News from the Comet

A couple of snippets derived from a recent number of the Epsom and Surrey Comet, our local freebie. 'Pay peanuts get monkeys', as they used to say.

Starting with Coombe, once a hamlet to the south east of Croydon, of which a general description is to be found at reference 1. The buildings of present interest being Coombe House, Coombe Wood House, Coombe Farm and Coombe Lodge.

Three of which are to be found in the snap above, from around 1870. All now listed buildings and all once part, seemingly, of the Coombe Estate.

Situation not much changed in 1910.

Nor, indeed, in 1940. And it remains a rather rural island, despite the proximity of Croydon. Coombe Wood House, now a fancy restaurant and wedding venue, is presumably one of the buildings in the woods just to the east of the Lodge, with the new name adding a bit of heritage. Coombe House has been through various roles and is now, I think, intended for a school for special needs. The sort of thing that used to be done by the council for a good deal less than the owners of this establishment will no doubt be charging. More public dosh for Bullingdon Boris and his friends; those people who make such a parade of how awful the public sector was - and still is.

Which brings me to Coombe Lodge, a new public house - to be found at reference 4 - which makes a change from all the stories of closure, doom and gloom. Wetherspoons is having another go, having closed two of its houses in Croydon in the past. Although they are hedging their bets by going for a franchise - which answers a question which has often crossed my mind - Wetherspoons do do franchise - a fact which I dare say I could have run down for myself had I bothered to take a look at their annual report - something which presumably exists as they have publicly listed shares.

For this franchise, see references 5 and 6.

An early report on the new house itself is to be found at reference 3. It will interesting to see if a boozers' operation will fly out-of-town, given that few people drink and drive these days. Just think of all the giant road houses there used to be along our main roads, pretty much now all gone. There is also the consideration that the franchisee looks to be new to the business. Maybe we will go and take a look for ourselves.

The second item in the Comet was about Surrey Street Market in Croydon, which I knew near sixty years ago as a very busy fruit and vegetable market, including lots of now near-vanished green vegetables, a market from which we bought, inter alia, the odd sack of potatoes. Last time I visited, maybe twenty years ago, it was very run down, doing very little in the way of old-style fruit and veg. Plenty of candles and and other exotica instead.

It seems that the current traders are cross about parking, in particular that there is no free parking for 30 minutes, in the way that there is in much of the borough. I thought the borough's response was a bit feeble - particularly since the amount of revenue involved must be pretty modest. Why on earth don't they give it a go and see if it breathes a bit of life back into the market?

One might think that there was more money for them in the foot fall than in half an hour's free parking.

PS 1: along the way, I stumbled across an odd clutch of buildings called Shirley Schools. Mostly built to the same pattern and well spread out, right in the snap above. A bit of poking around and I learn that:

'The Shirley Schools were on Wickham Road, and had been established in 1903 for the board, education and training of the Bermondsey Poor Law children and consisted of 39 detached houses for about 16 children each, along with the school, laundry and homes for the staff. The site was set in grounds of around 79 acres'.

Perhaps Bermondsey was exporting its distressed children to Croydon, rather as, at about the same time, Westminster was exporting its distressed adults to Epsom. I think that there is a connection to the church we did not visit at reference 2. 

A step on the way to the recently more-or-less-abolished system of schools run by local authorities.

PS 2: it so happened that we left a red grapefruit in the not-much-heated kitchen when we left for our recent holiday. I discovered today that it was perfectly eatable after six weeks, which surprised me. I would not have thought an orange would have lasted that long, not even a lemon. Some onions were OK too.

PS 3: back in November I was taking an interest in acorns, resulting in reference 7. Today, the people at Academia - a good source of free copies of academic papers - many authors being keener on getting read than getting paid - remembered about this and sent me reference 8. Not quite to the point, but not far off. And I notice once again the euphemism 'sacrifice' for the killing of experimental animals. To be fair, one has to use some word or other, and this one seems to be well established in the context.

PS 4: I close with a piece from today's FT about what not trying to appease Trump might involve. On this story, not such a big leap as at might first appear. Although it would work better if we had not left the EU. And if Norway had joined in. And what about the Swiss, another bunch who like having their cake and eating it?

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coombe,_Croydon.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/08/white-cube-part-two.html.

Reference 3: https://insidecroydon.com/2025/12/23/coombe-lodge-open-at-last-but-it-doesnt-seem-quite-finished/. The source of the opening snap.

Reference 4: https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pub-histories/coombe-lodge-croydon/.

Reference 5: https://papasgroup.co.uk/our-brands.

Reference 6: https://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Article/2025/09/08/jd-wetherspoon-signs-franchise-agreement-with-the-papas-group/. It looks as if Wetherspoons franchises are a small but growing part of the mix.

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/11/gemini-pigs-and-acorns.html.

Reference 8: Effect of whole acorns (Quercus pubescens) shred based diet on parotid gland in growing pigs in relation to tannins -M.G. Cappai, P. Wolf, V. Große Liesner, A. Kastner, G. Nieddu, W. Pinna, J. Kamphues - 2010.

Reference 9: Europe should embrace the idea of going it alone: The more the EU has to pay for ingratiation with Trump, the less convincing its strategic rationale for doing so - Martin Sandbu, Financial Times - 2026.