Sumo Experience

St Johns, Woking, Surrey

Woking is a large town and civil parish that shares its name with the surrounding local government district, located in the west of Surrey, England.

It is a dormitory town in the London commuter belt and is located 23 miles (37 km) south west of Charing Cross in central London.

Woking town itself, excluding the surrounding district, has a population of 62,796 (Surrey County Council), and the civil parish, which covers part of the urban area inclusive of Sheerwater and Knaphill, has a population of 30,403.

This population is different from the local government district, (the borough of Woking), which has an approximate population of 90,700 (2006 estimate).

Woking also plays a role in literature: it is the town in which the Martians first land in H. G. Wells' science fiction novel The War of the Worlds.

It also features in Douglas Adams's The Meaning of Liff, as the word for when you go to the kitchen but forget why.

Woking has a modern shopping centre called The Peacocks and an older shopping area, Wolsey Place.

The main area for evening entertainment is around Chertsey Road which contains restaurants serving a number of cuisines and there are also numerous bars and pubs.

The Ambassadors cinemas and New Victoria Theatre can be accessed via the top floor of The Peacocks.

Woking has indoor swimming pools, "Pool in the Park", and a separate leisure centre.

Outdoor facilities include a skatepark, tennis courts, five-a-side football pitches, a cricket pitch (during the summer), bowling greens, a crazy golf course, and a children's adventure playground. These leisure facilities are all located within the attractively landscaped Woking Park near to the town centre.

Woking also has the largest public library in Surrey.

The scene at St Peter's Church, Old Woking is an inspiration for many local artists, as is another local beauty spot at the lock at St John's Lye.

Woking is home to a new arts and heritage centre called 'The Lightbox'. The modern structure, located next to the Basingstoke Canal, was designed by architects Marks Barfield, the architects of the London Eye.

There is also a Hawker Hunter jet fighter painted silver and mounted on a pole roughly ten metres tall outside the 'Big Apple' family entertainment complex. This was used to promote the previous 'Planets' family entertainment complex, designed to look like a space craft, and has never been removed.

However, originally the craft was black with various logos and livery on it. These were removed when the Planets complex was taken over.

Woking is home to the McLaren Group, an umbrella organization that most notably includes McLaren Racing, which fields the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One racing cars (currently driven by Heikki Kovalainen and reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton), and McLaren Automotive, builder of the McLaren F1 and Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren supercars.

Content provided by Wikipedia