Cobham may not sound like the most glamorous of places; the two-syllable name doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue, and conjures up images of a vegetable meat mash-up of a corn on a cob and a French ham. Yet despite the lack-lustre wet and windy British weather added into the mix, the small town of Cobham is a magnet for the rich and famous. Situated on one corner of Elmbridge Surrey, just inside the M25, the district is not only home to our boutique of the month c.See, but also boasts a population of footballers, WAGs, TV personalities and a Rolling Stone.
Elmbridge, which includes Claygate, Esher and Weybridge as well as Cobham is well known as the ‘gin and jag’ greenbelt. Chelsea FC’s football training ground is based in Stoke d’Abernon near Cobham, so naturally the likes of Frank Lampard and John Terry have moved into gated mansions with their perfectly pruned WAGs – eyelashes and silicone breasts in tow. The dragon Theo Paphitis, Girls Aloud songstress Nicola Roberts, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, TV presenter Gary Linekar and loveable ginger Mick Hucknall are also exclusive residents of leafy Elmbridge. Plus, that is all before we include the biggest star of all, Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones on the resident hot list.
Its origins can be found in the Iron Age with evidence of the earliest settlement found on Leigh-Hill. More recently, research indicates that the Abbot Chertsey, who owned the manor, laid out a planned village in medieval times, developed around the ancient Paris church of St. Andrew. Over the centuries the settlement grew into a development and the development grew into the town called Cobham we know today.
To fulfill every WAG’s sartorial appetite for the crème de la crème and to max out every daddy’s platinum card, Cobham now offers a high street dripping in designer brands. From D&G and Moschino to c.See’s selection of Acne, Rick Owens, Temperley London and Vivienne Westwood. In fact, in the last five years Cobham has four times been named the best place to live in the country by the Halifax survey, bringing highly sought after private schools as well as an elite shopping experience. The biggest appeal of Cobham though is its combination of the rural and city lifestyle. The town highlights the best of our British luscious green landscape, but is no more than a half an hour journey from the bright lights of London.
If we look to the future, does Cobham have the potential to become the Hamptons or Beverley Hills of the UK? I guess only time will tell.
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