Shepperton

Coordinates: 51°23′N 0°28′W / 51.39°N 0.46°W / 51.39; -0.46

Shepperton is a suburban town/village in the borough of Spelthorne, in the former historic county of Middlesex in England, 15 miles (24 km) south west of Charing Cross, London, bounded by the Thames to the south and in the north-west bisected by the M3 motorway. Shepperton is equidistant between the towns of Chertsey, Surrey, and Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex. Shepperton is mentioned in a document of 959 CE and in the Domesday Book, where it was an agricultural village. In the early 19th century resident writers and poets included Haggard, Peacock, Meredith and Shelley, allured by the Thames which was painted at Walton Bridge here in 1754 by Canaletto and in 1805 by Turner.

The suburbanisation of Shepperton began in the mid to late 19th century with the construction in 1864 of its railway largely owing to its manor owner W. S. Lindsay which was originally envisaged to extend beyond the village to serve the market town of Chertsey. Shepperton's relative closeness to London coupled with improvements to the river such as Shepperton Lock built in 1813 helped it to develop into a suburban settlement where merchants and professionals chose to construct and rent villas in its smog-free environs and commute daily to the city.