< Imagine Kingston without its beautiful riverside walk.

Imagine many of its streets, listed buildings and part of its historic Market Place and precious green Fairfield being destroyed.

Imagine the town centre as a crowded island, enclosed on all sides by a partly-raised ring road.

All this might have happened but for the Kingston-upon-Thames Society, the remarkable group which for the past half-century has often been our only bulwark against the worst excesses of commercial and developmental zeal.

The irony is many of those who have benefited most from the society know little or nothing about it.

In tomorrow’s Surrey Comet, June Sampson explores how the society has helped make Kingston one of the UK’s most sought-after boroughs and why it faces a crisis as it celebrates its 50th birthday this year.