Guildford
Guildford is a town in west Surrey, England, around 27 mi (43 km) southwest of central London.
Guildford is a town in west Surrey, England, around 27 mi (43 km) southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town had a population of about 77,000; it is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around 152,148 inhabitants in 2025. Its name is thought to derive from a crossing of the River Wey, a tributary of the River Thames, that flows through the town centre.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Worth seeing in and around Guildford
10 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name.
- 01Guildford Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit, Guildford, commonly known as Guildford Cathedral, is the Anglican cathedral in Guildford, Surrey, England. Richard Onslow, 5th Earl of Onslow donated the first 6 acres of land on which the cathedral stands, with Viscount Bennett, a former Prime Minister of Canada, purchasing the remaining land and donating it to the cathedral in 1947.
1.5 km · Anglican cathedral at Guildford, Surrey, England, UK · Wikipedia - 02Watts Gallery
Watts Gallery is an art gallery in the village of Compton, near Guildford in Surrey. The 18 acre site includes a collection of buildings, including the home and artist studio of Victorian-era painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts and artist and designer Mary Watts.
4.4 km · art gallery in Compton, United Kingdom · Wikipedia - 03Diocese of Guildford
The Diocese of Guildford is a Church of England diocese covering eight and half of the eleven districts in Surrey, much of north-east Hampshire and a parish in Greater London. The cathedral is Guildford Cathedral and the bishop is the Bishop of Guildford.
1.5 km · Church of England diocese · Wikipedia - 04Guildford Castle
Guildford Castle is in Guildford, Surrey, England. It is thought to have been built by William the Conqueror, or one of his barons, shortly after the 1066 invasion of England.
300 m · castle in Guildford, Surrey, England, UK · Wikipedia - 05Loseley Park
Loseley Park is a large Tudor manor house with later additions and modifications 3 miles south-west of Guildford, Surrey, England, in Artington close to the hamlet of Littleton. The estate was acquired by the direct ancestors of the current owners, the More-Molyneux family, at the beginning of the 16th century.
3.4 km · Grade I listed historic house museum in Artington, United Kingdom · Wikipedia - 06Stoke Park
Stoke Park is a 52-hectare park on the north-eastern edge of the town centre of Guildford, Surrey, England. The land was purchased by the Guildford Corporation in 1925, with the express wish that it "remain for all time a lung of the town".
1 km · park in Guildford, Surrey, England · Wikipedia - 07Clandon Park
Clandon Park House is an early 18th-century grade I listed Palladian mansion in West Clandon, near Guildford in Surrey. It stands in the south east corner of Clandon Park, a 220-hectare agricultural parkland estate which has been the seat of the Earls of Onslow for over two centuries.
4.6 km · country house and museum in Surrey, England, UK · Wikipedia - 08Guildford Museum
Guildford Museum is the main museum in the town of Guildford, Surrey, England. The museum is on Quarry Street, a narrow road lined by pre-1900 cottages running just off the pedestrianised High Street.
300 m · local museum in Guildford, England, United Kingdom · Wikipedia - 09Watts Mortuary Chapel
The Watts Cemetery Chapel or Watts Mortuary Chapel is a chapel in a Modern Style version of Celtic Revival in the village cemetery of Compton in Surrey. The designer was Mary Fraser Tytler, an artist resident in the village, who married the painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts.
4.8 km · Gothic Revival chapel and mortuary in Compton, Surrey, England, UK · Wikipedia - 10Bethel Chapel Guildford
Bethel Chapel, The Bars, Guildford, is an independent reformed Baptist church located in the heart of the historic town of Guildford. The Church was established in 1879 and the present building opened in 1910.
200 m · church in Surrey, United Kingdom · Wikipedia
Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0.
What Wikivoyage says to see
- 01Abbot's Hospital
Built in 1619 by Guildfordian Archbishop of Canterbury George Abbot as a retirement home for the local elderly.
- 02Chestnuts
Lewis Carroll, author, mathematician and photographer, Lewis Carroll (b1832) lived in Guildford until his death in 1898.
- 03The Guildhall
A marvellous Tudor/Stuart building with its overhanging 1683 clock.
- 04Guildford Museum
Quarry St,.
- 05The Spike Heritage Centre
19th-century workhouse used to house vagrants until 1960.
- 06Guildford Castle and Grounds
Castle Street, GU1 3TU, museum@guildford.gov.uk.
From Wikivoyage: Guildford, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Where to eat
Guildford has a good selection of restaurants with many different themes attracting different tastes. On Friday and Saturday many of them are booked up weeks in advance and early booking is advisable to avoid disappointment. Olivio, 53 Quarry Street,. Tucked away from the high street and hard to find if you are not a regular visitor to the town. Worth persevering as an excellent choice.
From Wikivoyage: Guildford, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Getting to Guildford
- Airports
- London Heathrow (LHR), 27 km · London Gatwick (LGW), 29 km · London Luton (LTN), 72 km
- Stations
- Guildford railway station, 700 m · London Road (Guildford) railway station, 600 m · Shalford railway station, 2.5 km · Clandon railway station, 5.6 km · Worplesdon railway station, 5.9 km
- Luton, Luton → Guildford72 km · quickest by road, 1h 36m · £8–11
- London, Essex → Guildford43 km · quickest by road, 1h 25m · £4.5–6
- Bristol → Guildford143 km · quickest by road, 2h 42m · £15–20
- Plan a tripFrom anywhereThe planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.
No local-transport research exists yet for Guildford
Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Guildford. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- Get inThe South's major ferry ports are (clockwise from the east) Dover (ferries from Calais and Dunkirk in France), Newhaven (ferries from Dieppe in France) and Portsmouth (ferries from the Channel Islands, Cherbourg, Caen, Le Havre and St.
- Get inPoole (which shares ferries from the Channel Islands, Cherbourg and St.
- Go nextLondon - The capital is practically on your doorstep when you're in South East England, so it is an obvious choice for a day trip or longer.
- Go nextGo Abroad - The South East is the closest part of the UK to the European mainland (the English Channel is just 20 miles (32 km) across at its narrowest), and with Channel Tunnel journey times from Kent to Calais as short as 35 minutes, day trips to northern France, Belgium and beyond are highly feasible and attractive.
From Wikivoyage: South East England, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-09.
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If you know how people move in Guildford – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.
Next door to Guildford
Guildford is 37 km from Reading, the nearest large city, whose note carries the wider picture.
- Bramleyvillage and civil parish in Surrey, UK4.9 km
- Alburyvillage and civil parish in the borough of Guildford in Surrey, England5.2 km
- West Clandonvillage in Guildford, Surrey, England5.1 km
- Comptonvillage and civil parish in the Guildford district of Surrey, England5 km
- Worplesdonvillage and civil parish in Surrey, England, UK4.9 km
- Wonershvillage and civil parish in Surrey, UK4.6 km