, 2013 at 11:41 am

I think the tea rooms was up the top of Shere Road , near what was Newlands Corner Hotel.

The sculpture is titled The Bargeman as a reminder of
what was once there and is near the old treadwheel crane house wooden shed which is now a open space area.
Barbara Howarth Reply

April 4, 2013 at 7:16 pm

I think “Little Thatch” may have been at Newlands Corner?

The statue is on the riverside, opposite the public car park outside St Nicholas church lower High St.
Chris Townsend Reply

April 5, 2013 at 8:19 pm

The tea room was on Meadrow, Godalming, on the east side of Rayner’s. The bargate stone wall is still there, and Little Thatch has become the name of the modern housing development.

The Bargeman sculpture is close to the old treadwheel crane featured a few weeks ago, near the Town Bridge.
John Lomas Reply

April 5, 2013 at 8:56 pm

Hi
Wasn’t the Little Thatch along the A3100, Meadrow at Farncombe, approximately opposite the allotments?
John Lomas Reply

April 5, 2013 at 9:03 pm

Hi again, I nitce that the stone wall with a single brick course below the capstone course in front of Rayners is very like the one on the old picture and there is an obvious inserted section in the wall, when viewed on StreetView, that could well be filling in the original gateway.
John Foster Reply

April 8, 2013 at 3:37 pm

I think the tea shop may have been on Meadrow Godalming.

The piece of art work is on the riverside of Millbrook, just after the Friary Bridge.
Richard Akehurst Reply

November 15, 2013 at 4:46 pm

Yes, as the chap said earlier, it is The Little Thatch and was run by Monsieur and Madame Burnel, Jean-Jacques Burnel’s parents.

I used to walk past it four times a day to and from Kings Road to Meadrow Primary School. JJB used to be waiting at the bus stop to go to his school in Guildford, the Royal Grammar School.
Simon Edmands Reply

February 21, 2015 at 12:59 pm

I don’t know about the Stranglers link, but the restaurant shown is indeed The Little Thatch just outside Godalming and used to be owned and run in the late 1950s and early 1960s by my late father Jack Edmands and his first wife Margaret. I have an original (and almost identical) black and white photo here next to me as I type!
Stephen Field Reply

March 19, 2017 at 4:25 pm

I have the reception (signing in) book from the Newland’s Corner hotel. It starts in 1952 and finishes in the 1970s, signed by all the guests including Eric Sykes lots of BBC workers and loads of intersting people.
Jim Cousins Reply

November 26, 2021 at 12:27 pm

I used to work as a waiter when it was a restaurant run by the Burnels. This was in the sixties. Then it was called “La Chaumiere”