We held an Instameet on 12th August with 20 fantastic photographers who captured Dorking through their unique lenses. Thank you! Please join us in selecting your favourite photo from the event; the photographer with the most votes will receive a £100 gift card to shop in our town. Huge thanks to Down’s Law Solicitors for sponsoring our prize.
Voting commences 24 August to 31 August.
We’ll announce the winner 4th September.
The Photos
Say Hello to the BID RSVP
What’s an Instameet?
An Instameet is a photographic tour of a place. The goal of our Instameet was to share the best of Dorking’s shop local, tourism and hidden gems with our community on a walking tour while also viewing our town through our talented visitors’ camera lenses. The group of lovely photographers took a photographic tour of our beautiful town while also capturing it for our Instagram and social media community. We thank you!
Our photographer guests went on a scavenger hunt themed tour around Dorking. They were asked to take photos that capture the Heritage, Culture and Spirit (Independent or otherwise) of Dorking Town. The day was captured here in these photos and also in our ‘highlights’ on Instagram.
We treated our instagrammers for a cake and coffee at Burgundy and Black, and the whole day was a delight.
Thank you again for joining us – we hope you enjoy the tour of Dorking town through their lenses.
Image credit: Dorking Camera Club
Check out our itinerary
📱HELLO DORKING INSTAMEET 📸
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ➖➖
We are happy to announce our exciting instameet will be in partnership with @HelloDorking and @IGERSSurrey.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ➖ ➖
📅 Date: AUGUST 12, 2023
⏰ Time: 12pm-3pm
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
📍Meeting Point: Pippbrook Council Parking Lot
🚘 Parking: Kathy can arrange free parking but you must email her your registration details so she can coordinate with the Council ASAP. Thank you!
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ➖➖ ➖
🗺Details:
🌳Join @IGERSSurrey and @HelloDorking for a tour of Corking Dorking! Dorking has something for everyone. Whether the wild outdoors is your thing, or you’d rather peruse some superb modern art (or antiquities), or you’d rather nest down in a microbrewery/historic coffee shop/award-winning restaurant for a few hours, we’ve something to delight all manner of passions here in our beautiful market town.
Communities like ours are magnets for families, artists, active people, art lovers, food lovers, wine lovers, and well, everyone who is looking to discover something new, quirky, independent and unusual. Dorking is an inclusive, fun, creative haven and we welcome you! So, you will find activities aplenty to entertain and educate, as well as some incredible outdoor spaces where the young and the young at heart can explore and discover their own treasures within the grounds of sites of real historical significance.
There is a piece of Dorking waiting to be discovered by you.
📸We hope that you will help us to capture and share your experience with us:
#Instameets are a great way to feature the best of #HelloDorking! Thank you for joining us in celebrating the #heritageculturespirit of #Dorking.
We will hold a competition where our community can select from your photos on our website.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ➖➖
👋 Your guides for the Instameet will be Kathy and Rosie from @HelloDorking.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ➖➖ ➖
#⃣ Hashtags (please use all)
#HelloDorkingInstameet
#VisitSurrey
#HelloDorking
#IGERSSurrey
#Instameet_Dorking
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ➖➖
Any further questions please send us DM at @IGERSSurrey and @HelloDorking
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ➖➖ ➖
📅 We look forward to seeing you on 12 August at 12pm.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ➖➖➖
🚂Dorking is served by three train stations: Dorking Main, Dorking Deepdene and Dorking West.
🅿️We will meet at the Council Offices Car Park.
We will walk over to Pippbrook House and explore the beautiful building’s surroundings.
Dorking has, and is, been home to some of the most independently spirited and eclectic people around. It’s no surprise (to anyone who knows us) that we’ve been home to actors Laurence Olivier and Daniel Defoe, composer Ralph Vaughn Williams, author Benjamin Disraeli and master builder Thomas Cubitt who built huge areas of London in the 19th Century. To name but a few.
📍Master builder Thomas Cubitt is commemorated here at this statue. It has been said about him: “to those under him, and holding responsible situations, he was generous and kind, blending his position as master with that of a friend.”
🖼️From here, we will up to the main road, and admire the beautiful posters, designed by local artists. Which one is your favourite?
The posters feature each of the award-winning art from the DorKing Coronation, designed by:
First Place: Faith Conway-Dickens (she’s 10!)
