Trolley 632

Trolley 632 was captured by the South Street end of Wetherspoon's. With workmen to the left busily erecting a fascia proclaiming the arrival of the Personal Agent there, a move which does not, at this writing, appear to be reflected in the website at reference 3.

The last incarnation was a pop-up hardware store, possibly on a short lease, but a store which has clearly popped out. Last noticed forty trolleys past at reference 2. I think the place has had a number of other lives over the years, but, sad to say, I can't remember any of them.

But using the handy map provided, the Epsom planning system turns up the place fast enough, offering these two shots from 1911. Assembly Rooms above, now Wetherspoon's, pop-up store below.

Property No.100062366508, otherwise 157 High Street, KT19 8EW. With both shots being recognisable from Street View this afternoon. A lot of work has been done on both.

But what I have so far failed to recover is the painted advertisement where where we now have the scraggy white paintwork top left in the first snap. I am sure I have got a snap somewhere, but where?

Trolley returned, via the Grape Tree entrance to the Ashley Centre, to the rather full stack at the entrance to the M&S food hall. A food hall which was rather let down, as far as I was concerned, by the clutter of promotional stands in all the aisles, generally getting in the way of regular shopping. But then, maybe one does not go to an M&S food hall for that sort of shopping. 

PS 1: next time I am in Grape Tree I must check where their peanuts come from. Sainsbury's are getting theirs from Argentina of all places. Argentina gets just two mentions at reference 4, but I learn that China is a much bigger producer than the US, which surprised me. As did the picture of a peanut flower: no idea how big they are in real life. Google Image had no trouble finding this picture, adding a bit more information about peanuts along the way.

PS 2: BH and I between us have now recovered three shops at 157 High Street. Two flower shops and one kitchen shop, the sort that sold granite worktops rather than kitchen equipment.

PS 4: I try asking Gemini where China got it peanuts from and it says firstly from the Portuguese in the 17th century, secondly rather better ones, the ones grown now, from the US. A story confirmed by Wikipedia at reference 7. While the story at reference 8 is more complicated. Yes, the peanuts grown now are mostly of the US type, but peanuts have a very long history in China, going back to well before the adventures of Columbus & Co. And Gemini got quite excited about the whole business when I prompted him about wild peanuts at Neolithic sites.

PS 5: bearing in mind that tomorrow is St. Valentine's Day, the anniversary of his martyring, the usual small prize is offered to the first reader to correctly identify the source of the snap above - without using the toys - that is to say Google Image Search or anything like that. At least that was my first idea, but when I use Image Search, the story seems to be that this particular snap has been around for a while and there are lots of them about. The challenge is to identify the place where I got it from. Alternatively, perhaps I should accord them fake status.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/02/trolley-631.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/10/trolley-590.html.

Reference 3: https://thepersonalagent.co.uk/. One of those irritating websites which seems to keep jumping around the whole time.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut.

Reference 5: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/peanut-production-by-country. The source of the peanut table above.

Reference 6: WorldPopulationReview.com: 'is an independent for-profit organization committed to delivering up-to-date global population data and demographics. Our dedicated team of nine professionals spans the globe, each bringing unique expertise and perspectives to our work. Our diverse backgrounds and skills enable us to collate and analyze data with a global outlook, ensuring the accuracy and relevance of the information we provide. Our team's relentless dedication to our mission has made us a trusted resource used by over 10 million people each month'. I suppose I ought to check them out a bit.

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

Reference 8: https://site.caes.uga.edu/pins/files/2019/01/ChinaProduction.pdf. From the University of Georgia Peanut Information Network System.