Denham One

We thought the Denham Grove Hotel, on the other side of the Colne valley, would be a good jumping off point for our first visit to Harefield Hospital. A rather wet day as it turned out, rather wetter in Epsom than we are used to, being as it is in the rain shadow of the North Downs.

Neither public transport nor taxis seemed like very good options at all, so options boiled down to route. M25 and M40 or cross country via A3 eastbound and White City? Decided that motorway was the lesser evil and even with the rain and the lorries we did it in something over an hour, not being put off by the 'Road ahead closed' signs on Tilehouse Lane. We just pushed on.

The first real challenge was the small safe at the bottom of the cupboard in our room, low enough that one had to lie down to read the instructions - with our being old enough for getting up and down being a bit of a business. But a business which, after reading the instructions, turned out to be entirely straightforward, with the whole thing having been quite well thought out.

We thought then to investigate the substantial grounds, presumably what was left of the grounds of the original Tile House of reference 4, but rain put a stop to that.

So down to dinner in the bar-restaurant, where we found that Indian was an option. But before that, there was the matter of alcohol, on which it occurred to me that a 330cl bottle of beer at say 1.5 units was probably better for me than a 250cl glass of wine at 3.3 units. So I went for a bottle of Corona, which reminded me that I really quite liked the taste of beer. With foreign lager probably being better from that point of view than English lager, which I never much liked. Warm bitter man. To the point where I allowed myself two. And taken slowly, they did perfectly well.

To start, something which turned out to be very attractively presented. It also tasted rather good. Sadly, I forget what it was and it is not to be found at reference 1, so I shall have to look it up on the menu on the next occasion.

For main course, having fancied a biryani for a while, opted for a biryani - which came, at this establishment, with a flaky pastry topping, making it look very much like the sort of meat pie you get in pubs, the sort with a dollop of stew in a suitable bowl, topped off with a slice of deep frozen puff pasty and finished off in the microwave.

With a nicely presented garlic naan on the side. A substantial meal, even if it was something of a surprise.

Out in the morning before breakfast to find that road closed really meant road closed, having been taken out by HS2.

I learned afterwards, that it was not just the line of the new railway that I was seeing, but also the giant concrete yard, turning out the box girder segments for the flyover to the south. Much the same technique as was used on one of the sections of the Westway, more than fifty years ago now. Except that there, as I recall, moving the segments from the yard to their position on the flyover, as it stretched away from that yard, became too expensive in both time and money and it was decided to cast them more or less in-situ instead, then binding them together with steel ropes and so forth after they had hardened off.

Hotel at the bottom, in the middle. Harefield far right. What I think are fairly recent gravel pits in between, plus the River Colne, plus the Grand Union Canal. Mostly marsh in the distant past.

[Colne Valley Viaduct final deck segment installed September 2024]

Read all about it at references 5 and 6, from where the snap above is taken. You certainly get a flashy crane and a flashy website for your money!

Between the hotel and the closure, there were two or three fancy houses. New money, maybe even from trade. The last of them came complete with rubbishy music in the front garden - this being 07:30 in the morning or so - plus various stuff which looked as if it had been left over from a Halloween party.

Back for breakfast, which took the form of a quite decent buffet. Only let down by the quality of their oranges.

PS 1: other aspects of the visit having been previously noticed at references 2, 3 and 4.

[Events outside work hours attracted only 52% of UK workers © S Braun/E+/Getty Images]

PS 2: Tuesday morning: I am clearly right on-message with my remarks about alcohol above if the piece at reference 7 is anything to go by. To which I might add that I am getting the same message from various correspondents and that I myself was never very keen on boss-organised social events, alcohol or not.

PS 3: Bing turns up various photographic Brauns. This one may be Samantha of reference 8.

References

Reference 1: https://www.denhamgrove.com/.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/10/piano-91.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/10/wellingtonia-115.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/10/wellingtonia-114.html.

Reference 5: https://www.hs2.org.uk/.

Reference 6: https://www.hs2.org.uk/building-hs2/viaducts-and-bridges/colne-valley-viaduct/.

Reference 7: Under a quarter of UK workers want alcohol at social events, study finds: Increase in demand for games-based activities signals end of boozy Christmas party - Eri Sugiura, Financial Times - 2024.

Reference 8: https://www.instagram.com/sbraunphotos/.