Very green, with water close by and gardens most towns would envy. There are about ten green spaces within a kilometre of the average home. A river runs through the middle. The private gardens are enormous. Cobham's countryside has no official protection, and the price of the land keeps it green anyway.
Green space is close to home here. The nearest public green space is about 390 metres away on average, and the typical home has about 10 within a kilometre. The best of it is historic. Painshill Park, the 18th-century landscape garden on the edge of Cobham, has been restored since 1980 after years of neglect. Claremont is a short drive away, and Esher Commons and Oxshott Heath sit on the sandy high ground on the outskirts. People in most parts of England go out for a day to see a landscape garden. In Cobham you can be in one before the kettle has boiled.
Water is nearly as close. The nearest river, lake or pond is about 520 metres away on average, and the typical home has about 10 within a kilometre. The River Mole runs through the village, with a surfaced path by the mill off the High Street, and the lake at Painshill is part of the garden's design.
Cycling into it takes more effort. The nearest stretch of the National Cycle Network is about 6 kilometres away on average, and no postcodes here are close to it. Weekend cyclists will be loading the bikes onto the car.
Across the wider postcode districts, which take in Oxshott and Stoke d'Abernon, the valuation data counts 453 shops, 27 pubs and 46 restaurants. That adds up to a working high street and enough lunch spots to keep the hard-working home office fed.
Air quality is in the middle of the range. Fine-particle pollution across Elmbridge averaged about 8 micrograms per cubic metre in 2024, a council-wide figure that covers the busy roads and the commons alike.
Cobham's character comes from big houses in big grounds. Several of the old estates survive in new forms: Cobham Park and Painshill House are now apartments, two other large houses are now schools, and Chelsea's training ground is just over the line in Stoke d'Abernon. Downside has its common, Oxshott its heath, and the conservation areas around the church and Plough Corner keep the older village intact. Cobham is less a village with grand houses scattered around it than a set of grand houses with a village tucked in among them.
Private outdoor space is generous. Across Cobham there are about 298,000 square metres of private garden for every 1,000 residents. Most of the green that people enjoy every day is behind their own gate, and the public spaces are the extra.
Elmbridge's business-rates list has 357 rateable premises in Cobham itself, led by 144 shop premises and 71 office premises. These are units on the valuation list, so some may be empty or between tenants. Even so, Cobham's commercial life is mostly shops and small offices, many of them presumably working for the people who live in the big houses.
Eating out is safe enough. Of the 90 food premises the council has inspected, about 87% hold the top hygiene rating and about 3% are at the bottom end. It is a small pool, so a couple of kitchens have a big effect on the percentages.
Natural England records no area of outstanding natural beauty, no site of special scientific interest and no ancient woodland overlapping Cobham. The green here is parkland, commons, river meadows and very large gardens. It is managed landscape that has had a lot of money spent on it, and it looks the part without needing official protection.
The surroundings are one of Cobham's real strengths. Parkland, commons and the river are all within walking distance of most homes, and many of the gardens are big enough to count as small parks themselves.