Morning, Surbiton. Today is the hot one, though a touch kinder than billed — and it ends well, because at 8 o'clock tonight the K2 comes home. Berrylands rather owns this issue: your bus back, a quiz found at the end of it, a history book, and a reader's plan to flatten the hill to the Hogsmill. The croquet starts Wednesday. Here's Monday.
Yesterday I told you 34°C. This morning's forecast has backed off to about 32°C — still the fiercest day we've had this summer, just not the record-chaser it looked on Saturday. The odd part is the timing: the peak lands about 5pm, not lunchtime, and it only drops to a sticky 18°C overnight. So the morning is the usable bit of today, and the school run home, the commute and the early evening are the times to take seriously.
The practical version: strenuous things before 11am or after 8pm. Water with you, hat on, and check on anyone elderly on your road this afternoon, especially top-floor flats that have been baking since Friday. The hosepipe ban is still on — watering can, at dusk.
Then it's over. Tuesday 26°C with a fair chance of a shower, Wednesday 25°C, and by Thursday we're at 21°C — eleven degrees off today. One day to get through.
forecast for Surbiton pulled this morning · ban status from Thames Water's homepage
8pm tonight: the K2 is yours again
Six days after Thames Water shut Surbiton Hill Park and took your bus with it, TfL confirms the K2 returns to normal at 8pm tonight. Until then it's still diverted both ways — no stops between Pembroke Avenue and Howard Road towards Kingston, none between Berrylands Road and Pembroke Avenue the other way — and given the heat, if you can put the walk off until this evening, do.
And here's the celebration plan, courtesy of Allison, who wrote in yesterday: The Berry in Berrylands runs a quiz every Thursday night, and the K2 stops right outside. She was there recently and it was packed, so she suggests booking a table. That's the quiz map's eighth entry, it's the only one in Berrylands, and this week it doubles as a welcome-home party for a bus. Thursday, 21°C, quiz, K2 there and back. The week plans itself.
K2 via TfL live bus status, read this morning · quiz reader-supplied, ring The Berry to book
The flat way to the Hogsmill that almost exists
Des wrote in with something I suspect half of Berrylands has privately thought. If you cycle from Berrylands Station to the Hogsmill, the official route sends you up the punishing hill on Chiltern Drive. But there's a nearly flat way: along the railway line behind the houses on Rose Walk, down the garage access track, through a narrow path in the brambles and out onto the meadow — blackberries currently in season, he notes — joining the riverside path directly.
The catch: partway along there's a barrier, and the track is designated a private road. So this isn't a route recommendation — it's a question. Des, who helped found the Save The World Club forty years ago, wants to open a proper discussion about getting that link opened legitimately, and he's starting it here. If you know who actually owns that access track, or you'd use a flat route to the river if one existed, reply and I'll pass it on and follow the thread properly.
reader-proposed — not a route to ride today; the barrier is there and the road is private
Berrylands, the book
And to complete the set: Sarah has been reading a history of the Berrylands estate — how the place came to be laid out the way it is — and rates it well worth the £4.50. It's here if you'd like the background to the streets you've just spent a week walking because of a burst water main. Thank you Sarah — a reader recommending a book about her own postcode is exactly what this newsletter is for.
reader-recommended; I've not read it yet myself
Umbrellas spelling “NO CAGES” outside H Mart, this afternoon
New Malden gets the borough's strangest spectacle today: from 4.15 to 5pm outside H Mart on Leigh Close, campaigners and a lineup of vegan influencers will hand-deliver an open letter, then simultaneously open black umbrellas releasing blood-red biodegradable confetti, turning them to spell “NO CAGES”. It's aimed at Korean food giant CJ Group over caged-hen eggs in its dumplings. Whatever you make of the cause, synchronised umbrella typography at 32 degrees is commitment.
reported by Tilly O'Brien · via Kingston Nub News
The world championship arrives Wednesday
Last call: from Wednesday to Sunday, Surbiton Croquet Club on Alexandra Drive hosts the closing week of the MacRobertson Shield, the world team championship of Association Croquet, with Sunday 9 August the final day of the whole event. Free to watch, nothing to book, and midweek's mid-twenties are far better spectating weather than today would have been. Walk down, find the fence, look wise.
start date confirmed directly by the club · championship listing via Croquet England
- K2 back at 8pm tonight — see above. The K3 follows at 8pm Wednesday, once the Hare Lane emergency works in Claygate finish. The 465 stays diverted at the Leatherhead end until 4pm Sunday.
- Night closures in Kingston this week: Villiers Road between Chapel Mill Road and Grove Lane, tonight through Saturday, 8pm–5am, for resurfacing · Eden Street, Tuesday–Wednesday, 7pm–7am · Galsworthy Road, Wednesday–Thursday, 8pm–5am. Driving into town late this week, plan around Villiers Road especially.
- On Ewell Road: the gully works near Tolworth Close run to Friday — that's the flooding fix, so worth the queue — and the long UK Power Networks job between St Mark's Hill and Hollyfield Road grinds on toward October. Friday also brings signals to St Mark's Hill outside Wentworth Court, and Saturday to Upper Brighton Road near Glenbuck Road.
From TfL live bus status (read this morning) and the council's roadworks list (their last update: 31 July).
- 10am–12 — free athletics camp at the Weir Archer Centre, ages 11–16, running Monday to Thursday all week. The morning slot is exactly right today.
- From today — Ministry of Science Live! opens at the Rose and runs to Sunday. Air-conditioned explosions on the hottest afternoon of the year: the timing could not be better for anyone with school-holiday children.
- 4.15–5pm — the NO CAGES umbrella stunt outside H Mart, New Malden, if you fancy a spectacle with your commute.
- 8pm — quiz at the Waggon & Horses, Surbiton Hill Road. £2 a head, £50 prize. The pub will be cooler than your kitchen.
Rose and stunt checked this morning; quiz from the reader map.
The hot one: climbing all day to about 32°C at 5pm, humid evening, 18°C overnight. Mornings and late evenings are yours; 2–7pm belongs to the shade.
The week: Tuesday 26°C, decent chance of a shower · Wednesday 25°C · Thursday 21°C · Friday 22°C. Back to a normal English August by the time The Berry's quiz comes round.
Today's Berrylands section is Allison's, Des's and Sarah's — three readers, three stories, and I mostly just typed. We're at 469 subscribers this morning, up nineteen since yesterday.
Welcome to Pat in Berrylands, who asked for exactly the bus news at the top of this issue. Welcome to Barbara, who works in Tolworth and wants to know what's happening around her — that's the brief. Welcome to Tim near Victoria rec, who asked for local theatre: the Rose's listings run in here most days, starting with today's Ministry of Science. And to the other Tim, who sent three words about a farmers' market on Woodbines Avenue — tell me more, because I only know the Maple Road one.
One ask. Allison found us a quiz at the end of a bus route. Des found us a missing cycle path. What's the thing on your street that the rest of the town doesn't know about? Hit reply. Today's issue is proof of what happens next.
That's Monday. Do the errands now, hide from five o'clock, and listen for the K2 at one minute past eight. Back tomorrow, ten degrees cooler.
Mike, Surbiton Daily
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