To the beach

A further expedition to Battersea, following my swing along the river side of the the park, that is to say the north side. And proceedings started with my strolling into town to have my INR checked.

The frame house was on the move again after a pause of a few days, with a squad of electricians on-site. Several vans on-road.

The planning application on Clay Hill Green was on the move again, with the undated planning notice above. There have been a few of these notices and one could not be sure whether this was a new one, or, indeed, which existing buildings were involved. Or whether the heritage brick wall was in any danger. A little sketch map would have been helpful. As it is, if one want to follow the unfolding controversy, one has to log into the council website. Which I suppose, if you had a smarter phone than mine, you might do on the move. In any event, I am glad that I don't have to make these decisions: trying to balance the various interests, trying to come to some acceptable compromise and trying to get some more affordable housing actually built, would gobble up far too much of my valuable time.

While the travellers on Fair Green were not on the move and their rubbish was accumulating. 

The water works opposite looked to be complete, apart from filling the hole back up again. So plenty of queueing at the temporary lights.

Civic Trees back outside Wetherspoon's, trying to do something about the two sickly trees outside.

And so to the surgery, where I learned something of the difficulties of managing supplies of vaccines. Some of them required more cold storage than others. Some of them came in quite small batches which meant that managing appointments for jabs was more complicated than it might otherwise be. On the other hand, big batches meant more storage space. All matters which surgeries did not have to trouble themselves with in the olden days when the number of jabs was so much smaller.

Onto the station to wait for BH. There was a trolley and there was time to take it back, but I decided to sit outside in the sun instead. Take a little time out.

Some discussion at the bus stop about the proper bus for the park. One older lady was firm that we should catch the bus that she used to catch for such purposes.

Impressive building behind the bus stop, once the parcels office for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. Maybe goods in left, people centre and goods out right? While I used to use the house on the right occasionally, nipping out through the goods entrance at platform 15 for the purpose. A goods entrance which I believe has been long moribund and is probably now closed. All passengers to leave by approved exits. A house which was also a touch moribund in those days, moribund but comfortable. Just the ticket for a quiet pint.

Off the bus to head down Parkgate Road, home to some part of the Royal College of Art. Lots of new build, but some of the old build, opening straight onto the street, had been retained. We stopped for refreshment in the little café snapped above, one of those places which flips between refurbishments as you change your angle of view in Street View. One of those rare occasions when you see the cracks in the cunning 360° viewing offered there. Perhaps one of these days I will get around to looking into exactly how they do it, how they get from the footage produced by their camera vans to what you get on your computer.

I opted for a new take on the cinnamon buns from northern Europe, with cardamon (I think) replacing the cinnamon. Rather good. Which perhaps explains why they had a whole tray of them.

Church of Christ at the end of the street firmly shut, although the flower beds were still in good order. I think we got inside once, to be taken in hand by a very earnest young couple. An odd outfit from the Philippines, scarcely a proper Christian church at all as they do not believe in the Holy Trinity. See reference 2.

And so into the park, where the big old planes were looking very well in the morning sunlight. With the snap above giving the layout if not the atmosphere.

Rather to our surprise, the old steps down to the beach were still accessible. I did not notice any of the old, brown bones which one gets on the South Bank, a few miles downriver.

But there was a lot of chalk under the walkway built out over the beach. No idea how it got there, with my information (from the British Geological Survey) being that the chalk is maybe 50-100m below the London Clay, not like here at Epsom at all, where the chalk is quite close to the surface, sometimes to be seen in holes in the road.

The steps in question, with what look like alternating strips of stone and concrete. Decorative or structural?

Next stop was for an attractive bit of street art. Much better than what we usually get, although I wonder this morning how well it will age. Will it fade and flake after a few winters? Did they spend enough on their paint? Will they bother to water the trees, having planted them?

And so onto the Battersea Power Station redevelopment. With the snap above a view across the new gardens, looking towards Vauxhall. Vauxhall Tower being the leftmost tower, or at least I think so. A tower outside of which I used to play at counting the floors. See, for example, the discussion towards the end of reference 3.

A number of restaurants on offer, up and running. Mostly quiet, mostly rather dear by our standards. But we settled for Brindisi, which we know and like from Borough Market.

Started with some bread and with some large green olives, these last the product of Brindisa's very own olive groves. From large tins branded 'Perelló'. Both good. Moved onto some Iberico presa, last attempted last September, as noticed at reference 6. Presa good, but next time I will have blander accompaniments: boiled white rice, for example, would have worked better than patatas bravas. With something very like a cooked cheesecake for dessert.

Mostly taken with a fine pale white, a 2017 Rioja from Allende. Or perhaps an Allende from Rioja. See reference 5.

But there was also a very dark pudding wine, more brown than red. Probably from Pedro Ximenez. Not sure that I would have it again. BH on the Earl Grey by this point, but she got the fruit on top and a sample of the cake underneath.

Wound up with a spot of something that warms, delivered with full flummery.

By the time that we got out, we were surprised how far the tide had come up since we had been on the beach. Up to the wall and still flooding. Snap of little deck chairs taken from our vantage point up on a large deck chair.

There were also a small fleet of sailing boats out, a little to the east. Not the first time I have seen sailing boats on this stretch of the river, but the first time for a long time. One of them just visible, if you click to enlarge, more or less in the centre of this snap.

On my second visit, still more impressive than Tate Modern. I associated to Guildford Cathedral, another place with great expanses of textured brown brickwork.

Let's hope the phases still to come don't spoil the view.

BH was weakening on the tube front, so I had to be firm to get her through the flashy new booking hall and down to the platforms where we caught a rather less flashy train to Waterloo. And so home, to learn in casual conversation that the 'Little and Large', presently important to correspondents in Stoneleigh, was not a new children's programme at all, rather a retread from the 1980's or something.

The people who also made lawn mowers when I was young. Perhaps, given that we can no longer actually make this kind of thing, these buffers have now been made into a bit of listed heritage and the railway people have been clocked from tidying up the ends of the platforms.

A perforated souvenir from the beach.

PS: I subsequently found out that 'Little and Large' was a comedy from the 1980's, popular at the time but of which I had never actually heard of. While BH explains that the programme in question was actually called 'Big Cook, Little Cook, and Wikipedia tells me that it was a retread from around 15 years ago, not 35 years ago. See references 7 and 8. Odd that neither Bing nor Google could get past reference 7 on search keys involving big, little, children, kitchen and television. Perhaps the lady we were talking to on the train had got confused too.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/09/more-park.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iglesia_ni_Cristo.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/09/shopping-lists.html.

Reference 4: https://brindisa.com/. Complete, today, Saturday, with commemorative header.

Reference 5: http://www.finca-allende.com/en/allende-wines/allende-white-wine.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/09/iberico.html.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_and_Large.

Reference 8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Cook,_Little_Cook.