There's been a veritable flurry of commenting activity over the weekend with contributions about the refurbishment at the Huntsmans Hall, traffic woes and a fabulous tale from The Parkerilla of a man and his snake on Central Road, which I'll reproduce here in it's entirety.
"Yesterday(Sunday) at 12.10 in the afternoon I saw a man walking up and down Central Parade with a very alive and very large snake! He was in the area of Pizza Express on the same side of the road. The snake must have been at least 8 feet long as it was wound round his body twice and there was still plenty left at the head and tail ends to stretch out a good way blocking the pavement. It was a very pale whitish/yellow in colour with a head which seemed small for its body.There were very few people about but those who saw it, like myself, treated it with a mixture of bemusement and alarm. The guy wandering around with it had the sort of smile on his face which says "i'm not all here". The snake remained expressionless. Needless to say I walked briskly away as I'm terrified of the things. I felt the need to drop into the North End for a pint and kept looking over my shoulder in case he was approaching the pub in which case I'd run over and bar the door. The strangest thing I've seen in WP."
Great stuff, and deserving of a place alongside the recent shaving-lady story from The Longster.
If anyone does get more info on the Huntsmans I'd appreciate it and perhaps we could pack it out on its first night with local gentlefolk to see if it's really changed...... Seeing as the slot machine doesn't seem to have departed from the inside I'm assuming that they're targeting roughly the same audience as before but a smoke-free decor should make it more appealing.
I've seen a few more anti-Hamptons petitions around this weekend with the most prominent being in the builders at the end of the road. Let's see if they make any difference.......
As The Parkerilla spotted trains are delayed and the National Rail website is saying that "Train services are being disrupted due to a person having been hit by a train at Worcester Park." No more details at the moment but I'm sure more will come through.
I hope it's nobody you know.
------------- EDIT - 10:51: The Local Guardian is running a story now:
A schoolgirl fell on tracks at Worcester Park station as she ran for a train. The teen, thought to be from Raynes Park High School, was taken away on a stretcher as police cordoned off the area. The incident caused chaos for commuters who were told to get off the 7.52am train from Epsom to London Waterloo this morning.
British Transport Police were called around 8am after the girl slipped and fell between the carriages and on to the track. She was taken to St George's Hospital in Tooting with an injury to her left foot.
A spokesman for London Ambulance Service said: "We were called just after 8am to reports of a person under the train at Worcester Park station. "We sent two fast response cars, an ambulance and an officer to the scene; the first of which was there in six minutes. "We treated a teenage girl who was taken to St George's Hospital."
A spokeswoman for South West Trains said: "We currently cannot operate services out of Worcester Park but commuters can use their tickets to get local buses to the nearest station where they can get a train. "We apologise to passengers who are trying to get to work but we have to allow the emergency services to carry out their work."
EDIT - 15.34 Photo added [image from the local Guardian website]
After this morning's train chaos there was more woe this evening when Waterloo was closed because of a security alert. The station was reopened at 1.30 but when I got there at 4 there were no trains to be seen on the first 6 platforms. I ended up jumping on the first (and only) train I saw, which was going through New Malden, then getting the 213 down to Worcester Park, which added an extra half an hour to my normal journey time. I think I did well to get out of Waterloo quickly though as service updates seemed hard to come by.
Sadly, it seems that the girl injured in this morning's incident hasn't got off lightly according to the local Guardian: "She was rushed to St George's Hospital where she remains in intensive care after suffering massive blood lose (sic) in the accident. The girl is believed to be in a stable but serious condition."
I do hope it's not a lasting injury but the description's not encouraging. It sounds as thought the emergency services responded well though so that will have made a difference to her chances.
More news from the local Guardian about the girl injured in the train incident yesterday: "The 15-year-old, a student at Raynes Park High School, suffered massive blood loss in the accident and has had her spleen removed. She also has an injured left foot and is thought to have a fractured pelvis. The girl was taken away on a stretcher and rushed to St George's Hospital in Tooting as police cordoned off the accident site yesterday. She is believed to be in a stable but serious condition and the next 48 hours are critical."
That's not sounding as good as the initial reports and is a bit vague. Perhaps The Parkerilla will have an update to this comment
In mundane news I've removed the 'captchas' from the contact and comment fields to make getting in touch easier!
