My apologies if yesterday's post was insufficiently dull.
One photo from each day last week
Sunday 1st June - Carshalton Beeches
This is a bakery in Beeches Avenue, Carshalton Beeches, called The Bakery. It looks old and if you were trying to guess how old it is you might well use the 0181 phone number to date it somewhere between 1995 and 2000. In fact it's older than that, it's been a family bakery since 1972 because it says so on the front, also the bakers are or were F.M. & R.J. Stenning because the sign says that too. I can tell they're a proper bakery because their Instagram feed features trays of iced doughnuts, iced cakes and iced buns plus a baker in an apron holding a giant plaited loaf. I'm a total sucker for a glazed bun baked on the premises but alas Sunday is the one day of the week The Bakery doesn't open and the blinds were firmly down. They also have a cafe nextdoor, which naturally is called The Coffee Lounge because that's very retro Carshalton, but that was closed too.
Monday 2nd June - London Bridge
This is a Networker train in Network South East livery. I didn't catch it, it pulled into platform 3 while I was waiting on platform 4. It's been introduced to the Southeastern network as part of this year's Railway200 celebrations and is named after Chris Green, the British Rail Sector Director who was the driving force behind the Network South East brand concept when it was introduced in June 1986. Basically it's a really nice recreation of a train that wasn't originally this comfortable, also the modern livery's incorrect because they had to paint the doors grey rather than blue to meet current accessibility legislation. If you're pointing excitedly at the photo and saying "oooh I love a good Class 465" then you should probably go and watch Geoff's video from the unit's unveiling three months ago, assuming you haven't already, because I am woefully behind the times.
Tuesday 3rd June - Crews Hill
This is the sign outside Culver Garden Centre in Crews Hill, north London's undisputed garden centre superhub. The whole street is garden centre after garden centre after garden centre, all with large car parks because nobody tries to go home from the station clutching a birdbath and three begonias unless they really have to. Culver Garden Centre doesn't do begonias, it's more a collection of smaller rented units selling garden-adjacent goods like stone ornaments, wooden sheds, outdoor clothes and made to measure fencing. Also parrots, which surprised me somewhat but Enfield Parrots Direct couldn't really sell anything else, plus parrots turn out to be the staple trade of the Enfield Bird Centre where Trevor and Jeannette are celebrating 40 years of sales this year. Meanwhile Bella in Unit 14 offers clay parties for hen dos, Alexander Cake Craft in Unit 11 is for people who like to mould unicorns out of icing, and if you live in central London it's like a different world out here.
Wednesday 4th June - Knockholt
Don't say I don't get about. This is the road outside London's southeasternmost station, which is Knockholt, Knockholt being a village two miles away in Kent. All of the road here is in Kent, ditto the two bus stops, but the tall tree on the right is in Greater London, ditto the fence displaying the Public Footpath sign, while the cyclist is perfectly straddling the boundary. It's a surprisingly isolated location passengerwise, not even a good place to walk anywhere from. It does however now have a bus service again and has done since 2023, with three departures a day to Orpington or Sevenoaks, which quite frankly you'd be much better off reaching by train. Knockholt's not one of London's least used stations for nothing (although it is busier than Crews Hill which isn't difficult).
Thursday 5th June - Dagenham
This is Goresbrook Road in Dagenham, which if you remember from yesterday's post may be getting a bus service for the first time once they've de-pedestrianised it. The shopping parade here once served the Ford Dagenham Works, indeed I bet the Chequers Bakery once did a great lunchtime trade in filled rolls, but it's now a less moneyed neighbourhood. What interested me enough to take the photo was the red BMW with the impossible numberplate. No way is M7 DEBB a genuine registration, not even if you rejig the spacing a bit, because UK numberplates never have four consecutive letters. Closer inspection confirms the 'D' isn't quite right, it's too narrow, and that's because it's really an 'O' and the registration should be M 70 EBB. If you're reading this, Debbie, your MOT expired last Saturday. Also I have strong suspicions that ME' AN' O'BRIEN'S is the London pub with the most apostrophes in its name, even though the first apostrophe is superfluous and if you check the records at Companies House its official name is ME 'AN' O'BRIENS so the whole thing's woefully inconsistent.
Friday 6th June - Perivale
This is the new information board outside Perivale station by the entrance to Ealing Central Sports Ground. I assume it's new because it looks brand-spanking, also it's ungraffitied, also I don't remember seeing it before. It shows all sorts of local highlights like Horsenden Hill, Pitshanger Park and the Hoover Building, plus main cycle routes with a potted history of Perivale down the side. I also spotted a very similar board outside West Ealing station and that definitely wasn't there on my last visit. The designer is Olivia Brotheridge who specialises in beautifully illustrated maps, often for Business Improvement Districts trying to create a splash. In this case the instigators are Good For Ealing, a regeneration platform sponsored by the local council who are charged with trying to entice businesses into investing in one of Ealing's seven towns. More like this please.
Saturday 7th June - Teddington
This extraordinary display of mourning can be found at the entrance to Teddington Cemetery. These eight heart-shaped tributes are lined up on easels, almost like a set of archery targets but displaying messages expressing heartfelt loss from multiple members of the same family. Each displays a photo of the departed in happier times alongside the son, daughter or relative whose tribute it is, with text like 'From Roseanne Jim Boy' or 'Rip daddy I love u from Dolly Jim and family'. What you can't see in the photo is the even larger collection of floral tributes to the left - six more hearts, three white arches and the carnation-bedecked grave of UNCLE DANNY. According to the Teddington Town website the deceased was 58 year-old traveller Danny Nolan, a grandfather to twenty four children, and thousands of mourners turned up on Thursday to mourn his passing. Several other Nolans are interred close by, one of them called Duck, and I suspect Danny will one day have a headstone as extravagant as theirs. RIP My Lovely.
