25 September 2026

Friday 25 September 2026 · Issue 059
Surbiton Daily
your town, every morning

Morning. The festival is tomorrow and the whole thing is below — times, parade, both stages, and which buses are not coming down Victoria Road. Berrylands opens on Monday, not a week on Thursday: I had that wrong on Wednesday, and two of you put me right.

The festival, tomorrow

Ten till four, free. Victoria Road shuts from St Andrew's Road to the station, and the buses go with it: the 71, 465, K1, K2, K3 and K4 all divert both ways from six in the morning until six at night, and will not serve the stops between The Crescent and Surbiton Sainsbury's. If you drive, the meters have gone — parking is the RingGo app only, location 2006 for the station car park, 26506 for St Philips Road.

The parade starts at midday from St Andrew's Road: police motorcycles, the Surbiton Royal British Legion youth marching band, Surrey Freemasons, St Paul's Players, Lucinda School of Dance, Baby Ballet, Kingston Spring Grove morris dancers, army cadets, scouting and guiding, HMOS Theatre, Kingston Rugby, Historia Normannis, Surrey Jive, the Widows Sons and classic cars.

Music on two stages. St Andrews Square: Surbiton High School bands 10.30, Empress 11.30, Haphazard 12.15, Travisty Big Band 1.15, Dexter Flew 2.15, Leave it to Johnny 3.15, Vinyl Matters 4.15. Claremont Gardens: The Pins 10.45, Southside Theatre Academy 11.45, Casey Giblett 12.45, Babyballet 1.30, Seasick Landlubbers 2, the guitar and ukulele orchestra 2.45, the Euphonix choir 3.30.

Claremont Gardens is the one for children — teddy bears' picnic, Punch and Judy, Glenmore House activities and a charity bar, Surrey Ices. Ninety-eight traders line Victoria Road and St Andrew's Road; street food is at St Andrews Square. Twenty-five years of it now, still run entirely by unpaid volunteers.

Coming by train, check before you leave: the rugby at Twickenham takes out the Guildford-via-Cobham trains through Surbiton for most of the day, and the Chessington South branch, which is Tolworth's line, goes much the same way. Forecast is kind though — overcast, 20 degrees, dry.

Then at six, Surbiton's men open the hockey Premier Division at home to Old Georgians, who have won four of the last five titles. Sugden Road, £7.50 on the gate, card only, free if you are under 18 or a student.

Berrylands opens on Monday

Monday 28 September. Not Thursday 1 October, which is what I printed on Wednesday.

National Rail's page for the station has said so since 7 September, and South Western Railway updated its own page to match: on Monday "rail replacement bus services will end, and services between London Waterloo and Hampton Court will resume calling at Berrylands in both directions". The ticket office, the car park and the toilets open with it.

Enid found it first, in the app, which was already offering Monday trains; Mark sent the same in from a local account. Both platforms are rebuilt, with new lighting, CCTV, information screens and help points going in. The stairs are the catch — the originals were too far gone to keep, so Monday's are temporary and, Enid warns, not much better than scaffolding.

Councillors refuse to stop talking about Seething Wells

The Place Committee was asked on Wednesday night to cut Seething Wells reporting to once a year. It said no, five votes to six.

So the 2023 arrangement stands: three updates a year to the Surbiton Neighbourhood Committee, plus one to Place. A resident speaking for the Seething Wells Action Group had told them that cutting it "would frankly be an affront to the community". Councillor Roger Hayes put it another way: "We ask for a report, it says something, we nod it through. We ask for another report, it says something different, we nod it through."

The case for the change was that the site has been privately owned since the early 1990s, so the council cannot simply dictate what happens to it. The awkward part is in the papers: the owners say they are "reaching the end of the road" trying to work with the council, and will otherwise go for a planning application and appeal. A councillor also asked officers to look at gravel apparently being taken off the site. Minutes are not out yet, so the vote is theirs and the wording mine.

The highways plan before it, the first since 2016, went through unopposed. More on what is actually in it next week.

Roads: one answer, two shrugs

I said I would look today at whether the Hook Road buses came back. The notice at the Thornhill Road stops had them coming off diversion at eleven last night, and I cannot confirm it either way — TfL has published nothing on the 71, 465, 671, K4 or N65 all week, and nothing this morning. What I can tell you is that the works are nowhere near finished: UK Power Networks' own permit register has the job running to 24 October, the council's list to 25 October. Whatever the buses did last night, the road is not done.

And Garrison Lane in Chessington, which I said was shut yesterday and today, is still nowhere on the council's roadworks list. It came off and has not come back, and the page has not been updated since 18 September. Cancelled, done early or deleted by accident — I cannot say.

The week

Today: Macmillan coffee morning at the Royal British Legion on Hollyfield Road, 11 to 2. Cakes wanted, with an ingredients list. Dry and 23°.

Sunday: the Teddy Bear Trail, 11 to 1, maps free from EnhanceAble at 3A Tolworth Broadway, ending at Tolworth Roundabout for a picnic. Not the festival's teddy bears' picnic, which is tomorrow.

Monday: first train from Berrylands in four and a half months.

For the diary: Kris has talked a friend from New York into playing Tolworth. Seeger, a one-man show built round Pete Seeger's songs, is at the cornerHOUSE on Douglas Road on Saturday 17 October, half seven, £20.

Have a good weekend.

Mike

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