Epsom

Residential town in Surrey, southeast England, 30 km/19 mi southwest of London; population (2001) 64,500. In the 17th century it was a spa town producing Epsom salts. The Derby and the Oaks horse races are held annually at Epsom Downs racecourse.

Epsom was a small village until it developed as a spa following the discovery of springs containing sulphate of magnesia in 1618. The Royal Medical College on the downs was founded in 1851 as a school for the sons of doctors. Sculptures by John Flaxman and Francis Chantrey decorate the Gothic church (rebuilt in 1824). The UK's first automatic telephone exchange was installed in Epsom by the Post Office in 1912. The site of Henry VIII's Nonsuch Palace, built mainly between 1538 and 1546, was excavated in 1959.