Being of an historical mind and having an associated love of obscure facts I've obtained a copy of "Worcester Park and Cuddington - A Walk Through The Centuries", written by David Rymill, which is now occupying my commuting hours. I've only just started into it but I am finding it fascinating to picture what has preceded us through the centuries and I should have read it years ago A fair amount has happened since it was written in 2000 but it's a good antidote to any thoughts that Worcester Park has always been faceless suburbia. The fact that Brinkley Road does get a mention in there is also a benefit, but then you knew I'd say that.
Of course I'd recommend that you get your own copy and the easiest thing to do is give them a call and pop round with the cash if you're local.
According to his parents another book about Worcester Park is in the pipeline and should be finished next year so I'll be looking forward to that. I'll leave you with a quote from the website: "In our journey we encounter a cow bequeathed for the repair of a steeple, a Royalist secret code, a pioneering computer centre which invented a barcode system for libraries, and the man who tried to block The Avenue with a trench." Excellent stuff!!
There was a red tinge to the sky over Worcester Park this morning, and it wasn't just due to the picket-line outside the Royal Mail sorting office. Seeing as we're not blessed with a tube station it seems we're reliant on the Royal Mail to meet all of our picketing needs.
In other news The Lodger has posted a guestbook entry about another snake on Central Road which, for new readers, is an up-and-coming feature of Worcester Park, first raised by The Parkerilla's 'snake man' entry of the other day.
On the subject of mysterious appearances I've so far shied away from the recent UFO article in the local Guardian but seeing as it feels like I'm having a bit of an 'X-Files Friday' I might as well go for it: "... Ron Johnson, from Worcester Park, a member of Ewell Astronomical Society, who said he had never seen anything like Friday's light display in his 40 years of skywatching. He said: "At 10.02pm there were 10 spherical lights which were a yellow, golden colour. To me they appeared to be drifting with the wind. "I stopped to watch because it was not something I'd seen before." ... "Mr Johnson said he doubted the lights were anything supernatural. He said: "People tend to jump to conclusions about unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and try to sensationalise. What people think might be a UFO is usually something atmospheric."
What say the UFOs landed and released 'snake man' and his cohorts onto an unsuspecting Worcester Park populace as part of their global plan to ...... oh, who knows.....
NOTE: Between 11.45 and 14:15 today 20six 'lost' all of its blogs, including this one. Apologies if you tried to access it but couldn't. If this should ever happen again try this instead. If anyone can let me know how to export my old entries I'll move to Blogger or Wordpress. ----------------------------------------------------
If you go to the Bikehut website it shows a Worcester Park store as "Opening Soon" but on Friday I noted that the Bikehut sign that's been stuck on the front of the old M&S had disappeared. As we know they had a recruitment day in Putney on the 22nd of May but on 9th August they were still looking for a Deputy Manager and the Bikehut recruitment page currently says: "Our flagship Brighton shop broke the mould when it comes to specialist bike shops. Then followed Putney and now we are currently recruiting for Twickenham and Dorking."
But the original version read: "Our flagship Brighton shop broke the mould when it comes to specialist bike shops. Then followed Putney and Worcester Park, and now we are currently recruiting for Twickenham and Dorking." (from Google cache)
Lastly the Mirror has an advert for Bikehut jobs posted back in July which says: "BIKEHUT is looking for enthusiastic and knowledgeable cyclists to join new branches in Reading, Berks and Twickenham, SW London, both due to open in October, and Worcester Park, Surrey, opening shortly."
If that was July and we're now in October then I'm not quite sure what they mean by "opening shortly".
...
Having typed all of this up I then phoned the Putney store and they told me the store's definitely not opening in Worcester Park because "something happened and they decided to go to Twickenham instead".
There are still problems with 20six which meant that all their UK blogs disappeared yesterday and although they reappeared sometime last night I haven't been able to post to it today until now. Unfortunately it swallowed a large post I'd just written, which has disappeared forever
I will post a proper update when I'm sure it's being more reliable but in the meantime I've opened another blog at http://brinkleyroad.blogspot.com for status updates and things, that I may eventually move all of the content to.
Since 20six seems to have settled down for now here's a mini-update on Lauren Cleer, the girl involved in the train incident last week. The local Guardian reports that she's still in intensive care and has some clarification as to what apparently happened: "Some people were saying the platform was soaking wet - it was damp not slippery," he said. "I didn't see any contact between anyone and I don't think she was pushed at all. It was an accident."
Best wishes to Lauren and her family for a full recovery.
