Streatham Hill Station

Rather atypically (for this blog I suspect) first up is neither a shop, fried chicken outlet nor a Sainsbury's local, but Streatham Hill Station.

Where is it?

Top of Streatham High Road, at the junction of the B221. Google map it here.

What is it?

It's a railway station, operated by Southern, whisking commuters and leisure travellers off to various destinations all over South London, snow, ice and industrial action permitting.


Where can I go?
To be honest, not that far. Platform 1 appears to be the most popular, with 4 trains an hour to Balham, Clapham and Victoria. Platform 2 will take you to Crystal Palace, and thence either to London Bridge (via New Cross Gate), or West Croydon and Sutton.

If you're very lucky, you'll catch the mysterious one train a week to London Bridge via Tulse Hill.

Can I see an interactive station plan?

Hell yes!

What are people saying about it?
Let's ask Twitter and find out...

Maybe take the hint and catch the 12:52 instead?

Now I'm actually a big Korfball fan, but I don't condone joining either Mitcham (the retweeter) or Bec (the tweetee). It's all about Supernova, Central London's only Korfball club!

Ah the reliable British railways.

lolz omg rofl may I recommend words with friends instead?

What did you buy there?
I renewed my weekly zones 1-3 travel card, for the sum of £32.20. The ticket office wasn't open, but the machine was fairly polite.

Where can I find more?

Southern: timetables (nos 28 and 30)

National Rail

Wikipedia

What's the verdict?
Pros

• Trains to Victoria and the Bridge
• Can use Oyster
• Recently refurbished with lifts and comfy, comfy sofas in the waiting lounge

Cons

• It's not the tube (hurry up Chukka)
• Only one ticket machine - don't count on topping up Monday morning and still making the 08:22

Overall: Thumbs up!

The reason for this blog's existence

Quoth the mighty Wikipedia:

It begins in the north at Streatham Hill railway station, being an end-on junction with Streatham Hill and continues south to Norbury where the A23 becomes London Road [...] .Passing through the centre of Streatham, [Streatham High Road] creates what is locally believed to be the longest high street in the whole of the United Kingdom, although it is also a contender to be the longest continuous High Street in Europe [...] However, it is a busy shopping area in the day, and a busy nightlife area in the evening.

Having lived pretty much right on the High Road for well over a year now, I figured it only fair to myself the internets and everyone else vaguely interested in Streatham that there existed a comprehensive* guide to everything available on the magnificent Streatham High Road. Enjoy!

* your definition of comprehensive may vary. I do have a job you know?

Rules of the Road

For the purposes of this blog, I'll be following the road south from Streatham Hill station down to the bottom corner of Streatham Common.

I appreciate the High Road technically extends down into Norbury, and even (shudder) Croydon; but there's only so many hours in the day and it's good to have an end in sight.

The plan is to visit and write something (hopefully interesting) about each shop, outlet, amenity, conveniences etc. along the high road. I'll be excluding from this any premises not on the ground floor (solicitors, dance studios, hostels etc.)

Finally, where possible, purchase goods and/or services from said outlet. Obviously the scope for that will be limited at certain places (i.e. estate agents; especially now there's a bloody Foxton's) but I shall do my best for the blog and the good of SW16.