Editing Surbiton (section)

===Resident artists and writers===

[[File:The clock tower Surbiton.jpg|thumb|left|The clock tower, Surbiton, built to celebrate the Coronation of King Edward VII, 1902]]

The Pre-Raphaelite painters [[John Everett Millais]] (1829–1896) and [[William Holman Hunt]] (1827–1910) came to Surbiton in 1851, 26 years before [[Richard Jefferies]] (1848–1887). Millais used the [[Hogsmill River]], in Six Acre Meadow, [[Tolworth]], as the background for his painting ''[[Ophelia (painting)|Ophelia]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=KoZola |date=2014-04-21 |title=Site of John Everett Millais' Ophelia as it is now on Hogsmill River Old Malden |url=https://www.kingstononline.co.uk/ophelia-john-everett-millais-painted-hogsmill-river-1851/ |access-date=2023-06-26 |website=Kingston Online guide to Kingston upon Thames |language=en-GB}}</ref> Holman Hunt used the fields just south of this spot as the background to ''[[The Hireling Shepherd]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.manchestergalleries.org/the-collections/search-the-collection/display.php?EMUSESSID=1828ea76fa2d8c31480c6725ca3ed106&irn=195 |title=Collections |publisher=Manchester Art Gallery |website=Manchestergalleries.org |access-date=14 July 2017}}</ref>

In the mid-1870s the novelist [[Thomas Hardy]] (1840–1928) lived in a house called 'St. David's Villa' in Hook Road, Surbiton for a year after his marriage to [[Emma Gifford]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://maproom.net/story-thomas-hardy-surbiton/|title=The surprising story of Thomas Hardy in Surbiton|date=2016-10-30|website=Maproom|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-06-18}}</ref> [[H.G.Wells]], in his comic novel [[The Wheels of Chance]], describes the cycle collision of 'Mr Hoopdriver' and a 'Young Lady in Grey'; the young lady approaching 'along an affluent from the villas of Surbiton'. The writer [[Enid Blyton]] was governess to a Surbiton family for four years from 1920, at a house called 'Southernhay', also on the Hook Road.<ref>{{citation|title=Chronology|url=http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/chronology.php|access-date=10 February 2012|author=The Enid Blyton Society}}</ref> [[C. H. Middleton]] (1886–1945), who broadcast on gardening during the [[Second World War]], lived in Surbiton, where he died suddenly outside his home.<ref>Daniel Smith (2011) ''The Spade as Mighty as the Sword''</ref> The artist who brought [[Rupert the Bear]] to life for a whole generation, [[Alfred Bestall]], sketched out his cartoons from his home in Cranes Park, Surbiton Hill.