Morning, Surbiton. It is going to be a hot one — thirty degrees by Sunday — and Sunday is also the day the railway gets complicated in two directions at once. That is the main thing to know today. Also: no Kingston Carnival this year, free bike repairs and security marking this morning, and the last day of a world championship happening on Alexandra Drive.
Sunday has two rail closures, not one
On Wednesday I told you I had seen this weekend's closures reported but couldn't confirm them, and that you should check rather than take my word for it. I have now found South Western Railway's own page and read it properly. It is worse than the version I couldn't confirm — Sunday has two separate closures running at the same time.
Saturday. The lines around Effingham Junction are closed all weekend for maintenance. Waterloo to Guildford via Cobham services are diverted after Surbiton and terminate at Hampton Court. Buses run between Surbiton and Effingham Junction via Cobham.
Sunday, closure one. The line between Surbiton and Hampton Court is shut all day. Waterloo to Hampton Court trains will not run at all, and buses replace them.
Sunday, closure two. Waterloo and Wimbledon to Guildford via Cobham services don't run either, with buses between Surbiton and Guildford via Cobham. Waterloo to Guildford via Epsom trains are diverted after Leatherhead and terminate at Dorking.
One small mercy: the Waterloo to Guildford via Woking stopping services add extra calls at Raynes Park and New Malden on Sunday.
The practical version: if you are taking the family to Hampton Court on Sunday, there is no train. On a day forecast to hit thirty degrees, with half of south west London having the same idea, that is worth knowing before you are stood on the platform holding a picnic.
And file this one: Effingham Junction closes again the following weekend, Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 August. That is Farmers' Market Saturday.
South Western Railway, July/August engineering work page, read in full this morning
No Kingston Carnival this year
Kingston Race and Equalities Council has announced the borough's carnival will not take place in 2026. In a statement they said they and the council “regret to announce that Kingston Carnival 2026 will not take place this year”, and that “after careful consideration, we have decided to postpone the event until 2027 to ensure its long-term sustainability and continued success”. More information is promised shortly.
Thousands turned out last year. Postponed for sustainability is a better sentence than cancelled, but it is still a summer without it.
Reported by Tilly O'Brien, Kingston Nub News, 6 August
Today: free bike repairs, and rather more besides
The RBKares Wellbeing Day runs today, 11am to 2pm at Queen Mary Hall, Cambridge Gardens. Full Cycle's volunteers are doing free basic bike repairs and Norbiton's police team are doing free BikeRegister security marking alongside them, which between them is a decent hour's work on a bike that has been sulking in a shed since spring.
It is a broader event than the bikes — the council bills it as a one-stop-shop for health, money and practical support — so if any of that is useful to you or someone you know, it is worth the walk.
You found more post offices
Yesterday I published the two alternative branches named in Post Office Ltd's own closure letter — Alexandra Drive and Thames Ditton. Two of you wrote back to say the letter is not the whole map.
Vanessa pointed out the branch on Richmond Road, KT2 5BX, which I have checked and which is very much open. Stewart flagged one over in the Hook and Chessington direction, and made the more useful point that it is easy to reach without a car — the 71, 465 and K4 get you there, and the K2 does it via Berrylands.
Which is the correction worth making. The letter lists the branches the Post Office considers official alternatives. It does not list every counter you can actually walk into, and it says nothing about which bus gets you there. You know that better than the letter does. Alexandra Drive is still the one I'd write down — 1.4 miles, seven days, open until eight — but it isn't the only option, and the closure isn't until Saturday 3 October.
Every route is running. The K1, K2, K3, K4, 71, 281, 406, 418 and 465 are all on a Good Service this morning with nothing logged against any of them.
Hook Road, at last. The permit that has been running since 1 June expires tonight, and TfL's road feed still reports all lanes open at the Vale Road North junction “following the completion of urgent UKPN repairs to electrical fault”. That entry is set to close late this evening. I have said before that signals outlive their permits here, so I will believe it when I drive it — but this is the closest Hook Road has been to finished since the spring.
Also gone today. The gully works at Tolworth Close on Ewell Road, and the two-way signals on St Mark's Hill I flagged as a maybe yesterday — the council's list puts them on today, a day later than the permit suggested.
This weekend. Two-way signals on Upper Brighton Road at Glenbuck Road, Saturday and Sunday. And on the A243 towards Chessington, the two-way lights at the Bridge Road junction stay in place until late Sunday evening.
Running into next week. Surbiton Road and Langley Avenue until Monday. Elmbridge Avenue until Monday for Thames Water and until the 18th for the council. Tolworth Road until the 14th. And the long ones grind on — the Ewell Road cycle scheme, with Ditton Road and Kingsdowne Road, to 25 January.
Next week on Ewell Road: Thames Water's multi-way signals are booked for Wednesday 12th to Thursday 13th, not the 11th and 12th as first applied for.
The weekend
The croquet finishes on Sunday. The MacRobertson Shield — the world team championship, England against New Zealand, Australia and the United States — has been playing out at Surbiton Croquet Club on Alexandra Drive all week, and Sunday is the final day. Play from 9.30am, free to walk in, nothing to book, cash bar, and members who will explain what is happening if you ask. A world championship, on a residential street, for nothing. It is not an annual fixture — before this year, Surbiton last hosted it in 2010.
Diary note. The Surbiton Farmers' Market is next Saturday, the 15th, on Maple Road, from 9am to 1pm.
⛅ Weather. Grey but dry again today, around 25°C, down to about 12°C tonight. Then it climbs: 28°C on Saturday and 30°C on Sunday, both dry, with only a light breeze.
Sunday is the one to plan around — thirty degrees, a rail replacement bus at the Surbiton end, and the last day of the croquet. Take water to all three.
That is the weekend. If you are heading anywhere past Surbiton on Sunday, check the bus arrangements before you set off — thirty degrees and an unexpected rail replacement is nobody's idea of a good day out.
And if something is happening on your street that never makes the official lists — roadworks nobody announced, a shop with paper over the windows, a gig in a pub garden — just hit reply. That is where most of this week's issues came from.
Have a good weekend,
Mike
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