2438 Journey to Croydon and visits to Wallington, Mitcham, Wimbledon, Waterloo and the Millennium Dome

I do not have the time before making my third visit of the year to provide a considered account of my short visit to Croydon, Wallington, Wimbledon and the Millennium Dome experienced in artic conditions, including one blizzard. True the visit cannot compare with visits made to the Olympic and Paralympic games last summer but the experience was of interest and enjoyable apart from the walk to find an oriental buffet restaurant on the Sunday morning.

 

The greater part of two days was taken up with private talk with three relatives but I did see the prequel to the Wizard of Oz- Oz The Great and Powerful in 3 D and a viewing of one of the last showings of Les Miserables advertised in London. There were three very good meals, some reading and a little television and several noteworthy encounters with strangers.

 

Thursday morning was sunshine bright when I set off and the weather was such that I took the decision to turn off the central heating having kept it on low throughout the two weeks I was away over Christmas and the New Year, and again over the long weekend visit for my birthday.

 

On the walk to the Metro station I went around the green on the hill rather then crossing diagonally because of the steps, loaded as I was with the case, the rucksack and the Sleep Apnoea machine. I noticed, a young woman in dark glasses because of the sunshine taking the route I would normally, with another young woman exercising her dog and as the two paths converged so did I with the young woman in the dark glasses and unexpectedly she smiled and asked if I was going anywhere interesting. I do not recollect having previously identified the same person from my street or having previously encountered on the hill and while greetings of the day or comments on the weather are passed between strangers I could only think it was someone whose home I called upon in relation to the subsidence in the back lane. Later realised I must have looked similar to those men (and some women of the street, who carry all their possession  in a shopping bag trolley loaded with other bags and who dress for  being outside, including sleeping in all weather, with wool hat, gloves as well as coat and good walking shoes or boots.

 

I found myself telling her where I was going and what I would be doing as well as having a short return before going off again and afterwards debated whether this had been wise. She said she would pray for God to be with me so on balance I decided that she spent her day attempting to put into practice her spiritual beliefs and I was one of many with whom she spoke.

 

I enjoyed a coffee at the station after eating the three small roles I had baked earlier, filled with a Belgian Pate and a few olives with pimento. I watched a train for London arrive on platform 3 shortly after 11.30 which surprised as the 11.58 I was taking was scheduled for platform 4. My first reaction was that the train would turn round platforms for the noon train which meant there would be opportunity to find a good seat and store luggage at leisure. Alas I was mistaken for this was the 12.25 to Kings Cross, a train which I could have booked but at twice the cost of my selected ticket.

 

The consequence of the train from Scotland arriving was that everyone rushed to get on and could find nowhere to place their luggage with my case close to an exit door, the Sleep Apnoea machine in a vacant space on the luggage rack some distance from my seat and my seat part of twosome at the aisle and not a table. It also took sometime to reach my seat because of people coming in both directions However the journey was a good one with only stops at Darlington and York.

It was always a gamble to arrange a trip to London in March although for the past two years the weather in March and April had proved better than most weeks of the summer, especially two years ago when the sun shone hot at the start of the Cricket season and I sat in shirt sleeves, proclaiming how good it was to be alive. Having paid the accommodation and travel in advance I took the decision to make the journey.

 

I attempted to retrieve my luggage before the train reached Kings Cross only to locate but after going up and down the carriage several times I could not see the Sleep Apnoea machine bag. I had to wait until the last person left the carriage and saw the machine covered by a coat and the luggage of the last passenger a middle aged man on his own and I wondered if he had seen the orphan lap top looking bag and hoped it was unclaimed. I was too relieved to challenge his failure to alert me.

 

At St Pancras I topped up my Oyster Travel card with £20 and did not have to wait long for the next cross rail train to Brighton. It was cold when I left the station at East Croydon for the short downhill walk to the Travel Lodge. At booking in I asked if a flat screen TV was available but I was advised that they had no way of knowing which rooms had one. It was agreed I would go back if not successful which I did. Unfortunately the next room did not and I had to make do with a traditional set.

 

For the evening meal I purchased some chicken wings from Waitrose, four pain au chocolat, and a Ben and Jerry chocolate and fudge tub of ice cream for £1.69, (£1.50 at Asda). I turned the heating on the electric convector fire to the maximum.  Lunch was the Toby Inn in Mitcham where mine host had lost a great deal of weight and clearly had a health problem from which he made a recovery. From the bus stop we crossed the grass because of the driving sleet finding the round muddy, taking the path way round on the return journey. I enjoyed a beef roast dinner with a mountain of vegetables and shared the free chocolate fudge sundae, free for my birthday, normally £3.98 so it was a good gift.

