South Riding 14: Horley to West Wickham

I could gloss the next part of the journey, pass over it as if it didn’t happen, and nobody would be any the wiser. I could have written about the cycling part of this leg and it would have been perfectly truthful. But that wouldn’t be right. I have to be truthful by implication as well as in fact.

With all the messing around in the morning and general leg weariness, I was behind schedule and felt unable to push to catch-up. The A23, most of which I had done yesterday, seemed an awfully dull schlep and I really could not summon the enthusiasm. So I cut it out and caught the train to Croydon. I ought to have felt guilty but I didn’t. The16 mile rest was vital to reaching my overnight stop in good time and good shape. In any case it was a chance to revisit an often used rail line and I enjoyed watching the familiar places roll by

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:East_Croydon_Station.jpg 

When I used East Croydon Station it was a worn-out throwback. It had last been rebuilt in 1895 and looked as if it hadn’t changed since then, except to get gradually shabbier. It was not as if it had been built with any care in the first place. It was the standard Southern region pavilion on a bridge over the tracks, with covered walkways sloping down to the platforms. For a busy station and important stop, it was a bit of a disgrace and it took no imagination to picturing it as it would have been in the 30s, say,full of people, thronging along the smoke-hazed walkways, all wearing hats or caps, getting ready to hand in their stubby cardboard tickets.

It was modernised in 1992 but I have only used it a few times since then. For this sentimental journey my mind went back to the old days.

Directly outside the station there is a major change that I knew about but had not seen: a tramway. This is very exciting, I like trams. I  am too young to remember when Croydon had trams before but I have a picture in my mind of the road junction near West Croydon Station as a confusion of tracks, where they must have gone. I can however remember trolley buses with their overhead wires. They were fun with their big arms reaching up to touch the overhead power lines and the streets almost tied together by these wires; Far more theatrical than normal buses. I can understand why they went and why it would be difficult to bring them back – but with emissions becoming the critical issue, who knows? 

The journey between East Croydon and West Wickham was smooth and pleasant - another example of a transport improvement. There was a cycle path marked clearly on the road, with a good surface and not only was it wide enough, it was also a red route so there were no parked cars in the way. All cycle-ways in London should be this easy.

I arrived in good shape and happy with my journey, even its cheaty section. During it I had moved from trolley buses in the 50s to arrive at where I lived between 1963 and 68. Not a huge gap in years but a completely different era.