Stoneleigh (SNL)

Next time it's either New Barnet or Chislehurst or Heathrow.  Let us know if you'll join us.

Most of our Freedom to Lunch regulars couldn't make it today but I was honoured to be joined by none other than our bowls club captain, Dennis. 

Stoneleigh is an easy journey for us from Ladywell, with only one change from Waterloo East to Waterloo. It was very busy, as usual, with military poppy-sellers all over the station. But it's another two weeks to poppy day isn't it?

Waterloo used to be London's busiest terminus with around 100M passengers a year. That changed dramatically when the Elizabeth line opened. Pre-Covid Liverpool Street passenger numbers were around 65M but they surged to almost 100M with the Elizabeth Line, and Waterloo has dropped to 63M.

pub on left, station lift on right

Stoneleigh station has been modified since our last visit just a year ago. It now has lifts from its island platform which emerge, unusually, straight onto the street where the first thing you see is The Station pub.

High chairs & stools in main body of pub in the distance

This pub is quite large. The one negative aspect for me was the plethora of high tables and stools. Why do they do this? We found a sort of dining area with normal tables and an abundance of menus.

Half-eaten, we were hungry

Dennis chose the fish & chips, I went for the gammon steak which was a good size being over half an inch thick.

Dennis followed with jam roly poly pudding but my gammon was so large I had no room for more food so went to refresh my pint only to learn that a power problem had shut down the pumps and I had to revert to a bottle.

Keith

Chelsfield (CLD)

Freedom to Lunch took just three of us to Chelsfield, Kent, and a fine pub, named The Chelsfield, in an almost rural suburb out beyond Bromley.

The Chelsfield, Chelsfield

40 minutes from Lewisham, the pub was a few short steps from the station, and by 1pm we were tucking into lunch.

 

Fish and chips for Keith and myself, and a delicious looking venison pie for Anthony.

Washed down with a couple of pints and a round of after dinner whiskies, I'm sure we all slept well that night.

Lunch-size fish & Chips

 

Venison Pie

Main-size Fish & Chips

Apple crumble

 

Looking forward to our next outing.

Mark

Greenford (GFD) failed too.

  The never-ending road to Greenford

If you are in a hole, stop digging!

I caught an early train from Sydenham, and got off at Brockley to wait for Keith.

The week before when Keith couldn’t get a bus, I sat in the waiting room until he came.

But this time while I sat there, Keith, Antony and Mark sat on a bench on a different part of the platform.

When the train came in I noticed the three of them get on but I was not ready and missed joining them.

 

Quick telephone calls, I got the next train and the trio joined me at New Cross Gate.

We got off at Whitechapel, changed on to the Elizabeth Line and left the train at West Ealing.

Here, we had just missed a shuttle train to Greenford but we waited for the next.

However, the next announcement was that the next three shuttles had also been cancelled.

We decided to abandon Greenford and stay in West Ealing. (WEA)

There is always a pub just down the road and this time we found a good one,

 

Drayton Court Hotel, West Ealing

I think either Anthony or Mark had been there before as they led us straight to The Drayton Court.

It had a fairly extensive menu from which Mark ordered Sea-Bream fillet, Keith ordered haddock and chips and the rest of ordered steak pie and chips.

 

All were excellent. The pies retained their structure and were filled with meat.

Coming home Anthony and Keith went to Lewisham and Mark and I went to Sydenham.

 No problems on the way back!

The question is: will we ever make it all the way to Greenford?  And do we want to?  

Watch this space…

Paul