Morning, Surbiton. Four nations are playing for a trophy on Alexandra Drive this morning and you can walk in for nothing. Also today: a reader thinks a bus route changed under his nose and nobody told him — the route data backs him up, and I can't find an announcement either. Plus what I found when I went looking for the station's missing mosaics, and a milestone I didn't expect to write about this week.
The last five days of a world championship, on Alexandra Drive, free
It starts this morning at half nine. The MacRobertson Shield — the world team championship of association croquet, fought over by England, New Zealand, Australia and the United States — reaches its final round at Surbiton Croquet Club, and stays until Sunday.
One clarification on yesterday: the championship didn't begin today, it began on 24 July at Roehampton and Hurlingham, then moved to Sussex. What starts in Surbiton today is the final round — the last of it, the deciding week. Which is the better half of the tournament to get for free.
England arrive in good shape. They took the first test off Australia 16–5, and had the second test won against the USA before the last day was even finished. Croquet England's own preview reckoned the fixture worth waiting for “could well be the final Test, most likely between England and New Zealand” — which is the one now unfolding on our doorstep. The format, in their words: “Each Test is the first nation to win 11 matches, comprising both doubles and singles.”
The practical bit, unchanged: play from 9.30am each day into the afternoon, free to walk in, nothing to book, cash bar, and club members on hand to explain what on earth is happening. Children welcome with an adult. It's 26°C and dry today after this morning's shower clears — better standing-about weather than Monday.
Schedule, format and results from Croquet England's daily reports, read this morning · Surbiton Croquet Club, Alexandra Drive, KT5 9AA
The 281 has stopped going past the university, and I can't find anybody who announced it
Yesterday Tim wrote in with something that had been nagging at him. The 281 had changed route, he was sure of it, and he could find nothing anywhere telling him so. His words, and they are better than anything I'd have written: “It is as though the route has always been what it is now and I am mad for imagining otherwise.”
Tim, you are not mad. You are right, down to the turn.
He described it as turning right at the College roundabout, along the Portsmouth Road as far as Surbiton Road, then left. I have been through TfL's own route data this morning, stop by stop, in both directions. That is exactly what the 281 now does: Eden Street, Brook Street, Kingston Hall Road, East Lane, Surbiton Road, and on down to us through Surbiton Crescent and Maple Road. It no longer runs the length of Penrhyn Road.
Then I looked at the university stops themselves. Kingston University / County Hall, on Penrhyn Road, is served this morning by the 71, the 418, the 671, the K2, the K3 and the N65. The 281 is not among them.
My first assumption was roadworks. There was a major gas job on Penrhyn Road — a contra-flow, with a formal traffic order — which ran from 21 to 29 July. But it finished, and it can't be the answer, because the 71, the 418, the K2 and the K3 are all still running along Penrhyn Road today. Several routes on the road, and the 281 off it. Roadworks don't do that.
Now the honest part, because I'd rather be careful than dramatic. I can't prove from TfL's data that the route changed — what I can read is today, and today it doesn't serve those stops. There is no disruption notice against the 281 and no temporary flag on the alignment, which means this is simply the route now rather than a diversion. Tim remembers it differently, the other routes still run the road it isn't on, and I can find no announcement anywhere. That points one way, but it is reasoning, not a document.
The useful bit, if this is your bus: the 71 still stops at Kingston University on Penrhyn Road, and still serves Surbiton Road / Penrhyn Road as well. If you were using the 281 to reach the campus or that stretch of road, the 71 does what the 281 used to.
One thing you can help with. If you remember riding the 281 down Penrhyn Road, and you can put even a rough date on the last time — a school run, a hospital trip, a term that ended — hit reply. Between five hundred of us we can probably date this better than anyone has bothered to publish it.
Route sequences, stop records and live status pulled from TfL's own data this morning, both directions · the Penrhyn Road gas permit from the Department for Transport's Street Manager register
- The K3 is diverted until 8pm tonight — emergency works in Hare Lane, Claygate. Buses are going via Aston Road, Cavendish Drive and Oaken Lane, missing every stop between Oaken Lane and The Parade / Claygate Station in both directions. It should be back to normal this evening.
- The rest are fine. The K1, K2, K4, 71, 406, 418, 465 and 65 are all on a Good Service this morning. So is the 281 — it just isn't where it used to be.
- Gone by tomorrow: the Hollyfield Road closure, UK Power Networks' emergency job that I flagged yesterday, and the Tolworth Broadway lane closure. A Thames Water job on Berrylands ends tomorrow too — footway only, the road was never affected.