 

On my journey to Wallington I had missed both the direct buses the 154 and 157 and waited in the cold as three other buses all with longer routes and different stops came and went. Then the 154 and 157 came together and I checked which was direct and which went round the former London overspill estate on the former site Croydon Airport, Roundshaw Park. Because of the threat of heavy rain I was advised to catch the 454 single decks bus which although went round the islands, as the expression goes, but stopped just before the Travel Lodge. What I did not appreciate was just how around the island we would travel. First there was the circuit around the Roundshaw Park estate but it did means passing the new St Elphege School. I say new although it is at least four decades since it moved from Demesne Road, now a day nursery, to its present location and where the school did not bring its records although I cannot believe that they were destroyed.

 

The bus then went down Beddington Lane from the Plough Inn to the ASDA supermarket where it turned around and then did of the local industrial and commercial factory area close to Mitcham before stopping lose to the Ikea store at the end of Purley Way and then heading for Croydon Ampere Way, Waddon, stopping at Reeves Corner, West Croydon Bus station and Katherine Street my stop. Along the journey were more than twice as long than necessary I enjoyed visiting familiar and some unfamiliar areas of my heritage.  I crossed over the road to Sainsbury where cheese twists were purchased for the morning, a sandwich and a chocolate bar for the evening meal which I enjoyed with some soup.

 

Snow was falling heavily elsewhere and although I was committed to visiting the Millennium Dome I was not sure that my relatives would be able to make the journey from the country to the station for the journey to Waterloo.

 

Saturday morning was cold with snow falling and settling but nothing like as bad as the Whiteout encountered travelling home from Mansfield and although I missed the next available train to London Bridge I was able to get a direct train with a change of platform a few minutes later. As on my journey to Croydon I noted the extent of new and converted building going on south of the station along the railway tracks.

 

I like Waterloo station where trains go to Teddington, Richmond and Kingston reminding of the three years I lived at Teddington, came to know Richmond, Twickenham and Brentford/Chiswick as well as Hampton Court and Kingston and the route from there to Cheam, Sutton and Wallington. The station remains busy despite its loss as the start of the Channel Tunnel High Speed trains which have moved to St Pancras. It was too old to sit so I moved around looking in Smith, noting the restaurants with one public. Time was taken for coffee when my relative arrived and then the short journey by the Jubilee Line to North Greenwich.

 

There was no security check at the Dome although security guards with dogs were noted. After showing the layout the focus was the Oriental buffet which was deserted on arrival and only had half a dozen table customers when le around 2.15 for the cinema. I managed three plates in the hour and half of the three hour midday slot attended and one sweet bowl. It proved a well balanced mixture with a first plate of meat appetisers, then some deep fried prawns, chicken and noodles in various sauces including chilli, then five deep fried crab claws and a number of pieces of chicken in different forms. Finally two scoops of chocolate ice, one of vanilla over which was piled some fresh fruit and some tinned fruit salad. The account for two plus drinks was £20. Coming out of the cinema between five and six a transformation had occurred with thousands of people making their way to the arena eateries and bars including the Sky before for a performance of The Script. There were fifty plus queues waiting to enter the twenty or so restaurants in the main thoroughfare inside the dome but fewer queuing in the open air for the restaurants situation at the of bottom offices blocks on the between  the station, the river and the Dome. With the coloured lights shining brightly the atmosphere inside the Dome had been transformed. There was a similarity between the black and white opening of the original Wizard of Oz film, and the Prequel and our morning arrival changing to the glorious digital colouring of afternoon film and the sense that the place had come alive as we left. 

 

Returning to Croydon  taking the Teddington train from Waterloo to Clapham Junction and then a crowded standing all the way coastal train ending at Portsmouth and Southsea but with a first stop at East Croydon, where I made do with soup and a couple of hot cross buns, some dried figs and liquorice.

 

My morning was leisurely and I decided to investigate if the oriental buffet option close to the Travel Lodge was opening for Sunday lunchtime. The place looked closed closed although there had been a Sunday noon time opening. Possibly the lack of trade and weather was a factor. I decided to investigate if there was another in the main restaurant area in South Croydon.  There are some sixty establishments on the walk from the Travel Lodge down George Street, along the High passing the Grants complex and along the South End where there is a greater variety of food cultures including the Beirut. There was one other Oriental Buffet which was decidedly closed closed. The quality and price range was also significant from the sandwich bars and takeaways to those where a two course with drinks before and coffee for two would cost between forty and fifty. I passed the site of the Davis Theatre now apartments but could not remember the location of the Grand.  On the way back I considered the Wetherspoons at Grants but this was already packed out and decided that unless I fancied something else I would settle for the one in George Street. It was bitterly cold, was it cold!

 

At the restaurant I secured a table for four with a comfy bench seat against the wall in the far corner where I enjoyed a half roast chicken with a good range of vegetables and a pint of Carling Black Label for £7- £6.95 to be precise. I thawed out fortunately as I missed the next tram to Wimbledon and explored the Alders Arcade now given over to eateries but with wind howling down there were few customers for the seating although some hardy souls had come to purchase and take away. I was able to peak in at the now empty Alders store closed after 150 years for the second time and one suspects permanently.

