Wednesday 23rd October
Another half-term break and another trip up to the Caravan & Motorhome Club site at Crystal Palace, South London. I’ve said on my many visits here that it may be the last time, well now it is. The axe is falling with Bromley council not renewing the lease. They want the land to fund regeneration of the nearby park, so likely pricey houses and flats then. Such a shame – Trev and I started our caravanning journey there, visiting most years and since he died I’ve been coming up twice a year – only covid paused that. I have many happy memories of our and my visits.
The journey up was ok, aside from a few rain showers which at least helped to clean the windscreen. Hetty has developed another fault and this time it’s the windscreen washers. I’ve never really warmed to this car in the two years that I’ve had it, mostly thanks to the niggles. I even looked at changing it but the value has plummeted and I simply couldn’t stomach the financial hit. She does tow very well though and I was able to stick the cruise control on for the early part of the journey to give my deteriorating right knee a rest.
Progress slowed as per once inside the M25 but it could have been a lot worse and I pulled into the site at 1:15pm.
Sadly John and Maria have moved on but the greeting was no less friendly and very apologetic about the limited facilities currently available. I’d already been forewarned with an email but, since covid have, like many, made much more use of the on board facilities. The good news was they hoped to have it fixed by the weekend.
The motor move threw a strop on pitching so I hitched Patsy up again and got her thereabouts with the car, employing some industrial language in the process. Not perfect but it would do. I parked Hetty alongside, pleased that I wouldn’t be driving for over a week, hoping that the rest would do my knee good. Yeah, right.
After a beer and a baguette I coaxed Henry from the car and set about giving Patsy a good vacuuming – I have a cordless vacuum too which is great for quick spruce up but Henry’s superior sucking power makes for a much more satisfying experience, as it were.
The site was looking lovely in the late afternoon sun so I had a stroll around committing a few images to digital memory, then found myself heading out of the site and along the parade to the triangle for a pre-dinner pint in Westow House under the guise of needing some veg. It was good to see the funfair setting up in the corner of the park and I’d definitely be heading there at the weekend, notching up another Waltzer.
Thursday 24th October
Up at silly o’clock – I’ve had plenty of practice – to head back to Brighton. Let me explain – I usually wait until after our INSET day before heading up to London – but with this being my last visit I wanted to make the most of it – and indeed it proved worthwhile, giving Patsy a good clean, inside at least.
So there I was just before 6am, boarding a bus down the hill to Sydenham station – which was busier than pretty much every other time there. I watched as two Thameslink trains trundled through on the fast lines to Brighton – I would be heading in the opposite direction, at least initially.
At 6:25 the Southern service to London Bridge arrived and I boarded, managing to a secure a seat for the short journey north, enjoying the relatively comfortable seat and adequate legroom which Southern generally offers over its Thameslink stablemate – they are both owned by GTR which also includes the Gatwick Express brand.
Already in need of a caffeine top up and aware that there would be no opportunity to have breakfast later, I joined the long queue for Greggs. It may have been long but moved swiftly, the plentiful staff clearly adept at quickly fulfilling orders to early morning commuters. Soon I was in possession of a steaming black coffee and a bacon roll which I carried to the platform.
The Thameslink service to Brighton, having commenced at either Cambridge or Bedford was already busy and pretty much standing room only. This was not a particularly great disappointment given that Thameslink seats have all the padding and comfort of an ironing board. However, with my right leg starting to bleat in protest I was happy to sit down as the train thinned out at Gatwick.
The sun rose as we headed south across the Downs and the early morning mist was giving away, it looked like a nice day to come.
There was a short wait for bus outside Brighton station and I was soon deposited near the college, reluctantly donning my lanyard before heading through the gate and to the theatre and to what would no doubt be a er, fun packed morning.
I won’t dwell on it, but half way through I vowed never again to do another, despite it being mandatory. Relieved, as were my colleagues in Transport when the end was finally nigh, I said my goodbyes and headed for the bus stop, waiting barely a minute for the number 7 to appear which would take me back to the station.
There was only a short wait for a train and I parked my bum on one of the ironing boards for the journey back to London.
After an attempt at a nap I hit the TFL app to see what alternatives there were for getting back to site. I left my ironing board at East Croydon and caught a tram, heading on the north-east branch to Beckenham, picking up a bus back to Crystal Palace.
The bus approached the Triangle via the southern side of the park, stopping just short of the crossroads, on the other side of which was the Westow House pub. How convenient! The sun was out and I enjoyed a nice pint in the sun watching the world go past. Very pleasant indeed, the holiday could begin properly.
