Morning, Surbiton. Today is the last dry day for a while and it is a good one, so do the outdoor thing today. Two of you also sent me things this week that were not in any official feed and should have been — a set of traffic lights outside the hospital, and a bus stop that looks like it is closing. Both below.
Today. Dry from now until bedtime — the chance of rain sits at zero every hour until nine tonight, which is about as unequivocal as a forecast gets. It peaks at 25°C between three and four, is still 24°C at six and 21°C at eight. An evening you can sit outside in without thinking about it.
Tomorrow is warmer and worse. It touches 26°C, the highest of the week — but with a 67 per cent chance of rain and about 4mm behind it. Warm and wet is not the same offer as warm and dry.
Then Thursday, at 92 per cent, which in forecasting terms means it is raining and they are being polite about it. Friday stays unsettled and drops to 21°C. So: today, or the weekend, and the weekend is not promising much either.
And the K4 comes home tonight. The diversion via Lingfield Avenue, Maple Road and Claremont Road — a week of it now — ends at 6pm today, and the Ewell Road stops between Cheyne Hill and Surbiton Station go back into service with it. If you have been walking the extra ten minutes to St Mark's Hill each morning, tomorrow you do not have to.
Margaret watched a set of traffic lights arrive outside Kingston Hospital yesterday. They were not there at twenty to eight and they were there by quarter past ten, and she wrote in the same afternoon to say the ambulances coming in and out were having a hard time of it. I have checked: it is four-way temporary lights on Galsworthy Road, between Coombe Road, Coombe Lane West and Gloucester Road, for electrical work. She thought it might be a gas leak. It is not — but the bit nobody has announced anywhere is the end date, and it is 18 September.
That is three and a half weeks of four-way lights across the road that ambulances use to reach the hospital. If your route to Kingston goes that way, take Coombe Lane West and expect it to be slow, and give the ambulances the room.
Leatherhead Road is the worst of the rest. Temporary signals at Chalky Lane for Thames Water, with the northbound queue tailing back past Rushett Lane this morning — the only local restriction TfL rates above minimal. There is a second set further along at Bridge Road for UK Power Networks, so you meet two.
Hook Road still has lane two closed both ways between Hook Junction and Bridge Road. Malden Way has Thames Water signals at Manor Drive North.
And there are utility crews on Upper Brighton Road this week, on temporary signals at the Ditton Road junction. Worth knowing if you were one of the people who wrote in about the dead street light over the crossing near Lovelace Gardens: there is a crew on that road right now, and a job number moves faster than a complaint does. Everything else local — K1, K2, K3, K5, the 71, 281, 406, 418, 465, S3 and SL7 — is on a good service, and the trains are clear both ways.
Stewart was at the Surbiton Health Centre yesterday and says the stop on the Surbiton-bound side looks like it is due to close. He does not know about the Tolworth-bound one, and — his words — said it with feeling, because a closed stop outside a health centre is not an inconvenience if you have trouble walking, it is the whole journey gone.
I have looked. There is nothing about it in any TfL feed, which means it is a paper notice on the stop and nothing more, yet. So: if you are passing the Health Centre today, read the notice and tell me what it actually says — particularly the dates and whether both sides are affected. I will chase TfL in the meantime and print whatever comes back. This is exactly the sort of thing that turns up on a pole three weeks before it happens and is never announced anywhere else.
Aaron wrote in on Monday, and then wrote again to ask whether he was allowed to ask. You are, Aaron. That is what this is for.
One. Wednesday five-a-side, and it is over-forties only. He is looking for a few more to make up a game. His own assessment of the local standard: “some are good, some are bad, some are terrible.” So there is a place for you whichever of those you are.
Two. An under-12s team needs players. His son plays for Esher Kings under-12s, league eight — they train on Thursdays and play on Sundays, and they are open to anyone who fancies a trial. If you have a football-mad ten or eleven year old who has been on the edge of joining something, this is a real team asking, not an advert.
For either, reply to this email and I will put you in touch.
The Royal British Legion on Hollyfield Road has an open day this Saturday, 29 August, 12pm to 5pm. Barbecue, local craft stalls, candy floss, a fully stocked bar, and live music from The Paperback Writers at 4pm. Jane sent it over on Friday and I am late putting it out. Free to walk into; 020 8399 3993 if you want to ask them anything.
I had it in my head that the Rose was dark until September. It is not. Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again runs tomorrow and Thursday — one of the Rose's community productions, which means the cast is local people rather than a touring company, and those are usually the ones worth the ticket.
After that the autumn programme starts properly. Two for the diary: Jazz Fridays, free, from 4 September, 10.30am to 12.30pm every Friday through to December — and Lou Sanders on Saturday 5 September, 7.30pm. Jack Whitehall is doing a work-in-progress on the 7th and it has already sold out, so I am telling you so you do not waste the click.
Go outside today. Tomorrow it rains, and it keeps raining. And if you pass that bus stop, have a look at the notice for me.
See you tomorrow,
Mike
Surbiton Daily · a short email every morning about our bit of south west London. Written for the 717 of us who read it. Got something for tomorrow? Reply to this email — every reply reaches a person, not a robot.