30 July - The monthly update - Crossrail and Lesnes Abbey
Trains were running through Abbey Wood this weekend (and Belvedere, Erith and
Slade Green) which would not be news except for the letter Network Rail hand
delivered to my home two weeks ago. (Extract below.)
It clearly says that their would be a ‘Possession’ (their jargon for taking over
the track) this weekend and throughout the next four weekends. 41 hours each.
Until a few days ago no written information was available at Abbey Wood station but
then a contradictory notice appeared (Photo 1). Apologies if you were led astray by
the previous blog on
this subject. I have no idea what Network Rail was playing at, probably they don’t either.
Over
the past week a start has been made on cladding the concrete station structure
with Brindle facing bricks. My initial impression is that I don’t much like it
and hope that some relief will be given, perhaps with bricks of a different
colour inset. The planned trees will no doubt help soften the image.
This morning the station was inaccessible to travellers coming from the north
and east because the road was flooded higher than the kerb stones and into residents’s gardens. Bexley
Council has neglected to attend to it for at least the past 30 years. One must
hope that the Gayton Road refurbishment due in January will fix it. I had to go
home the long way round.
The last month’s work around Abbey Wood station is now available
illustrated by
145 photos. The overhead electric wires are now in place.
Getting on for three years after work began there was yet another advance at
Lesnes Abbey Park this week. The Viewing Gallery is very nearly completed. Whoever decided
to start laying the coping stones from both ends and create a difficult shape to fill in
the middle probably regrets it now.
After very heavy rain Abbey Road can become muddy and a little stony as water rushes down from the hills. Once again Bexley Council has little interest in
drainage. It’s drain gullies are looking more than a little neglected.
From the Viewing Gallery. The City is favoured over gloomy Bexley.