W is for Woodcote Village

LONDON A-Z W is for Upper Woodcote Village (the Webb Estate) Just west of Purley is an extraordinary housing estate of extremely desirable houses in an extremely desirable setting. The Webb Estate was the brainchild of William Webb, a local estate agent with a grand vision and a pioneer of the garden village movement. If I tell you work started in 1888 and was completed in 1925, all to schedule, that'll tell you something about the singular determination of the man who built it. And if I tell you the estate covers 260 acres and has just 230 homes, that'll tell you something about the pockets of the people who live here. The main entrance to Upper Woodcote Village, the road residents don't mind you using, bears off Smitham Bottom Lane by the old people's home. A minute's walk takes you to an unexpectedly rural vista - what looks like a pub, what looks like a village green - amid what otherwise is a neighbourhood of rustic commuter homes. Were it nicer weather you could stretch out on…

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