New Malden is situated between the much better known Kingston and Wimbledon. Its history is fairly recent and came about because The London & South Western Railway Company sited a station halfway between the wealthy residents of Coombe and the small village of Malden(now Old Malden). Property speculators immediately started building houses in the fields around Malden & Coombe (now New Malden) Station, and thus was New Malden born in the 1860s.New Malden grew steadily, becoming an Urban District Council in 1895 when it absorbed Coombe and 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 and its festival of Malden Fortnight.