From Balham To West Croydon
This series of pictures show the first part of a journey I took to get to Leatherhead station from Balham station.
Note.
- The Victoria end of the Brighton Main Line going South from Balham.
- The simple nature of some stations like West Norwood and Gipsy Hill.
- Sainsburys 5p orange bags are everywhere. All others are crap!
- Bromley Junction and how the route crosses the London Bridge end of the Brighton Main Line to the North of Norwood Junction station.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the route from Balham to Norwood Junction (Just off map!) via Streatham Hill, West Norwood, Gypsy Hill and Crystal Palace.
Balham To Norwood Junction
Note how the Brighton Main Line goes South from Balham via Streatham Common and Norbury.
There certainly seems to be a lot of space for more development of the railway and/or housing.
Sainsburys Put Their Money On Crossrail
With the exception of the Tesco Extra at Goodmayes, the large Waitrose at West Ealing and the large Sainsburys at Whitechapel, Crossrail stations aren’t generally very close to large superstores, although at least nine are near to big shopping streets or centres.
As all stations and trains will be step-free, I’m surprised that we aren’t seeing more large supermarkets built close to stations.
But according to this article in the South London Press, Sainsburys have now opened a superstore by the Crossrail terminus at Abbey Wood.
Opening large supermarkets may be out of fashion, but I don’t think that the Abbey Wood Sainsburys will be the last on the line.
The Anonymous Widower 