Horton Chapel

It being rather wet Thursday past, I opted for a raincoated and umbrella'd walk to Horton Chapel instead of my now usual cycle ride. Horton Chapel being last noticed at the end of the post at reference 1, something over a year ago. So the return advertised then has actually taken place!

Looking smart and nearly finished from the shelter of the bus stop across the road. Just down to tidying up the outside? I wonder now what they plan to do about fence. The place is a little out of the way and perhaps does need something, if only to mark the boundary and discourage bored youth. But something both smarter and more substantial than what is there now. And what about access? How many gates will there be? Will they be locked at quiet times? All matters which the residents' committee in charge of the place are no doubt giving long and tedious thought to. Tedious in the sense that you need special skills to sit through meetings of that sort, without either falling asleep or getting cross.

Looking even smarter from a bit further along. Note digger right, hard at work on the on the grounds. Note bell tower at the right hand end of the building. Will they have some state of the art control contraption so that they can ring it for state occasions? Calling members of the committee to meetings?

But the black fence looks rather permanent in this shot. A bit expensive looking to be temporary, pending a decent, low wall.

The projected interior looks rather impressive, even running to what looks like a bar. Will the place function as a neighbourhood bar for all the houses and flats round about?

Will they be able to match this impressive shot from the building's days as an asylum chapel? See reference 3.

I wish them well. I hope their success will, retroactively at least, justify denying our Muslim community the use of the place as a mosque.

Onto Horton Retail where I thought about buying cakes from the branch of Coughlans there, but decided against on the grounds that I had a fair way to walk home in the rain. Holding cakes down and umbrella up might have proved tiresome.

Past the skip in Manor Green Road which I have been raiding for bricks from the Dorking Brick Company, to discover that the skip's owner had taken to very careful placement of bricks at both ends, almost as if he were making a raised pie out of bricks. Loose rubbish inside. I did not think it appropriate to disturb them.

Past a new skip in our own road, which contained some nearly new stock bricks, probably from the London Brick Company. Given that the skip was in a drive rather than on the road, I thought it proper to ask permission. Sadly no-one was about, and by the time that I returned they had been covered with brown clay, very much the same sort of stuff that our garden is made of.

PS: cycling in cape and rain is OK but not great. I remember that in the days when I started cycling from Wood Green to Aldwych, the original idea was that I would ride on the tube when it rained, but being young and hardy, soon dumped that in favour of cycling every day. And for some reason, I now remember cycling up Camden High Street when it was all of dark, raining and rush-hour. Not something I would volunteer for any more, even though I still have a cape. Perhaps the very same one, given all the mold marks inside.

Don't remember the view up the High Street at all. I dare say the shops have mostly changed and maybe the pavements have got wider, leaving less room for all the lanes of traffic that I do remember.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/09/horton-clockwise.html.

Reference 2: https://thehortonepsom.org/.

Reference 3: http://www.coughlansbakery.co.uk/. As far as I can remember, the bread in the shop on the Horton Retail site does not look much the bread on this web site.

Reference 4: https://www.forterra.co.uk/london-brick. The swallowing up of the London Brick Company.

Reference 5: https://www.forterraplc.co.uk/about-us/heritage. The more recent history.