Places · South East · Surrey
Façade & building consultants in Woking.
Woking grew up around its railway station, and in the last decade its centre has gained some of the tallest residential towers outside London. McKay Turner Consulting provides façade condition surveys, defect and water ingress investigations, external wall fire risk appraisals, design reviews and expert witness work across Woking and Surrey.
WOKING 51.32° N, 0.56° W
A short history
A railway town with a famous common
Woking hardly existed before the railway. The station, a vast cemetery and Britain's first mosque and crematorium shaped a town that is now remaking its centre with towers.
- 1838
Railway
The London and Southampton Railway opens a station on open heath, and a new town grows around it.
- 1854
Brookwood Cemetery
The London Necropolis opens, served by its own railway from Waterloo.
- 1885
Crematorium
The first cremation in Britain takes place at Woking.
- 1889
Shah Jahan Mosque
Britain's first purpose-built mosque is completed in Bath and Bargate stone.
- 1898
War of the Worlds
H.G. Wells, who lived in Woking, lands his Martians on Horsell Common.
- 1970s
New town centre
Post-war redevelopment brings shopping centres and office blocks.
- 2010s–20s
Victoria Square
Residential towers, a hotel and shops rise beside the station.
- 2022
Goldsworth Road
Five towers of 9 to 37 storeys are approved on appeal.
Architecture
What makes Woking's buildings distinctive
Victorian villas and Surrey vernacular houses surround a town centre that has gone from low-rise to tall in a decade. Most new towers use glass, metal and rainscreen cladding.
Key styles
Victorian railway town
Red-brick villas and terraces built for commuters near the station.
Indo-Islamic
The Shah Jahan Mosque, with its dome and minarets in Bath and Bargate stone.
Surrey Arts & Crafts
Houses with clay tile hanging, half-timbering and tall chimneys.
Post-war centre
Concrete and brick offices and shopping centres.
Commuter offices
Glazed offices for companies moving out of London.
Towers
Residential towers with curtain walls, metal panels and balconies.
Woking's material palette
Did you know?
H.G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds while living in Woking, and set the Martian landing on Horsell Common.
Brookwood was once the largest cemetery in the world, with trains from a private London station.
The council has no maximum building height policy, which is why the town centre has grown so tall so quickly.
Typical building types
What Woking is built of today
A commuter town of around 100,000 people, Woking combines Victorian and interwar suburbs with a dense, fast-growing town centre.
Residential towers
New towers of up to 30 storeys and more, many build-to-rent.
Where: Town centre, Victoria Way, Goldsworth Road
Offices
Glazed offices from the 1980s to today.
Where: Town centre, near the station
Apartments
Low and mid-rise blocks from the 1990s onwards.
Where: Town centre, Maybury, Sheerwater
Retail & leisure
Shopping centres and leisure buildings.
Where: Peacocks, Victoria Place
Victorian & Edwardian houses
Villas and terraces in brick and render.
Where: Maybury, Horsell, Old Woking
Hotels
Town-centre and business hotels.
Where: Victoria Square, the station
Schools & public
Schools, leisure and civic buildings.
Where: Across the borough
Heritage
Listed buildings including the mosque and cemetery buildings.
Where: Maybury, Brookwood
Current construction trends
Where Woking is building now
Tall residential towers have reshaped the town centre, and owners now face the duties that come with them.
Victoria Square
Sir Robert McAlpine has built two residential towers, a hotel and shops beside the station.
Goldsworth Road
EcoWorld London's five towers of 9 to 37 storeys were approved on appeal in 2022.
Build to rent
Several new town-centre towers are build-to-rent, owned and run by one landlord.
Higher-risk buildings
Residential buildings of 18m or seven storeys and above, with at least two homes, must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator and have a safety case that covers their external walls.
Cladding Safety Scheme
Government funding for unsafe cladding on residential buildings over 11m in England. Every application starts with a PAS 9980 fire risk appraisal of the external walls.
Remediation Acceleration Plan
The government expects buildings over 18m in its funded remediation schemes to be fixed by the end of 2029, with tougher action against owners who delay.
How we help in Woking
Every era of building has its own risks
We match our inspections and advice to the age and construction of your building.
Victorian and Edwardian housesc.1840–1914
Spalling brick, failed pointing, slipped tile hanging and leaking roofs.
Post-war offices and shopsc.1960–1990
Failed concrete, old glazing and roof leaks.
1990s–2000s officesc.1990–2010
Failing curtain-wall seals and gaskets, and cladding near the end of its life.
Residential towersc.2010–today
Combustible cladding or insulation, missing cavity barriers and leaking balconies.
New buildtoday
Design and specification gaps, and workmanship on tall façades.
The Marches, Woking: targeted intrusive investigations from inside occupied apartments to confirm the as-built external walls of two build-to-rent towers opposite Woking station.
Read the The Marches case study →FAQs
Façade services in Woking
Do you work in Woking?
Yes. We work across the UK from our base in the North West, including in Woking. A Director-level consultant leads every instruction from the first conversation to the final report.
Can you assess the external walls of residential buildings in Woking?
Yes. Our intrusive investigations confirm how the cladding, insulation and cavity barriers are actually built. We then assess the fire risk using PAS 9980, which is also the starting point for Cladding Safety Scheme applications.
Can you help with a tall residential building in Woking?
Yes. We have worked on residential towers in Woking, confirming how the external walls are built through targeted investigations from inside occupied flats, then assessing the fire risk.
Which other services do you offer in Woking?
Façade condition surveys, defect and leak investigations, thermographic surveys, technical due diligence, façade design reviews and expert witness work in façade disputes.
Work with us
Own or manage a building in Woking?
We provide façade condition surveys, defect and water ingress investigations, external wall fire risk appraisals, design reviews and expert witness work in Woking and across Surrey.
Photographs: McKay Turner Consulting; Dan Poulton on Unsplash.