Please come and explain the bizarre gated area in Esher.

[MrsCakesPremonition]

I drove through Esher for the first time today and same across house after house with ginormous fuck off gates. Then I noticed that quite a lot of perfectly normal roads were also shut off behind enormous gates.
Is the area around Claremont Road a really dodgy one? The house values don't seem to be exceptionally higher than other similar commuter belt area but I've never come across the gates anywhere else.

[eatscakefornoreasonwhatsoever]

Cliff Richard lives round there. And lots of new money who like to think they're something special because they hide behind big fuck off gates.

[Boysclothes]

The gated roads are private roads. Loads of them round there. I do a lot of house calls in that area and half the bloody intercoms don't work!

[MrsCakesPremonition]

I can understand Cliff needing gates. Especially if SP is around.

[eatscakefornoreasonwhatsoever]

SP?

[Trondheim]

Su pollard

[Bohemond]

The gated roads have always been there but the mega gates on houses are relatively new as are the massive McMansions that have replaced what were normal sized houses 20 years ago. It is worse in Oxshott where I grew up - that's now full of footballers, Russians and minor celebs.

Cliff lives closer to Weybridge - st George's hill.

[specialsubject]

Dodgy? Esher?

Don't think so!

[MrsCakesPremonition]

SP is an MNer who peppers threads with surprising links to Cliff pictures.
I just assumed the gates meant that there was a lot of crime in the area. Why else would you need them?

[Unexpected]

No, crime is low because of the super-duper security. People have these huge gates because (in a teeny percentage of cases) they actually are celebrities and don't want people peering through their windows taking photos or rifling through their rubbish. Mostly however, people have these gates as a kind of f-off gesture to the world about how important they are and how they need to be protected from the riffraff. It isn't just Esher though, there are roads like that all over that area, lots in Weybridge, Cobham, on the way into Walton etc.

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

I used to love driving from the A3 on that country road to Oxshott, nosing at the big houses on the leafy lanes....

[Bowlersarm]

Crime very low although you think those fuck off houses would invite burglars, but everyone can afford the latest in security.

Close friends live in one of the gated roads. Tis very nice.

[Pagwatch]

It's just security.
If you have a cluster of very wealthy homes in one area the chances of an armed burglary increases doesn't it? Like that area near Liverpool or Manchester - one of the big clubs, where footballers homes were targeted by an armed gang.

[Bowlersarm]

A lot of the Chelsea footballers live in that area, it's right by their training ground.

[Timeisawastin]

Because I'm nosy I just looked up Esher on google images. What a huge amount of outdoor swimming pools and tennis courts! I hope they get lots of nice weather.

[wowfudge]

Ah yes - Hale, Bowden, Prestbury and Alderley Edge in Cheshire are full of huge houses behind massive gates. Lots of said houses have triple garages and hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of expensive cars parked on the drives.

If they used the garages for cars, maybe they wouldn't need the electric gates?

[Rockdoctor]

It's funny how the big gate thing expands as people move further out of London. We are on the fringes of commutable and I have noticed a lot going up around here, usually within six months of the house being sold. Once the gates go up, we see nothing of the occupants apart from their daily run to and from whichever exclusive private school their children attend.