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Guildford
Town in Surrey, England

Guildford

Guildford is a town in west Surrey, England, around 27 mi (43 km) southwest of central London.

Plan a trip to Guildford→From Luton, Luton

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.

Get in

Getting to Guildford

Guildford is served by many bus routes from Woking, Aldershot, Godalming and other local places. Prices can be fairly expensive and buses can be unreliable particularly after 6:30PM. The main bus station, which is the terminus for all routes heading into Guildford, is on Commercial Road (off the bottom of North Street). From here, one can pick up details about bus services and buy cheaper long term tickets.

  1. 01
    Guildford

    Guildford station, Station Approach, GU1 4UT.

  2. 02
    London Road

    There is a smaller station which is the penultimate stop on the line from London via Cobham.

See

Worth seeing

  1. 01
    Abbot's Hospital

    Built in 1619 by Guildfordian Archbishop of Canterbury George Abbot as a retirement home for the local elderly.

  2. 02
    Chestnuts

    Lewis Carroll, author, mathematician and photographer, Lewis Carroll (b1832) lived in Guildford until his death in 1898.

  3. 03
    The Guildhall

    A marvellous Tudor/Stuart building with its overhanging 1683 clock.

  4. 04
    Guildford Museum

    Quarry St,.

  5. 05
    The Spike Heritage Centre

    19th-century workhouse used to house vagrants until 1960.

  6. 06
    Guildford Castle and Grounds

    Castle Street, GU1 3TU, museum@guildford.gov.uk.

Eat

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.

How locals move

Getting around Guildford the local way

  • 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. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see Commons), Wikimedia Commons.