East and West Molesey share a high street, and there is a second retail restaurant-lined street (Bridge Road) close to Hampton Court Palace in the eastern part of the district, which is also home to Hampton Court railway station in Transport for London's Zone 6.

[2] The earliest documentary evidence of a settlement in Molesey appears in a 7th-century charter, shortly after Erkenwald founded Chertsey Abbey in AD 666.

He secured from Frithwald, sub-king of Surrey, a charter endowing the abbey with much of the surrounding land, including Muleseg.

On 8 June 1913 the grandstand at the former Hurst Park Racecourse in Molesey was virtually destroyed after an arson attack by suffragettes Kitty Marion and Clara Giveen.

There are walks beside Metropolitan green belt fields to the south along the river Mole to Esher, and to the west along the Thames Path to Walton-on-Thames.

The central shopping area of Kingston upon Thames lies 1.7 miles (2.7 km) east of Bridge Road in East Molesey, while central Walton on Thames lies 2.3 miles (3.7 km) to the west-southwest of West Molesey High Street.

[12] In April 2017, 15th-century St Peter's Church on Walton Road, said to be the oldest building in Molesey, had lead stolen from the roof and historic masonry damaged in a nighttime theft.

Following further extensive flooding along the Thames in 2014 the Environment Agency is to carry out more large scale 'capacity building' work involving the construction of nine miles (14 km) of new channels in areas upstream of Molesey as part of a flood relief project known as the River Thames Scheme (RTS) running between 2018 and 2027.

Even today localised flooding and standing water can be quite common in times of heavy rain as the area is very low lying and flat.

The lock is located within 100 metres (330 ft) of Hampton Court Bridge, designed by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.

In the West Molesey area some houses are the result of over-optimistic development in the 1930s by developer Donald Gordon Howard who eventually went bankrupt trying to sell houses at exceptionally low prices – at £395 some of the cheapest in the London area – while implying a misleading proximity to Hampton Court.

Much of East Molesey resulted from large scale land speculation in the 1850s by Francis Jackson Kent who saw an opportunity to make a fortune when the railway arrived at Hampton Court in 1849, quickly buying up land nearby and selling it on to wealthy individuals or developers who rapidly built on low lying former meadows that had always been flood prone.

Pictures of the East Molesey area and Hampton Court station environs (on the opposite bank to the Palace) in flood conditions recur in 19th and 20th centuries.

to be of the concrete sectional type, built at the time of housing shortage in the years after World War 2 including on the West Molesey/East Molesey border.

The course closed in 1962,[9] and much of it was built on in the 1960s: the Hurst Park Estate has a mixture of three and two-storey homes and a block of flats overlooking the river.

There is a wide grass expanse, a playground and open access to the Thames, features here include the Hampton Ferry and Molesey Regatta, a major event in the sport of rowing with catering and evening outdoor music.

The first recorded Leg Before Wicket (LBW) dismissal in first class cricket is said to have been given in a game between an XI of Surrey and a XIII of England at this site in 1795.

Prior to this date there had been several attempts to formulate a law that would stop batsmen simply obstructing their wicket with their leg pads to prevent being bowled.

Molesey Boat Club (established 1866) is home to some Olympic and World Championship medallists and domestic success at all ages, particularly in its adult crews.

is a community youth football organisation based at the Wilderness Playing Fields, East Molesey Just beyond the gates of Hurst Park used to be the home of the open air Upper Deck swimming pool, the nearest open air pool now being across the ferry up Hampton High Street in Hampton.

The Poyntz Arms Public House and Molesey East & West Conservative Club host matches in the Tolworth and District Pool League.

The Surrey Classic Cycle race previously passed East and West Molesey and Hurst Park yearly.

The karting team, OsbornRacing is based in Daytona Sandown Park, with one of its drivers currently residing in West Molesey.

Surrey Police statistics for reported crime in the West Molesey area for the period October 2021 to September 2022 recorded violence and sexual crime as the biggest single category with 328 instances, with anti-social behaviour having 180 instances and criminal damage and arson ranked third with 74.

A woman was found murdered with a machete or axe in the front garden of her house on Walton Road, Molesey in March 2016 resulting in extensive national publicity.

[21] To the west Route 461, operated by Falcon Coaches on behalf of Surrey County Council, runs from Kingston, through Molesey and on to Walton, terminating at Tesco, Addlestone.