Sutton

Last week saw one of what have become very occasional visits to Sutton, that is to say visits which go beyond passing through on the train on the way to Balham or London Bridge. The occasion was having some business with NatWest and arriving at their branch in Epsom to find a notice on the door saying that it was closed for staffing reasons not further specified. Having no idea how much longer it was going to be closed, I thought I might as well pop along to Sutton.

Just missed a train at Epsom Station, but there was another in quarter of an hour or so. And while I was waiting, I was entertained by the advertisement snapped above for the very bank in question.

Out at Epsom to find the house where I had once spent an entertaining afternoon with some Sutton low-life firmly shut. Even then, I thought probably not a place for people in suits to visit after dark. These being the days when people with business still wore business suits: but would 'call me Tony' have been any less conspicuous than I was?

A short while later, I arrived at the bank's Sutton branch to be taken in charge by a helpful older lady who was indeed able to help, even if what she had to tell me was not terribly encouraging.

I could have returned to Epsom at that point, but having got there, I thought I ought to have a bit of a look around. Churches first.

The most conspicuous was Trinity of reference 1. Methodist. Possibly welcoming in theory, but very firmly shut. Then there was an older church, St Nicholas, one of three regular churches under the rather whizzy umbrella of reference 2. But not whizzy enough to actually be open. And not whizzy enough for the church there to look much like the one that I saw. Whatever the case, there were some handsome trees in the churchyard.

Next stop the library, rather larger than the one at Epsom, but somehow not as attractive. Perhaps the problem was that it was different.

Last stop Morrison's, to check up on the Polish sausage department. They had maybe 2m of shelf devoted to the stuff, mostly from the people already noticed at reference 3. That, plus something called Krakus Źywiecka, described by Sainsbury's as a medium coarse, cooked, smoked and dried pork sausage. We rather liked it. So all in all, there is life after kabanos. Rounded out the purchase with some saucisson sec, not from our usual Bastides, yet to be sampled.

Back to the station where they had a very small platform library which, surprisingly, contained quite a lot of musical material, which I declined. But I did get a children's science book about light and sound, updated in 2005 from the Macdonald Young Books edition of 1999, then a division of Wayland Publishers Ltd, then a member of the Hodder Headline family of companies. Printed in China. After which Hodder Headline was swallowed up by Hodder & Stoughton was swallowed up by Hachette. A French outfit if you please, for which see reference 4. At least, as it turned out, a useful complement to the more learned stuff that I have been consuming of late. 

PS: I noticed a day or so later that the Epsom branch of NatWest was open again.

References

Reference 1: https://www.trinitychurchsutton.org.uk/.

Reference 2: https://suttonparish.org/.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/09/new-sausage.html.

Reference 4: https://www.hachette.com/fr/accueil/.