Singer-songwriter Jack Harris has composed a song honouring the history of Cox Lane Industrial Estate in Chessington.

Performing on Tuesday 12 March at community kitchen Baking Ideas in Tolworth station, 'Miners Line' pays special attention to previous Cox Lane tenants Gala Cosmetics.

The makeup brand was once a favourite of London's theatre scene, before the company moved to making affordable makeup for the masses in the cultural revolution in the 1960s.

Mr Harris the song was heavily inspired by the experiences of Pat Cann, an ex-employee of Gala who attended the performance.

The Cox Lane project is the work of Kingston non-profit The Community Brain, with help from local partners like Kingston University's Business School.

The performance was held at Baking Ideas, a community kitchen attatched to Tolworth Station (Photo: Oliver Monk)

Tuesday's performance also saw the launch of a new three-mile walking route through these industrial areas along with local green spaces such as the Bonesgate nature reserve.

Kingston Council's head of culture and heritage Scott Furlong was among the audience members.

"[The Community Brain] is an extremely important community facilitator," he said.

"It does amazing things people don't need the council to do [...] The Community Brain just needs the council's support," added Mr Furlong.

Robin Hutchinson, the charity's director, hopes their hours of heritage research will help people start to explore "the richness of the stories" in the estate.

"The industrial estate was one of those places we felt had a real magic to it," he added.

The story of Brabham is one of many examples of this.

Brabham, a team from the early days of Formula 1 racing, was founded by Australian racing driver Jack Brabham and British-Australian engineer Ron Tauranac on the estate in 1960.

Initially based in nearby Surbiton, Mr Brabham went on to become the only driver to win a Formula 1 championship in a car of his own design, taking home the 1959, 1960 and 1966 championship titles.

After he retired, the team was bought by Bernie Ecclestone who moved the team's manufacturing facilities to Cox Lane in 1978.

Brabham designer Gordon Murray and Bernie Ecclestone in the Chessington workshop, 1982 (Photo: The Community Brain)

"We never did get an oral history from Bernie Eccleston I'm afraid," laughed volunteer Jarek Zaba.

There is a running theme of speed in a number of Cox Lane stories.

The estate's deep-level diving tanks were crucial in the development of the water speed record-achieving (and recently news-worthy) Bluebird K7, designed by Kingston local Donald Campbell.

Mr Campbell was the first and only person to set the water and land speed records in the same calendar year.

Despite the huge amount of work that has already gone into it, the project is ongoing, with upcoming events like a group walk of the newly-announced route.

This will take place at 11am next Saturday 23 March, starting from North Chessington Station.

A number of guests were present to listen to Jack Harris (Photo: Oliver Monk)

For more information on the history uncovered by the project, visit The Community Brain's website here. 

A more in-depth history can be found in the Exploring Cox Lane book, published in partnership with Kingston University Press in 2023.

The Community Brain also offers community events throughout the year, such as the Sardine Festival on 5 May, described by Scott Furlong as "historically unjustified fun".