Where Is This? No.59

Published on: 28 May, 2013
Updated on: 28 May, 2013

By David Rose

To begin with, the answers to last week’s posers. The vintage picture featuring John Perring’s store was at the foot of North Street, and the sculpture can be found in the grounds of the University of Surrey.

Check out all the replies at the foot of last week’s post, click here. Thanks to you all and in particular to Chris Townsend for her comments and Julia Funnell who adds a link that shows a much better photograph of the store.

And some of you who recognised the sculpture gave its name – The Spine.

Do you recognise this building? Note the turret…

I have to say that I think this week’s vintage photo might be a little tricky for some. So here are a few clues. It shows a rather grand building when it was a hotel – in about the 1920s-30s. It later became a private school for girls and than an annex to a nearby secondary school that’s still there. The building in the photo has now been converted into apartments. Some who went there when it was a school may recall the grotto-type feature in the grounds.

Where is this ‘railway line’?

The photo of a piece of public art, taken by Peter Bullen, shows what appears to be some railway sleeps incorporating a number of miniature bridges. Where is it, and does anyone know what it represents? It’s a railway that leads to nowhere and the buildings near it do not have a railway connection (as far as I can work out), although there is a real railway line not too far away.

If you know the answers to this week’s, and perhaps have some comments to make, 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 vintage photo and sculpture / statue picture, and the next pair of images.

Responses to Where Is This? No.59

Bernard Parke Reply

May 29, 2013 at 7:21 am

1) Merrow Grange ?
Julia Funnell Reply

May 29, 2013 at 11:31 am

I think the house is Merrow Grange. Here is some more history: http://www.parksandgardens.org/places-and-people/site/2276/history

The railway sculpture is in the car park area of the Royal Surrey County Hospital.
Ray Springer Reply

May 31, 2013 at 10:40 am

The building, a complete guess, but judging from the stated clues, could be Guildford High School in London Road.

The sculpture is in the RSCH grounds outside the entrance to the hospital and off Gill Avenue. Have often wondered what it is supposed to represent and why there. Hopefully this post may reveal the answers. Somebody must know.
Brian Holt Reply

June 2, 2013 at 4:07 pm

I think it might be Farnham Road, next to the Guildford County School, there was a couple of small hotels there and it was once a girls’ school only.

The piece of public art is on the grass area between the Royal Surrey County Hospital car park and Gill Avenue.

They was once on an exterior wall of the hospital, but the plaque has now vanished.
Chris Townsend Reply

June 3, 2013 at 7:26 am

The photo is of Merrow Grange. Surrey History Centre holds many records, postcards and photos, (some on their website), including some of the grotto. There is a booklet, The Development and History of Merrow Grange, by Janet Carpenter, (1981). The gardens are featured in a 1983 article in Garden History.

The house dates to 1868. An early occupant was one Joseph Wilson Buckley. By 1881, Algernon M.A. Percy M.P. lived there, and from 1895 until 1927 it was occupied by the Baring-Gould family. The property was sold in 1928, part as building sites in 1929-32, and by 1930 the house had become a hotel. It was an auxiliary hospital between 1941-1942. In 1945 it became a convent school, and was sold for re-development in the 1990s. The new building, Pengilly House, replaced the 1930s hotel extension.
Doug Staniforth Reply

June 3, 2013 at 3:51 pm

Could this possibly be Merrow Grange School in Horseshoe lane. It would have been the annexe for St Peter’s
No idea about the sculpture but most likely somewhere in the research park(they do have some odd things there)
Is there a sculpture of a speedboat anywhere?
Raineee Wornham Reply

June 3, 2013 at 5:30 pm

The railway sleepers are in the grounds of the Royal Surrey County hospital, in the car park area opposite the front entrance!