Sometimes I think there are no more surprises to be had, but something always comes along to prove me wrong. This morning Alan dropped me an email about an exhibition in Worcester Park for the proposed development of the old BBC Sports Ground in Motspur Park (neighbouring area, but bear with me). Apart from its role as a sports ground it was used annually for Wimbledon tennis parking for their Park & Ride service until it fell into disuse in the last few years. I pass it every morning and for those who take the train into London from Worcester Park it's an unmissable feature.
As you can tell I'm partly stringing this out until I can tell you what they're proposing to turn it into. A new sportsground? Nope. A development of affordable or trendy housing? Nope. It's going to be a .........cemetery!! With Morden Cemetery and Merton & Sutton Joint Cemetery only half a mile away you'd have thought that having more dead people in the area than live ones was becoming a distinct possibility. I'm hoping it's not a Kingston Council attempt to shuffle its problems into less-loved parts of the borough but it doesn't give much indication of any desire to develop the local area for the living residents. Plus there's the obvious impact a zombie invasion would have on the local area with 3 cemeteries in such close proximity....
The exhibition is on 22nd October at the Venner Youth & Community Centre hall on Manor Drive with the junction of Malden Road, between 4pm and 9pm. Maybe we could ask them awkward questions along the lines of provisions made for burials to be made in the Plains Indian tradition to see what repsonse they give. See you there perhaps?
No more news on the Huntmans I'm afraid. I haven't seen any signs of activity over the last week or so but I'll keep my eyes peeled and let you know when I see/hear anything.
I've been laid up with a cold for the last couple of days and finding it tricky to come up with any Worcester Park news without actually leaving the house. I gather the Huntsmans was due to open at the weekend, but didn't, so have you heard anything about that? Send me news please!
Mrs Brinkster, however, does have news to report and with great joy she announced that Caffe Piccolo's deli is now open, having arrived home laden with treats, though predominantly for herself and Miss Brinkster it has to be said. The Brinkster clan did have a good time there the previous weekend (the entry that 20six ate last week) so I'm anticipating more stuff from there appearing in our fridge in the not-too-distant future.
Much specualtion that the Huntsmans was due to open last weekend but when I peered through the window yesterday the naked light-bulbs indicated that the renovation wasn't complete. P'raps this weekend?
Somewhat oddly Google's blogsearch seems to be filling with Worcester Park entries as spammers take the name of our fair community in vain to peddle their wares. A search on the last 7 days comes up with several pages of posts rather than the normal handful of entries.
In other news the Kingston Guardian says that Lauren Cleer will recover from her injuries received in the accident at Worcester Park station the other week, which is good news.
My latest source of Worcester Park images is a site called ViewImages (go to the site and search for "Worcester Park" in quotes) which has a good few images from the 20s and 30s (though some are plainly not WP at all). If you want to see Worcester Park's famed clay pigeon shooting or beagle pack and if you don't believe we had our own polo club then go to the Ham Polo club website where they state that there were: "dozen or so clubs located in and around London in the 1920's and 1930's, which sported such famous names as Hurlingham, Ranelagh, Roehampton, Kingsbury, Eden Park, Wimbledon, The Priory Club in Sheffield, Essex, Crystal Palace, Worcester Park and Wembley Park."
Lastly, thanks to all those who posted news the other day during my bout of 'man flu'. Much appreciated
Apparently there were some sporting events on over the weekend. I didn't really notice because the most exciting thing to happen was the resuscitation of THEWorcester Park Blog. For those new to the Worcester Park blogging phenomenon he is the original Worcester Park blogger who christened me as the Brinkster and then found that being married provided him with more entertaining things to do with his time than blog
Welcome back worcesterpark!!
St James have posted glossy brochures through the door to say how great the new Hamptons development will be for Worcester Park and how they're going to give over £1million to the local community. Seeing as that's the equivalent of the price of just two of their larger houses I'm not overly impressed as there's still obviously plenty of money to be made. They're staging an exhibition next week and I'll put the details up when I can find where Mrs Brinkster's put them (remind me to tell you the story of Mrs Brinkster and the Chinese Karaoke last Friday won't you).
I'm having a few days at home with the Brinkster Clan over half-term week and perhaps I'll see some of you at the cemetery exhibition this evening!?
I know this is an old Worcester Park story but I'm pleased to have tracked it down at long last. It's the one about the people-smuggling ring with a branch in Worcester Park, as featured in the Telegraph. It even has a photo of a Worcester Park establishment in it!
I found it by deserting my first love (Google images) and giving myself over to the plain, but available, charm of Yahoo Images. Try here to see what else they have.
Lots to blog about, such as the roundup of the cemetery exhibition, the Hamptons proposal exhibition, upcoming roadworks through to the A3, etc. Back soon!
