and distribution in the United Kingdom was headquartered at Giggs Hill Green in Thames Ditton where it played a significant role in providing local employment and in supporting the Cricket Club and other aspects of village life. Its large site, already licensed for commercial use, was targeted by Tesco for a supermarket and garage in the early 1990s but local action secured it for a housing development with public tennis courts, a recreational area and two acres for community health purposes. Historical figures Lord Henry FitzGerald (1761–1829) Charlotte FitzGerald-de Ros, 21st Baroness de Ros (1769–1831) Colonel Sidney Godolphin (1652–1732) Maundy Gregory (1 July 1877 – 28 September 1941) Dudley Carleton, 1st Viscount Dorchester (1573–1632), lived at Imber Court Cesar Picton (1755–1836) – a successful businessman, who owned a wharf and a malt house Reverend George Harvest (1728–1789) Arthur Onslow (1691–1768) George Onslow, 1st Earl of Onslow (1731–1814) Edward Sugden, 1st Baron St Leonards (1781–1875) Hewett Watson 9 May 1804, and died at Thames Ditton, Surrey, on 27 July 1881 Julian Stafford Corbett 12 November 1854 – 21 September 1922 (Brought up at Imber Court Weston Green) Christian de Duve, Belgian, Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine 1974, born in Thames-Ditton in 1917. Marie Lloyd Amenities Thames Ditton railway station links Thames Ditton to London Waterloo, serving the large commuter population, local workforce and Esher college student population. Its High Street is a conservation area that has a mixture of residential housing, office and retail shops in about equal proportion. The village High Street retains a pharmacy, greengrocery, florist, coffee/delicatessen shop, four restaurants (Chinese, Indian, Italian and Thai), sandwich/coffee shops, a photographers and a post-office/convenience store. There are also a hairdressers, estate agents, two gift shops, a silversmith and jewellers, tennis and hockey equipment shop (the latter run by an Olympic gold-medallist), a small modern art gallery, two beauty salons and an undertaker. In nearby Summer Road there is a newsagents, convenience store, dry cleaners and a high end interior designer. There are six pubs in the village, two with riverside frontages. The George and Dragon on the corner of High Street and Station Road hosts Thames Ditton Farmers' Market every 4 th Saturday of the month from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. At Winters Bridge on the Portsmouth Road there is a small parade of shops that includes a nationally recognised patisserie and chocolatier. There is another off-licence, a pharmacy