Morning, Surbiton. This is the good one. 29°C, dry, mostly sunny, and the last hot day before Sunday cools off and turns showery. So today is about getting you out of the house: a free Saxon village landing in Kingston town centre, live music on Victoria Road tonight, and a date I got wrong that I'd like to put right before anyone wastes a journey. Here's Saturday.
The Saxon Fayre is on today, and it's bigger than I made it sound yesterday
I gave this one line yesterday. Having now read the full programme, it deserves more. The town centre turns into an Anglo-Saxon settlement today, 10.30am to 5pm, across the Ancient Market Place, All Saints Church and the Memorial Gardens, and the council has it listed as free. Outside: re-enactors, falconry and bees, farm animals on the South Lawn, stalls and games. Inside the church: talks from Kingston tour guides, historical dancing, chess, a Saxon coronation workshop from Story Storks, crown-making and a clay table for children, and a virtual-reality Athelstan built by Kingston University. Flax-harvesting demonstrations run 10 to 11am only, if that appeals.
The bit I'd point you at, though: the Surbiton Community Forge is there doing working Saxon-inspired metalwork. Our lot, up the road, hammering iron in a field of re-enactors. Worth a look.
One timing note. The All Saints Church side wraps at 4pm, an hour before everything else.
via Kingston Council & All Saints Kingston
Live music on Victoria Road tonight: Gianluca Duo
A few of you have asked for pub gigs, so here's a standing one worth knowing about. The Surbiton Flyer, 84 Victoria Road, the old bank building about a hundred yards from the station, runs live music every Saturday from 9pm. Tonight it's the Gianluca Duo: Gianluca and Massimo doing smooth classics, pop, rock and blues covers with, in the venue's own words, a touch of la dolce vita. I don't have an entry price either way, so don't take my word that it's free. But it's on, and it's ours.
via the venue's own July listings
On Thursday I told you the Knollmead “learn to grow your own food” session was on Saturday the 26th. There is no Saturday the 26th. Today is the 25th, so the 26th is tomorrow, Sunday, 2pm to 4pm. If you'd pencilled in this afternoon, that's my fault, and I'd rather say so than let anyone turn up to an empty allotment.
Two other things I got wrong while I'm here. It isn't the final session. It's billed as week three of a run. And it's run by the Save the World Club, with the session covering how to harvest properly, which plants are worth using in cooking, and recognising fruit and veg growing wild.
One genuine oddity I can't resolve: the listing carries a Kingston address rather than the Knollmead allotments in Tolworth, despite the name. It may just be the organisers' own address on the form. Contact details are on the listing. Worth a quick ring before you set off.
Quieter reading on a Saturday, but two things changed overnight. One good, one new.
- Bus 281: the diversion has lifted. It ended at 10pm last night as TfL said it would, and the live board this morning has the 281 back on good service. Tolworth Station is served again.
- New: Leatherhead Road at Bridge Road, down towards Chessington. Temporary two-way lights for power works, in from yesterday until 13 August. Worth knowing if that's your run to the A3 or the theme park.
- Hook Road roundabout: still three separate jobs. The western side at Bridge Road stays closed with signals to 31 July; Vale Road North clears Monday 27th; Gladstone Road runs to 29 July.
- Ewell Road: unchanged and still the big one. Two-way signals from St Mark's Hill towards Hollyfield Road into late October, and the cycle-route works at the Ditton, Hollyfield and Kingsdowne junctions all the way to January 2027. From Monday, new signals near Tolworth Close for gully works.
- A3 at Tolworth, possibly done early. I've been telling you 29 July for a fortnight. This morning it has dropped off TfL's live disruption feed altogether, which usually means it's finished ahead of schedule. I can't prove a negative, so give yourself the old margin on a tight journey. But it looks clear.
- Dysart School crossing: signals come down Monday 27th.
K1, K2, K3, the 71 and now the 281: all good service this morning. Spot something that isn't here? Reply and I'll chase it.
- The Saxon Fayre: free, all day, animals and crown-making. Best value in the borough today.
- Inky Pathways art workshop: Rose Theatre, this morning 10.30am to 12.30pm, ticketed. details
- Shade, if 29°C is too much: Bushy Park's deer and playground, free, open all summer.
- Diary: the Rose's summer schools start Monday; Ministry of Science Live 3–9 August; The Cat in the Hat 13–16 August.
The weather turns. Sunday is 26°C, breezy, a mix of sunny spells and showers that could come down hard, and the rain looks likeliest around 10am. So if you're planning the allotment session at 2pm, or anything outdoors, take the afternoon over the morning. The hosepipe ban is still on, for what it's worth. A wet Sunday doesn't lift it.
Paul, who works near Surbiton, wrote this morning asking for community events and activities aimed at older people. That's the third time someone's asked me for exactly that, which makes it a gap in this newsletter rather than a one-off request. I don't have a checked list yet and I'm not going to invent one. Give me a few days and I'll do it the way I did the station mosaics. Paul, it's on.
And a welcome to Dan in Long Ditton, who runs a block management company and puts together quarterly newsletters for the flats he looks after. Dan, borrow anything from here that's useful to your residents. That's rather the point of it.
Enjoy the sunshine while it's here. Back tomorrow.
Mike
Surbiton Daily
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