Afternoon, Surbiton. A pub older than the railway was missing from the ballot, the K4 has gone wandering again, and Sunday is shaping up to be the best day of the week.
The Black Lion problem
A reader wrote in yesterday: “Very sad you didn't include the Black Lion pub. My local for 25 years.”
That is a fair hit, and it is a strange absence — a pub on the corner of Brighton Road and Maple Road that has been serving this town since 1840, when the coach to Brighton stopped outside. Quiz on Tuesdays, live music most Saturdays.
Why was it missing? Nobody nominated it. Twenty-five readers sent in names over five days and not one wrote down the Black Lion. I did not leave it off — the town did, by accident, which is somehow worse.
So it is on the ballot as of this afternoon. A pub that has been pulling pints here for 186 years should not miss out on a local award because everybody assumed somebody else would put its name forward.
Which creates one problem, and here is how I am fixing it. More than fifty of you have already voted in the pub category against a list that did not include it. That is not fair on the Black Lion, and it is not fair on you. If you have already voted for a pub and you would rather it were the Black Lion, reply to this email and I will move your vote by hand. No forms, no fuss. Same goes if a late name changes your mind in any other category.
The Black Lion, 1840, still standing, still pouring, and now — finally — on the ballot. Twenty-five years of loyalty got it there in the end.
Meanwhile the ballot is past 290 votes and still moving, with every category live and several of them tight.
Voting closes Sunday night:
What they are digging up at the top of St Marks Hill
On Tuesday, Chris wrote in about the earthworks at the crossroads at the top of St Marks Hill — big, and long-term-looking, and on no list I could find. It is on a list now, and here is the answer.
It is UK Power Networks, replacing a significant power cable at the junction of Ewell Road, Lamberts Road and St Marks Hill. The council's own note calls it emergency work, “deemed urgent in order to protect supply for residents” — which is council for: if we do not do this, the lights go out. Hence three-way traffic lights and the Lamberts Road entrance closed. UKPN are aiming to finish by Wednesday 26 August.
Why it was invisible. Emergency works do not go through the usual notice period — the digging starts and the paperwork catches up. The council's page gives Wednesday as the start date, but Chris was watching them move earth on Tuesday. There is also a separate closure at the Lamberts Road junction that began on the 12th, and the long UKPN cabling job that has had two-way lights on Ewell Road since January. Three jobs, one junction.
And this is almost certainly your K4 answer too. TfL blames the diversion on “electrical repair works” on Ewell Road, and this is the electrical repair work on Ewell Road. I cannot get either party to say so in the same sentence, but the dates and the location line up.
So: a fortnight of lights at the top of the hill, with an end date on it. Thank you Chris — that is a question a whole town wanted answered.
Still no word on the 2am KFC. A week on from the hearing, I went past the news this time and into the council's own committee papers: the file for that meeting still holds nothing but the pre-hearing agenda and reports. No minutes, no decision notice. Chessington asked, fifteen residents objected, and a week later the answer is still not published. Separately, the Clarence Street branch in Kingston has now applied for later hours of its own — different application, different branch, do not confuse the two.
The Claygate sinkhole is more stubborn than the bus timetable suggested. I told you yesterday the K3 was running its full loop again, and it still is. But a Surrey traffic report on Wednesday morning had St Leonard's Road still closed in both directions. So: the bus is fine, the road may well not be. If you drive that way, do not take the bus map as your evidence.
The rest of today. Yesterday I said the drizzle would sit in the mid-afternoon and early evening rather than soak the whole day, and that is how it has gone. There is a second wet patch coming around seven, half an hour or so of it, then it clears properly and the evening ends dry. Peak of about 21°C around five.
Tomorrow. Dry all day — genuinely all day, not a shower in the model — but cooler and grey, topping out near 20°C.
The weekend, and I am doubling down. Saturday is dry and a degree warmer than I told you, about 21°C. Sunday still looks like the pick of the week: 22°C, clear sky, and the wind barely above two miles an hour all day. If you are choosing one day to be outdoors, it is Sunday.
The K4 is diverted again, from this morning. Electrical repairs on Ewell Road, and TfL posted it at half past ten today: the K4 runs both ways via Lingfield Avenue, Maple Road and Claremont Road until 6pm on Tuesday 25th. Towards Chessington, nothing is served between Cheyne Hill and Surbiton Station. Towards Kingston, nothing between St Mark's Church and Cheyne Hill. If the K4 is your way to the station, leave earlier or walk it.
Leatherhead Road has two sets of works now, not one. The long-running lights at Bridge Road continue to 16 September — and a second job has opened at Chalky Lane, Thames Water, with temporary signals to Monday 24th. That one is actually biting: TfL reported northbound queues back past Byhurst Farm at lunchtime today.
Everything else, briefly. Hook Road keeps a lane shut in both directions to 18 October. Malden Way northbound is still on the service road at Oxford Crescent — that one finishes Saturday night. And the K3 is still running its full Claygate loop, sinkhole notwithstanding.
Rail. Nothing posted for this weekend beyond the standing Berrylands closure — but two of the last three weekends had Guildford-line closures that appeared late in the week, so I would still check Saturday morning before you travel. If something lands tomorrow, it will be in Friday's issue.
Tonight. Quiz at the Berrylands on Chiltern Drive, 8pm, £2.50 a head. Over in Kingston, Ram Jam has Sheldon the Rapper launching the album War of the Words from 7pm.
Friday. The summer-workshop kids do Trolls The Musical JR at the cornerHOUSE on Douglas Road, 7pm, with a second performance at 6pm on Saturday.
Saturday is the busy one, and it is all here in town.
2pm — Chess club at Surbiton Library, Ewell Road. Free, drop in, runs to 4pm, and children are welcome with an adult.
8.30pm — The Legends of Swing at the Surbiton Club, St James' Road. Ray Lowe doing the Sinatra songbook. Free for members plus a guest; online sales have closed, so if you are not a member, ring the club rather than turn up hopeful.
9pm — Gianluca at the Surbiton Flyer, Victoria Road. Italian solo guitarist, part of their Saturday live-music run through August. Walk in.
Also Saturday: the volunteers are at the Tolworth Station garden from 10.30am, if you fancy an hour of weeding in good company.
Sunday. Junior parkrun at Alexandra Rec, 9am as always. Then, given that forecast: the Street Art Festival in Kingston runs 10am to 4pm with murals going up around the town centre, and the Canbury Gardens bandstand plays 3pm to 5pm by the river, free.
And an answer for Robert, who asked about the farmers' market: it is the third Saturday of the month on Maple Road, so the last one was the 15th and the next is Saturday 19 September. Robert also asked which stalls will be there. I do not have a reliable list — so I will go down in September and write it properly.
If your local, your street or your corner of the map has been thin in here lately, reply and tell me. That is genuinely how things get in.
Back tomorrow,
Mike
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