Morning, Surbiton. Today is the scorcher we flagged — an amber heat alert runs until tomorrow morning, so more on that below. The big story is Berrylands, which since yesterday lunchtime has no trains and no buses. And something good happened yesterday: I said the pub quizzes were the bit no listings page could crack, and within two hours a reader had sent me the whole map. Here's Wednesday.
Berrylands: now missing its bus as well as its trains
Allison emailed me yesterday evening: “Berrylands currently has no bus service. The K2 is not going into Berrylands in either direction. It was ok this morning!” She's right. At lunchtime yesterday Thames Water closed Surbiton Hill Park at short notice for repair works, and TfL put the K2 on diversion in both directions. Towards Kingston, buses skip every stop from Pembroke Avenue to Howard Road; towards Hook Parade, they skip Berrylands Road to Pembroke Avenue.
The road closure is scheduled through to Monday 3 August, so expect roughly a week without it — and I'll tell you here the morning the buses come back. With the station shut for its £6m platform rebuild until late September, that's the middle of Berrylands cut off from both its ways out until the buses come back.
Jill, back in week one you asked to be told whenever the K2 gets diverted. This is that — and it only works because neighbours like Allison flag things the same day. Every other local bus route is running normally this morning.
checked this morning against TfL's live bus status and the Street Manager roadworks feed
You built the quiz map
Yesterday I asked for help with the stuff no website lists. Sat replied before lunch with this: a pub quiz somewhere in Surbiton five nights out of seven. As Sat has them:
- Monday — The Waggon & Horses, Surbiton Hill Road. 8pm, £2 a head, £50 prize.
- Tuesday — The Black Lion, Brighton Road. 8pm, cash prize, and Sat believes entry is free.
- Wednesday — The Victoria, Victoria Road. 7.30pm, £2.50 a head, bar tab or a bottle of wine. That's tonight.
- Last Thursday of the month — The Coronation Hall, St Mark's Hill. 7.30pm, £3 a head, cash prize, proceeds to Young Lives vs Cancer. That's tomorrow.
- Sunday — take your pick:The Elm Tree (Victoria Road, 7pm, £2.50, £50 bar tab), The Antelope (Maple Road, 7.30pm, £50 bar tab) or The Grove (Grove Road, 7pm, free entry, £25 bar tab).
Sat, thank you — that's the single most useful reply this newsletter has had. If you run one of these quizzes and a detail has drifted, or there's a night missing, hit reply and I'll keep the map straight. And the music side is coming together too: Pete, a jazz musician from just over the Kingston border, wrote in offering his gig dates and pointed me at The Lamb on Brighton Road for live music. Better still, Richard, who runs The Surbiton Flyer by the station, wrote in last week with his live-music listings — his August running order goes in here the day it lands. Musicians, landlords: same offer. Tell me what's on and it goes in.
“My first thought was that I'd been robbed” — council contractors entered a Surbiton mum's home unannounced
A Surbiton mum came home from the school run at 6.30pm in late June to find her flat turned over: all the flooring and underlay ripped up, doors open, clean washing on the floor, one of her daughter's collectables broken, and a set of keys and a door fob missing. Council contractors had been in without warning — no note, nothing. “My first thought was that I'd been robbed,” she told Nub News. The locks weren't changed until 1 July; she and her children stayed at her sister's in the meantime. Her stage-one complaint has been upheld, with the council admitting it “made several failures”. She says she still feels “violated”.
reported by Tilly O'Brien · via Kingston Nub News
Now open: Madame Vy, the Vietnamese restaurant we flagged last week, opened on Brighton Road on Saturday in the old Delhi by Nature spot — and the 30% off food for the first month is running now. Been yet? Hit reply and tell me how it was; a reader verdict is worth ten menus. via Kingston Nub News
One for the diary: the Rose has announced its cast for Three Men in a Boat (18 Sep – 10 Oct) — Jonny Weldon of Rivals and One Day leads. The story is a rowing trip up the Thames that starts from Kingston, so it's practically a home fixture. via Kingston Nub News
Beyond the Surbiton Hill Park closure above:
- Langley Avenue — NEW. Closed for works until Saturday 1 August.
