Cigarette Island Park is a 5-acre (2.0 ha) public park in East Molesey, in the Borough of Elmbridge, Surrey, close to the border with Greater London and Hampton Court Palace.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Apartments_at_Hampton_Court_Palace_seen_across_the_Thames_from_Cigarette_Island_Park_%28geograph_3864992%29.jpg/220px-Apartments_at_Hampton_Court_Palace_seen_across_the_Thames_from_Cigarette_Island_Park_%28geograph_3864992%29.jpg)
Until the 1930s the area was an island at the confluence of the River Mole and the Thames, known as The Sterte as early as the 14th century.[1] In 1843 the island was named Davis's Ait, and a later name of Cigarette Island derived from a houseboat with the name Cigarette which was moored at the site.[1]
Writing in 1843, James Thorne described the location as "a noble one", saying that "From its mouth the Thames, with Hampton Court on the opposite bank, form a picture of surpassing beauty."[2] By the end of the 19th century the site was a popular mooring site for houseboats.[3]
In 1926 council plans were drawn up to convert the island into a public park, in part to curb the "ever-increasing nuisance of caravan dwellers and occupiers of sheds".[1] In the early 1930s the Mole was diverted into the River Ember and the creek was filled in, and the park opened to the public in 1935.[1]
The park is only a short walk away from Hampton Court station.
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Thameside Molesey - Cigarette Island". www.moleseyhistory.co.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
- ^ The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. 1843.
- ^ Baker, Rowland George Martin; Baker, Gwendoline F. (1989). Thameside Molesey: A Towpath Ramble from Hampton Court to Hampton Reach. Barracuda. ISBN 9780860234142.