 

 

The journey to Wimbledon involved going round the Reeves corner site where the insurance claim is still to be settled and the neighbouring shops are still bordered up. There was and remains something odd about what happened here and the protracted negotiations over a settlement.

 

As the on board announcer constantly reminded it is essential to swipe the Oyster card before getting on the tram as the route ends as part of the Wimbledon Underground and Railway station and if you just swipe on departure you are charged the full underground rate.  For the second occasion I forgot the location of the Odeon Cinema where one of the last showings of Les Miserables was taking place just before 3pm I was tempted to go for a coffee at the adjacent Morrisons supermarket but decided to book the ticket to ensure an aisle seat.

 

The young pretty assistant at the ticket desk then said “You come from Mansfield? I come from Mansfield but in a in a mid European perhaps Polish accent. I had obtained the Odeon cinema points card on one of my rare visits to the cinema there several years before and by coincidence had exchange some of my accumulated points for a free ticket on last visit to see Song for Marion on my birthday. The young woman added that she had never met anyone from Mansfield since coming to London. I checked and a queue was forming so I resisted asking her why she had come to London forgetting to look on her hand to see if there was a ring or rings. However she asked about the book I was carrying, The Cruel Sea, which so far I had not made time to read further since the train journey south. I first briefly explain how I cam from London, lived in the North East but obtained the card in Mansfield where I stayed several times a year and then something of what I knew about the Cruel Sea. She added that her best friend still lived in the town.

 

I went over to the Morrisons and although there was no café they had a coffee machine. I then purchased two packs of roast beef sandwiches at half price and one of prawn mayonnaise, a packet of crisps, a bounty bar and three Eccles cakes for the price of 2, cheap at £1. I returned to the cinema for a read of the local free paper and to keep warm before the film commenced. My ticket was an anywhere seat but there were also bookable premium seats indistinguishable from the rest as far as I could see.  I sat in the wrong seat and had to move with cinema almost full. Behind me there were two rows of seating which looked different from the rest and which I assume were the premium seats. There were only a couple of people in the end row so I risked sitting at the aisle more comfortable and with a better view. I therefore had opportunity to enjoy the film in almost perfect conditions. 

 

I enjoyed an Eccles cake back at the cinema and one in the evening with sandwiches. I also had the Bounty Bar at the cinema and the crisps in the evening, with the third Eccles cake and second lot of sandwiches for breakfast which was leisurely as I did not have to leave until around 11.30 for the 1.30 train to Newcastle. There was time for another hot shower to brace against the continuing sharp winds.  At the station I missed the 11.45 as I reached the platform so with 17 mins before the next there was time for a small Americano at £1.95 it was disappointingly not hot.

 

The cross rail train is no stop to London Bridge where I did not initially notice a woman enter to see her face but she was struggling with her luggage and getting it placed out of the passage way between seats at the allotted was space was already full including with case and bag, I clutched the Sleep Apnoea machine to me as I would for the rest of the journey. As she had grey and white hair, admittedly longer than usual and was small in build and stature I assumed she was old and frail so I went to her aid only to discover she was less than 25 and making a fashion or identity statement. I guess.             

 

My last encounter with a stranger was disturbing at the time and since. At King Cross I noticed the area waiting before the departure notice boards was unusually crowded with the explanation that passengers were held back on Trains to Scotland and to Sunderland until 5 minutes before scheduled leaving and the train to Leeds was being cancelled. The cause was some trackside problem requiring attention. I therefore made my way through the ticket barriers and position against a wall close to the main exit from the first five platforms and where two empty East Coast Trains were being leaned and prepared from fresh journeys. As I waited I noted a hunched figure of what appeared to be a well dressed woman with her head in her hands turned towards the barrier. She did not appear to move. She was possible a druggy asleep and out of the cold but given that she was well dressed in quality and warm what if my assessment was wrong. There were station personnel close by and other walking by but they were concentrating on tasks to hand. A train arrived on the end platform and several hundred passengers alighted some making for the exit barriers where she was sitting. No one went to enquire. I decided to approach a group of four station staff and one went over to investigate. My worst dears appeared justified as although he bent down towards her and was talking. She did not appear to move.  After what seemed several minutes and   communicating via  a radio a wheel chair arrived and the staff helped what appeared to be a semi conscious woman  on the chair and away. As an ambulance had not be called or the police my first assumption may have proved correct. The woman was at least in her thirties. I would never know her circumstances and if my intervention had been for the good or not. I have written to Network rail but do not anticipate a helpful reply.

 

Although the train was crowded with few vacant seats I was lucky in getting the window seat and having the aisle seat unoccupied except for between York and Darlington where I enjoyed a conversation about the weather and the economy which centred on South Shields. However before Doncaster we were held up for about three quarters of an hour because of trackside repairs. This entitles to fifty percent rebate on ticket paid but nothing was said to passengers or the extent of the delay. Reimbursement is available in the form of travel vouchers on line.

 

Back home the house was OK, the pipes were not frozen and the Cricket season ticket arrived. The snow had kept away but cold winds remained artic.