Second Place: Tiffany Budd
Third Place: Sarajane ⭐️
Highly Commended: Lucy Rose
Highly Commended: Kelly Morgan
🐓We will continue on to the Deepdene Roundabout and discover Dorking’s Giant erm, Cockerel.
⚽️Behold the Dorking Sports Centre, where you can swim, get fit and even use our fabulous @loyalfreeapp for all manner of deals. They are absolutely fabulous and a great supporter of the community. What photos can we get with these crazy balls?
🍿We will walk back down main road where we will admire the gorgeous art deco building and triumph that is Dorking Halls.
🎶Check out the statue of composer Ralph Vaughn Williams. He was a much-celebrated composer with family living at Leith Hill Place. He was the son of Margaret Wedgwood of Leith Hill Place and Arthur Vaughan Williams of Tanhurst. His grandmother was Caroline Wedgwood nee Darwin. When his father died, Ralph’s mother returned to her family at Leith Hill Place. Growing up in his grandmother’s house the young Ralph was encouraged in his first compositions by his aunt, Sophy Wedgwood.
🔵We will then walk down Dorking High Street to turn down on a pretty little street and discover the Blue Plaque at 26 Wathen Road for a certain Sir Lawrence Olivier.
🦢We will then mosey down to Meadowbank park, where we will take in views of the pond and wildlife.
⛪️From there, we will take in the views of Denbies Hillside, Box Hill, and Dorking Town Centre. We will walk past Dorking Football Stadium and discover St Martin’s Walk. You can’t miss the fabulous St Martin’s Walk archway and St Martin’s Church.
☕️We will take a break for coffee and cake at Burgundy and Black, which provides a lovely view of our beautiful Ranmore Hills.
From there, we will walk round to St Martin’s Church Courtyard for photo ops and then round to North Street and back through to Pump Corner and Old King’s Courtyard.
📸Pump Corner is the centre of Dorking and directs you up South Street, or around to West Street. First we are going to head up to Old King’s Courtyard to show you where the Marquis of Granby sign still exists (we will also head over to the King’s Arm’s Pub, where Dickens was said to have placed his characters in the Pickwick Papers.
🐑We will then walk through the Rosehill archway to observe the rosehill sheep that graze there, as well as the grand homes atop the hillside.
🍇We will then traverse back down through the archway and up through Butterhill and atop Victoria Terrace to gaze upon South Street, which provides quite a beautiful view of the town, St Martin’s Church and the Denbies Hillside. Look to the left and you have Michelin Star winner Sorrel, local favourite, The Queens Head, and the amazing Boothole, stalwart community supporter celebrating 40 years on the high street this year.
👍We will then head down Junction Road, past some of the best Indian food ever, and down to West Street. We’ll head back up the idyllic West Street and enjoy some of the prettiest little shops you can shake a stick at. The United Reform Church has a particularly pretty garden.
Some of our Dorking rooftops are the most picturesque and the old firestation, now a petshop, is exquisite.
The fabled Kings Arms was referenced earlier in our tour, as the oldest pub in Dorking.
🏆All of our award-winning indie shops really make this street special: Victoria’s Bra Shop, Sandrock House, Putty Cakes – they have an amazing secret garden that is worth discovering. And their cakes are incredible. Be sure to check them out. They are in-cred-ble.
🎩Mullins House is composed of four shops: Mullins Coffee Shop, Witchin Ink, Lily and Leitrim Antiques, and the award-winning Mayflower Spa – all compose the historic site, the oldest pilgrim house in existence in the UK.
👏The volunteer-led Dorking Museum is also located on West Street but is currently closed due to a fire. However the historical elements associated with the building are lovely, from the original Foundry building – photographic opportunities are exciting.
As we head back up to the train station and the parking lot, we are reminded of the diversity on our street:
Tikkanation, That Lovely Shop, Flowers by Elaine, to Cups And Co – a non profit that helps people with Learning Disabilities thrive and Grow. We’ve welcomed a new baker to the high street, Coughlan’s Bakery, which is really exciting. And back on North Street, we have a new haberdashery and sewing room by Tracey.
🪩We are loving the fresh music and wine scene at The Grape Variety, and the tunes and you can return to dance the night away at Knox.
🍣Dorking still has reliable favourites like Mr Wimpy, and we’ve got the brand new Kokoro on South Street.
Indeed, Dorking is for everyone.
#HelloDorkingInstameet
#VisitSurrey
#HelloDorking
#IGERSSurrey
#Instameet_Dorking
#photographyevent
#instameet