Public transport: 122 to Sydneham, Southern to LBD, TL to Brighton, TL to ECR, Tram to Beckenham, 358 to CP
Friday 25th October
A mercifully later start and by 11am I was tarted up and on the 363, changing at Elephant & Castle to the 1, to Euston where I was to meet Sandra who would be joining me for the weekend.
Sandra takes up the narrative:
It is Friday morning and you find me signing in for passenger assistance at Chester Railway station at 7:00 AM in the morning. I have to say that Transport for Wales has made good improvements with this service over the last few months.
It is always with a bit of trepidation that I make any journey on the train in the present day. Services are notoriously unreliable, particularly Avanti on the West Coast mainline. However fortunes were with me and I had been able to book a direct train into London Euston. The passenger assistance at London Euston is exemplary and should be used as a role model for other stations. The buggy collected me from the train and in no time at all I had made my rendezvous with Richard at the assistance office on the concourse.
When arranging this weekend we had discussed the possibility of visiting Camden and its market. This is somewhere I had heard of but had not visited and after depositing my pre booked luggage in the left luggage shop we made our way to the bus and I was to visit a part of London that was completely new to me. We soon arrived at Camden and I was somewhat surprised when getting off the bus that there were no traditional style market stalls. Richard explained that there were markets like that but they were mainly in old warehouse style buildings adjoining the Regency canal. We did look in the entrance of several of them but, as it was half term, they were very busy and crowded. Had we been in the market for purchasing something maybe we would have persevered but we decided to give it a miss this time.
There are certainly an eclectic range of shops and cafes as you walk up the main High Street. One shop caught our eyes selling all manner of black clothing etc. I particularly liked a lovely skirt with handkerchief hem and the most delicate lace overskirt. The downsize, well there were two of them, the underskirt was velvet - ouch - and I am certainly not a size 0, beloved of the catwalk!
I then spied a lovely clean bench outside the shop where we sat and ate the packed lunch that Richard had kindly prepared earlier. We then continued to walk up towards the canal and the railway and viewed the canal and its locks. It was interesting to note how many pubs and apartments have sprung up alongside the canal that we could see from the bridge. We took a little time to imagine what it would have been like in its heyday; firstly a lot less clean than it is today, the aromas of tanneries, hops and transportation of all manner of livestock and equipment would have made it very noisy and I would imagine quite pungent.
We walked on and paid a visit to the famous architect designed Alexandra & Ainsworth estate. I have seen it as a screen set for a number of shows on TV over the years. My first reaction was how dark and dull on the whole the place was. In a way it was kind of creepy but obviously fully occupied and I dare say, very expensive properties nowadays.
We pushed on and hopped on the next available bus going in our direction. It was interesting to pass Abbey Road studios, there were plenty of people milling around and more than the odd piece of graffiti adorned the walls.
We had to make a bus change and we saw a pub that looked nice and inviting as we had a little time to wait and it had started to rain.
The Globe was busy but we soon saw off a lone laptop tapper occupying a table of four. The beer was good but at over twelve quid for a pint and a cuppa I won’t be rushing back.
Sandra:
We then made our way back to Euston station to collect my luggage and to do battle with the Victoria line to Brixton. Anyone who has used this line will remember the very uncomfortable heat on this line as it does not have air conditioning. We emerged from Brixton underground station and luckily as we were just in advance of the rush hour, a #3 bus was at the stop and we were able to hop on. We then had a very pleasurable sit down and chat catching up whilst the bus meandered its way up to Crystal Palace parade.
We duly arrive back at Patsy and sorted ourselves out. Richard had sourced a lovely Italian restaurant called Lorenzo in the Crystal Palace triangle for dinner that evening. We were not to be disappointed and as an independent restaurant of some 30 plus years and pretty full whilst we were there is testimony to the standard of cuisine. When we eventually emerged into the night it was dry again and feeling somewhat full we elected to take a slow stroll back to the caravan. At this time of the year it can be a little difficult to walk on parts of the pavement particularly nearer the site due to excessive leaf fall making the pavement very sleepy indeed. However sadly this will no longer be an issue as the site is due to close in a matter of weeks for good. I will sorely miss the site it's a lovely area, convenient with plenty of facilities and I have enjoyed each and every one of my visits.
We had pencilled in a visit to the fair prior – I didn’t think riding a Waltzer on a full belly would be a good idea – but it was still mizzling so we decided to give it a miss, the forecast for Saturday being much better and we had a free afternoon.
Public transport: 363 to E&C, 1 to EUS, 1 to Camden, 39 to Abbey Rd, 189 to Baker St, 205 to Euston, VIC to Brixton, 3 to CP.
And that’s it for Part 1, however lots more to come in Part 2!