Welcome to Woking
Woking's location to the south west of London has played an integral part in the Borough's history, and continues to play a significant role in its development.
With a superb combination of attractive environment, excellent transport links by rail, air and road, and the locally high standards of education, workforce skills and business support, the Borough enjoys a reputation as a quality location in which to live and work.
Originally a centre of agriculture and plant cultivation, the modern town of Woking grew rapidly after the development of the railway link in the early nineteenth century.
Today, it remains renowned for its concentration of plant nurseries but is also home to many leading national and international companies, including McLaren's Formula 1 Technology Centre, the computer services and software giant, Cap Gemini, Mouchel Consulting's management services, Skanska engineering, and South African Breweries' UK headquarters.
Woking at a glance
Situated in the heart of Surrey, just 25 miles south west of London, Woking is a modern town surrounded by countryside and villages, with excellent rail links to the South and South West, and London Waterloo, which is just 25 minutes away. London airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, are within 15 and 20 miles respectively, with a direct, half-hourly coach link to Heathrow from Woking mainline railway station. Junction 11 of the M25 is just five miles away, and the A3 trunk road and M3 are within a 15-minute drive.
Key facts
-
The Borough covers 6359 hectares (15,713 acres).
-
60% of the Borough is green belt land and 473 hectares (1170 acres) of the Borough is common land.
-
There are 39,900 homes in the Borough with an average of 1.4 cars per household.
The Borough of Woking has a population of approximately 91,400 with 81.9% aged between 20 and 64. The local unemployment claimant rate in January 2009 was 1.7%, which compares favourably with the South East rate of 2.4% (excluding London) and the national rate of 3.4%. Census information from 2008 shows that more than half of the Borough's resident workers were employed in finance, IT and other service industries, with significant numbers of residents employed in distribution and catering (20.3%) and manufacturing (10.4%).