Since the 1870s, Godalming has been the home of Charterhouse, the co-educational private school.
Godalming High Street contains a wonderful collection of 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century buildings, and in the centre is The Pepperpot. This is a distinctive colonnaded building with a clock tower.
The shops are typically small-town, with one or two specialist shops, a Waitrose supermarket and a small retail park including a Sainsbury’s.
There are picturesque walks along the River Wey which runs from Godalming Wharf to the Thames at Weybridge, complete with locks and weirs. Winkworth Arboretum provides beautiful walks amongst National Trust grounds with Autumn being of particularly spectacular beauty.
The two most fashionable areas of Godalming are Busbridge and Charterhouse, both with views of the Hog’s Back. Busbridge offers an excellent range of primary and secondary schools, including Prior’s Field independent school for girls. Its quiet leafy streets are lined with properties spanning every period from Victorian to the Thirties, and a famous water tower converted into an eccentric house.