- Gone by Friday: the gully works at Tolworth Close on Ewell Road, and the Hook Road closure permit that has been running since 1 June.
- Starting today — and I'm sorry, Elmbridge Avenue. The council's six-week job on Elmbridge Avenue ends on Friday, and two more start there today: Thames Water until Monday the 10th, and another council job until the 18th. Three overlapping digs on one street. Langley Avenue also has works on until Monday.
- Tomorrow and the weekend: two-way signals on St Mark's Hill — the council's list says Friday, the permit says Thursday, so plan for Thursday · Surbiton Road, Thursday to Monday · and Upper Brighton Road at Glenbuck Road on Saturday and Sunday.
- Tonight, 8pm to 5am:Galsworthy Road is closed for resurfacing, and the Villiers Road closure between Chapel Mill Road and Grove Lane runs on until Saturday.
- And a correction to yesterday, on Hook Road. I told you UK Power Networks had further closures “granted from 13 August running through to November”. Back through the register this morning, permit by permit: the next Hook Road job starts 10 August and runs to 15 September, it is applied for and not yet granted, and it is not a full closure. The next granted full closure, with a traffic order, is 16 September to 25 October. Still a programme rather than a job — but I had both the dates and the status wrong, and you should have the right ones.
- Still on until 25 January 2027:Ditton Road, Kingsdowne Road and the Ewell Road signals, all part of the new cycle route. As I said yesterday: short stretches at the Ewell Road junction end, not whole streets severed.
TfL live status and route data read this morning · permits from the Department for Transport's Street Manager register, the statutory record — it publishes monthly, so anything filed since 1 August is still invisible to me, which is exactly why your reports matter · night closures and weekend signals from the council's roadworks list, last updated 31 July.
- From 9.30am — the croquet, Alexandra Drive, free, all day. See above.
- 11am–3pm — National Play Day, free, drop in any time, ages 0–11. Petting farm, games, music, face painting, and advice stalls, run by Achieving for Children and Kingston Youth Services, and planned to be sensory-friendly. It's at the Dickerage centre in New Malden, KT3 3EQ — the listing calls it Dickerage Road in one place and Dickerage Lane in another, so go by the postcode. Cate, you wrote in yesterday asking for exactly this sort of thing: here it is, today.
- Noon–4pm — Wicked Wednesdays indoor bowls, King George Field Indoor Bowls Club, Jubilee Way, Chessington KT9 1TR. £4 a head, two-hour sessions, no booking, just turn up — flat-soled shoes needed, café on site. Every Wednesday to 26 August. This is the most under-used thing in the borough and it's ideal for a mixed-age afternoon.
- 1–3pm — Wheels for All at the Weir Archer Centre, Kingston Road KT1 3PB: adapted bikes, handcycles, trikes and wheelchair transporters, helmets provided. £6 a person, carers free, or bring your own bike. Worth flagging because the official listing has it filed as free and it isn't.
- 10am–12 — athletics camp at the Weir Archer, free, school years 7–11. Runs again tomorrow, and tomorrow is the last one this week — there's no Friday session.
- 11am and 3pm — Ministry of Science Live! at the Rose, age 6+, an hour fifty with an interval, ear protectors welcome. On until Sunday, and note Friday's shows shift to 2pm and 6pm.
- In the libraries: Knit & Natter at Tolworth 11am · Bridge Club at Hook & Chessington 2pm · a homelessness and recovery support drop-in at Tolworth 2pm · Reading Retreat at Tolworth 2.30pm.
Croquet from the club and the World Croquet Federation · the rest from Connected Kingston and Kingston Libraries' own booking system, all read this morning. Library prices aren't published, so I'm not calling them free.
- Thursday — In Conversation with Cozette McCreery at Kingston Museum, 6pm, for grown-ups, and the best evening thing this week that isn't croquet. Also: Walk & Talk for Men from Malden Manor station, 2–3pm, free, no booking · the Welcome Table Cafe at the Save The World Club, Southsea Road, 1–5pm, low-cost surplus-food menu · children's crafts at Tudor Drive library 2.30pm, ages 5+.
- Friday — Crack Comedy at Ram Jam Records, 46b Richmond Road, Kingston: Kelsey De Almedia, Julia Eckhoff and Eleanor Tiernan. Doors 7pm, show starts sharp at 8.30. £23.50 in advance, £25 on the door, students £14.50, no booking fees. Also Wellbeing Day at Queen Mary Hall 11–2, free · and Tea and Treats at Swinnerton Church Hall, Gibbon Road, 11–2 — free cuppa, soup, homemade cake, craft table, all ages.