- Tolworth Close: closed until 7 August — on top of the Ewell Road signals nearby.
- Hook Rise North: lane closed from tomorrow until 21 August — UK Power Networks.
- Hook Road: the closure planned for this Friday has been pushed back to 17–21 August. Breathe easy for now.
- Ending this weekend: the gas-works signals on Maple Road and Portsmouth Road (both done Sunday), the A3-side lane closure on Tolworth Rise South (Friday), and the long-running Hook Road works (Saturday). A rare week where more finishes than starts.
One for the council: their own roadworks page has been returning an error for days — this list comes from the national Street Manager feed instead. I'll keep using whichever one works.
Jennifer wrote in asking for things to keep young children occupied — welcome, and this box is for you. All free, all this week, and mostly in the cool of the library:
- Until 27 Aug, 3–5pm — Harry Potter: Back to Hogwarts at Surbiton Library, Ewell Road. Ages 5+, book in branch — spaces limited.
- Today, 10.30am — Summertime Rhymetime at Tolworth Library, The Broadway. Ages 0–4, booking essential.
- Thu, 1.30–4pm — Gladiators miniatures drop-in at Surbiton Library.
- Fri, 4–7pm — Yu-Gi-Oh session at Surbiton Library, for the older ones.
- Sat, 10am–12 — Lego Free Build at New Malden Library.
- Sun, 9am — Surbiton junior parkrun, Alexandra Rec on King Charles Road. Ages 4–14, every week, 2k. Go early, before the heat.
- Fri 31, 10am–2pm — Rose Walk Rewilding Day, Rose Walk nature reserve on the Hogsmill in Berrylands. Citizen Zoo volunteers building dead-hedges on the patch where 42 water voles were released last summer. Free — bring lunch and wear something you don't mind muddy.
- Sat 1, 2–5pm — Save The World Club open day, 18 Southsea Road, central Kingston. Free, everyone welcome — more on them below.
- Sat 1, 2–3pm — Great Fairfield Litter Pick, Fairfield, central Kingston — a Love Parks Week special, with litter pickers to borrow and sweet treats for those who muck in. Suzanne, who wrote in about it, says Surbiton folk always turn out. May's crew filled four big bags.
- Sun 2, 3–5pm — bandstand concert in Canbury Gardens. Free live music by the river to close the weekend.
- Still on from yesterday's list: Repair Café Sat morning at Kingston Library, the K-Pop tribute Sat 3pm at the Rose (now limited availability), live music at The Surbiton Flyer Sat 9pm, and Bob Marley's Legend Sun 7.30pm at the Rose.
Checked this morning against Connected Kingston, the Rose and Kingston Council events.
The hot one. Sunny all day, peaking around 33–34°C mid-afternoon and staying close to 20°C overnight. An official amber heat-health alert covers London from 9am today to 9am tomorrow — the level where the UKHSA expects real strain on health services, mostly among the over-65s.
So: errands and exercise before 11am, water all day, curtains closed on the sunny side, and knock for any older neighbour who's on their own — today's the day it matters. The hosepipe ban is still on. Tomorrow drops to about 27°C with cloud, so you only have to get through today.
You wrote in. Besides Allison, Sat and Pete above — a fine day for the inbox — welcome to Nick in Southborough, who wants what's-on and traffic news and reckons we've got both covered (kind of you, Nick), and to Jennifer, whose kids' box is up the page. And a lovely introduction from Tariq at the Save The World Club, the Kingston charity behind Saturday's open day: they run a Welcome Table café every Tuesday afternoon, Saturday cooking classes, a community fridge and a 1,000 sq ft community garden where you can grow food. They'll be sending over their events, and I'll run the best of them here. Last thing: a correction from Caroline, our French Tarte tipster — the Tarte usually shuts for August into early September, very French, so ring before you trek over.
Keep it coming. The quiz map took one reader and two hours — imagine what the rest of you know. Gig nights, car boots, choirs, the sale rail at the back of a shop, the café that does the proper breakfast. Hit reply. If it's good, it runs, with a thank you attached.
That's Wednesday. Water before 11, quiz at 7.30 — The Victoria tonight, and tell them the newsletter sent you.
Mike, Surbiton Daily
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