H. G. Wells and The War of the Worlds: Woking's Science-Fiction Story
The Martians landed on Horsell Common — because H. G. Wells was living in Woking when he wrote his most famous novel.
Few towns can claim to be the setting for the end of the world — but Woking can. When H. G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds, published in 1898, he was living in Woking, and he set the Martians' first landing on the town's own Horsell Common.
A local landscape, invaded
Wells lived on Maybury Road, near the railway line, and he used the real geography of Woking and its surroundings in the novel. The famous "sandpit" where the first Martian cylinder lands is on Horsell Common, and the story ranges out across the Surrey countryside that Wells knew from cycling around the area.
A lasting connection
The town has long celebrated the link. A striking metallic Martian tripod sculpture stands in the town centre as a nod to Wells's story, alongside other public artwork referencing the novel — a reminder that one of the founding works of modern science fiction was rooted in this ordinary Surrey commuter town.
Visiting the story
Horsell Common remains open heathland today, protected for its wildlife and its Bronze Age burial mounds, and is easily reached on foot from the town centre across the Basingstoke Canal. It is a quiet place now — a long way from the fictional devastation Wells imagined.
Sources
- Wikimedia Commons — H. G. Wells's house, Maybury Road, Woking
- Woking area heritage and The War of the Worlds connection