- Saturday — Lemon Sharks at Ram Jam, psychedelic reggae and dub, doors 7.30, music 8pm, £10 advance or £14 on the door · volunteering at the Tolworth Station garden 10.30–1 · Saturday Chess Club at Surbiton Library, 2pm, for kids and teens. Corinthian-Casuals are away at Faversham in the FA Cup — next home game is Tuesday.
- Sunday — the croquet final day, from 9.30am · Surbiton junior parkrun at Alexandra Recreation Ground, 9am, free, ages 4–14, register first · a free bandstand concert at Canbury Gardens, 3–5pm (they haven't published who's playing) · and the last two performances of Ministry of Science at the Rose.
A shower or two first thing, gone by mid-morning, then dry with plenty of sun and up to 26°C. Down to 13°C tonight, which is the first properly cool night in a fortnight.
And a correction to my own optimism. I told you on Monday the heat had broken. It has, for about a day and a half: Thursday 23°C, then it climbs straight back — Friday 25°C, Saturday 27°C, Sunday 29°C. So Thursday is your cool day. Sunday, on the croquet lawns, will not be.
I went looking for the station mosaics and found something else
The mosaics at the station have come up here more than once, and I said I'd go and find out rather than guess. Here is my honest answer: I cannot find them. No mosaics of that name, by that artist, at that station, in anything I can get at. That isn't me doubting anybody — if you know what and where they are, tell me and I'll chase it properly.
What I did find is that we walk through something rather good every morning without looking up. Surbiton station was rebuilt in 1937 to a design by James Robb Scott, in full Art Deco — the tower, the long horizontal lines, the curved concrete. It has been Grade II listed since October 1983, and it gets described as one of the finest modernist stations in the country. Not the finest in Surrey. In the country.
And there was art in there. In 1984 and 1985 the artist Graeme Willson painted a large mural called “Passengers” in the booking hall. It has since been removed. Whether that's what got remembered as mosaics I couldn't say — but if you were commuting out of Surbiton in the eighties and you remember it, I'd love to hear what it looked like.
Station history and listing date checked this morning · the mural's removal date isn't recorded in anything I could find
Right — let's do shop watch properly
Margaret wants to know which shops are closing on Victoria Road and Upper Brighton Road, what's going into the empty units, and specifically when the Post Office shuts. She's the second person to ask me this in two days, and shops are now the third most-requested thing in this newsletter after roads and events.
So here's where I actually am. There is no local source for this. I have spent this morning through the council, both local papers and every Surbiton listing I can reach, and there has been no new Surbiton retail news in a week — not one opening, not one closing. That isn't me not looking. Poundland on Victoria Road is still the last confirmed one, closing Sunday.
On the Post Office: the date I published in July was 23 October, and I am not going to repeat it as fact today, because I haven't been able to re-confirm it this morning, and a date that's quietly moved is worse than no date at all. I'm chasing it directly. Margaret, you'll have a confirmed answer this week.
And then the obvious bit, which I should have done weeks ago. You have beaten the official sources to a road closure more than once now. You will beat the papers to a shop. If a shutter's down, a unit's being fitted out, or there's a handwritten sign in a window — photograph it, hit reply, tell me the street. That's shop watch, it starts today, and it only works if you're the eyes.
Checked this morning: Kingston Council news, Kingston Nub News, the Surrey Comet and local listings — nothing new on Surbiton retail since the Poundland notice.
Somewhere in the last couple of days this passed 500 subscribers. It's 513 this morning. I'm not going to make a fuss, but I do want to say what the number actually means, because it isn't a number about me.
In under a month you have built a map of every pub quiz in the town, caught a bus diversion the day it happened, found temporary lights the council never listed, corrected my pub listings, corrected my dates, sent me a book about your own postcode, and yesterday handed me a whole bus route that has quietly stopped going where it used to. I mostly type it up. Five hundred neighbours paying attention is a genuinely useful thing to be part of — thank you for being one of them.
Welcome to Stephen, here for roads and transport: you have picked the right newsletter. To Dan, after local planning, local offers and local events — planning runs most weeks, and I keep the house numbers out of it. To Philomena, who wants local history and is on the buses a lot: both of those are in today's issue, which is good timing on your part. And to Cate and Margaret, both answered above.
That's Wednesday. If you do one thing today, walk down Alexandra Drive and watch ten minutes of a world championship for free. I'll be there at some point, still not understanding the hoops.
Mike, Surbiton Daily
513 inboxes, and more than 300 of you open this before breakfast. Thank you for being one of them.
Know a neighbour who'd like this? Forward them the link: surbitondaily.co.uk/subscribe
Surbiton Daily · Surbiton, SW London · unsubscribe