Local news

First up a job advertisement for an accounts clerk in East Sheen in the Surrey & Epsom Comet, one of our local freebies. I was surprised at how little money was on offer for what look to me like a job for an experienced & qualified accounts clerk. Much nearer London than Epsom too. I suppose having been out of work for around twenty years now, I am a bit out of touch.

East Sheen was home to BH for half a dozen or so years before the family moved down to Exminster and when FIL was with us, I took him to see the house they had lived in there. It happened to be for sale and although we did not attempt to visit, the agent did give us a fancy brochure from which we learned that the house in Sheen had appreciated in price a good deal more since the early 1960s than the replacement house in Exminster. A reminder, if one needed one, that moving out of London is apt to be a one-way business. A visit which I don't appear to have noticed, but in the process of looking, I did turn up the snap above, from reference 1. I think that I had forgotten about this by the time we next came across the watery lady, much more recently. See references 1 and 2.

Then we have the sad case of attempts on what is claimed to be a thriving pub in South Wimbledon. Presumably the freeholder has decided that the money he would get from flats being built is much better than the money he is likely to be able to extract from his tenant, presumably on some kind of business lease.

I had thought that this might have been an establishment which I had visited occasionally in the days when I visited Tooting Broadway on a regular basis, but a quick look at gmaps suggests that this is not the case. Rather too far away. And I suppose that while the view east in Street View is not great, it would be a shame if the place went. On the other hand, the freeholder has rights too...

Then nearer home, the nimbies are at it again on the southern fringes of Epsom.

The Epsom planning portal turns it up fast enough: '25/00846/OUT: Outline application for up to 110 dwellings including affordable homes (all matters reserved except access from Langley Vale Road)'.

While OS offers the view above. Maybe all the swanky golfers at the RAC club to the north are leading the charge, cross that their views of download from their golf course might be disturbed. I don't know this bit of town at all well, but if you can't build houses on a field abutting an existing housing development, where on earth can you build them?

The fact that the farmer stands to make a fast buck - possibly a financial institution these days - might be irritating but is not really relevant.

I was confused in the margins by the OS extensions to North America - so searching for 'epsom' turned one up in the US, which I was not expecting. So far, the extension does not go any further. Gemini just waffles in response to my query, not turning up anything specific on this front. Maybe an email to the Survey?

Not necessary, as it turned out that I could find out all about it at reference 3, accessible from the help panel provided. With an Australian sample being included above, on which more background information is to be found at reference 5. 

While Gemini, to his credit, when told about reference 3, was able to read it and return a précis. Whether this new knowledge is added to his store in a permanent way is another matter.

Lastly, nearer home still, the old building which was once the 'White Horse', just outside Epsom Hospital which I have visited once or twice in the past and have noticed much more recently.

This time, it is not the heritage people at all - with this snap being taken from one of their publications, as at reference 4. What on earth is the owner supposed to do with it? It does not pay as a pub, Sainsbury's are not being allowed to have a go at a small shop and no doubt the heritage people would move into action if it was suggested that the building be demolished and the site used for flats. Perhaps to house some of the staff in the hospital adjacent? Who'd be a planner!

PS 1: from where I sit, Gemini's coverage is oddly patchy. Why had he not looked at the bit of the OS website which told of third party data? Maybe if I asked him, he would tell me something about what data out there makes the cut, and what does not. Noting in passing, that he seems to have access to some stuff, particularly academic stuff, which is paywalled. He cannot give you access, but he can sometimes give you a précis. Copyright issues?

PS 2: the search feature in the OS online offering is not very good. Maybe they ought to hire a consultant from Google to help them brush it up a bit.

References

Reference 1: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2009/04/learning-experiences.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/09/water-tablets.html. No credit for FIL here.

Reference 3: https://osmaps.com/third-party-data.

Reference 4: Planning applications - Epsom Civic Society Newsletter No.180 - 2025.

Reference 5: https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/national-location-information/topographic-maps-data. All looks quite flashy (and a lot of it looks to be free) compared with the Ordnance Survey offering. But I suppose, being a big place, they have not got anything quite like the OS Landranger maps.