So many things to catch up on I've had to write myself a list to try and remember. I couldn't start this post, however, without pointing you in the direction of worcesterpark's latest blog post, an incredible tale of love, lust and someone wearing knickers on their head
Cemetery Exhibition There were about 15 or so folks at the exhibition when I was there and four guys from Indigo. From the advancing ages of my fellow attendees it wasn't immediately obvious whether they'd come to object to the proposals or were trying to scope out the best spots. From the BMWs in the car park I'm assuming there must be a reasonable amount of money involved.........
Indigo's stated objectives of the development are: - Retain the openness of the site, - Use it in a way that is compatible with the existing residential nature of the area, - Use it in a way which is consistent with Council (Kingston) policies and objectives, - Provide much needed burial space.
Some objections have been provided by Giuseppe here, though I'm sure more will be forthcoming.
Roadworks While driving towards New Malden the other day there seemed to be a proliferation of signs announcing roadworks of various shapes and sizes. This is almost guaranteed to be a precursor to more traffic chaos in Worcester Park so if anyone knows of better/quicker/secret ways of getting through to the A3 from Worcester Park then please do post them.
Huntsmans Hall Redecoration is taking place on the inside of the Huntsmans so they're still intent on reopening, in fact on my way to the Cemetery Exhibition I saw that there was a stonking great Bentley parked in the car park..... which is probably the first and last time I'll see one there which hasn't been keyed....
Talking of cars on my way up the A3 towards Putney the other day I saw a Bugatti Veyron coming the other way. I'm not a big petrol-head but it was still smart
Chinese Karaoke For those who read the earlier reference in this post I thought I'd relate the full story. Mrs Brinkster and pals had planned an evening out but left it to one of their number who's not normally given much space in the evening-out-planning department. As a result Mrs Brinkster found herself standing outside a Chinese Karaoke restaurant in a Surrey suburb not too far away from Worcester Park and on entering found herself surrounded by plastic tables, paper tablecloths and a group of about thirty people who were so excited by the forthcoming evening that they had little costumes on related to the songs that they were going to sing. The owner is apparently a fairly rotund individual who loves to sing, but with the unmistakeable twang of his mother country in his singing. Never let it be said that Mrs Brinkster is a snob (it may or may not be true..... just never let it be said) but the net effect of the surroundings was to drive her into the welcoming arms of the juice of the vine, with whom she spent a long and productive evening to the extent that, when she arrived home, she repeated all of the above facts several times to myself and our houseguest in the course of a matter of minutes.
More amusingly when she got up in the morning she began to relate the whole thing over again, until we pointed out we knew all of the punchlines. The humour faded somewhat when she picked up her purse and said "Ermmm.. Where's my credit card"........ Doh!!
Those commuters who brave the treacle that is Worcester Park traffic will be leaping with excitement to know that the roundabout at the A3 is to be 'improved', starting shortly. Some information is available here and here indicating that they're expecting the work to take about 3 months.
TFL have there information here and a PDF diagram here. Quite how many donors cyclists will be brave enough to navigate the new cycle paths with the traffic bearing down on them could be up for debate, although the speed limit on the sliproad will be down to 30......... mmmmmm, sure.
Quite what impact this will have on through traffic we will see I'm sure......
Despite the almost overwhelming urge to speculate on how the opening of the Huntsmans Hall is going I'm going to resist until I've got some firm information to go on. In the meantime I shall point you in the direction of the fascinating Sutton Council document for planning permissions submitted between 17th and 21st September which contains the following:
Application No: A2007/58391/FUL Area/Ward:A02NONSUCH Location:79 CENTRAL ROAD Worcester Park KT4 8EB Proposal:Change of use to A5 (Hot Food take away) between 09:30 to 23:30 hours, replacement of conservatory roof, installation of new shopfront and extract duct. Applicant:Papa John's (GB) Ltd.
Application No: A2007/58392/ADV Area/Ward:A02NONSUCH Location:79 CENTRAL ROAD Worcester Park KT4 8EB Proposal:Installation of an internally illuminated fascia sign and a projecting box sign. Applicant:Papa John's (GB) Ltd
For the uninitiated this is Papa John's Pizza and I recently noted that this address (the former Choices Video) was being cut in two to make two separate stores, and last week they installed a separate front door in number 79. Any store that offers free Ben & Jerrys is going to be very tempting for the Brinkster Clan, even if they are going to have a tacky illuminated sign.
