New Malden is situated between the much better known Kingston & Wimbledon. Its history is fairly recent & came about because The London & South Western Railway Company sited a station halfway between the wealthy residents of Coombe & the small village of Malden (now Old Malden). Property speculators immediately started building houses in the fields around Malden & Coombe (now New Malden) Station & thus was New Malden born in the 1860s. New Malden grew steadily becoming an Urban District Council in 1895 when it absorbed Coombe & Old Malden then a Borough in 1936. In 1965 it was itself absorbed along with Surbiton into the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. Despite this New Malden continues to thrive as a local community with its own local paper the Village Voice its High Street & its festival of Malden Fortnight.