The former police station has been a local landmark in New Malden since the early 1890s. Built to police the fast-developing town, it opened in 1892, complete with a covered parade ground, cells and a measuring rack for prisoners. The local headquarters, however, were in nearby Kingston, where the first police station had been built in 1825. Known as ‘the Watch House’, it provided a meeting place for the borough’s watchmen and was abandoned when the area became part of the Metropolitan Police District in 1840.