Kingston

Overview of borough

Resident population: 155,900
Working age population: 105,400
Key town centres: Kingston, New Malden, Surbiton, Tolworth and Chessington.
Strong Korean and Chinese community within the borough.

Skills & Labour Force

Qualifications:
42.8 % of the workforce is educated to degree level (NVQ4+) compared with London at 34.6%.

International Schools / Universities

Chinesewise School
Mandarin in 4 levels to GCSE for ages 8+.
Web: www.chinesewise.co.uk.

Korean Saturday School
At Chessington Community College.
020 8974 1156 / 07958 599153 (Mrs Kim)

Marymount International School
Independent college-preparatory school for girls aged 11 to 18. Syllabuses are based on American curricula.
Web: www.marymount.kingston.sch.uk

Colleges / Universities

University of Kingston
Degrees on a wide range of subjects, particular focus on business, human sciences, sciences and technology.
Web: www.kingston.ac.uk

Chessington Community College
11-18 co-educational school. Awarded Specialist Sports College Status by the DfES.
Web: www.ccc.kingston.sch.uk/default.htm

Kingston College
Further and higher education offering a mix of vocational and academic courses.
Web: www.kingston-college.ac.uk/

Kingston Community Adult Education and Training.
Offers a range of courses covering vocational, personal development and leisure courses.
www.kingston.gov.uk/learning/adulteducation

Hillcroft College 
Website: www.hillcroft.ac.uk

Business Base

There are 86,300 economically active workers employed in the borough.

There are 5,705 VAT registered businesses in Kingston

Kingston is a leading shopping centre in the region, of London’s top ten retail centres by spend, Kingston was in third place at $1.66bn. It also has a large number of multinational companies attracted by the 8 industrial estates and business parks, many of which are in the business and personal services sectors. Other niche sectors include: aerospace & defence – Thales, Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine, and AMS; and ICT – Bell Micro-products, DST International, Equanet, and Fujikura.

Key companies include: Arrow Plastics, Callaway Golf, Lever Faberge, Nestle, Nicepion, Thales Avionics, SITEL, DST International, Bell, Microproducts, Northrop Grumman, Bausch & Lomb, Wolters Kluwer, DM Technology and Nikon UK.

Unemployment rate model based unemployed  4.1% (April 2006-Mar 2007)

Transport

10 railway stations connecting to Wimbledon, Richmond, Clapham Junction and Waterloo. 

30 minutes away from Heathrow airport and 40 minutes from Gatwick airport.

The A3 links Kingston to the South Circular and the M25. The A240 links Kingston to Epsom, Leatherhead and Dorking.

Quality of life

Top 5 attractions:
Chessington World of Adventures
Rose Theatre, Kingston
Canbury Gardens
The Rotunda leisure complex
The Bentall Centre, the Eden Walk Shopping Centre and a myriad of pretty side streets.

Business Support

Kingston Chamber of Commerce
2nd Floor, River Reach House, 31-35 High Street, Kingston-upon-Thames, KT1 1LF
020 8541 4441 www.kingstonchamber.co.uk

Kingston Upon Thames Council
Guildhall, Kingston-upon-Thames KT1 1EU
020 8547 5757 www.kingston.gov.uk