On this circuit, a week or so ago now, for the first time I was struck by the oddity of this building in East Street, which I must have passed hundreds of times. I have even used the tyre people a few times.
Unusual trim to the the door and window, lower left.
Does the black thing below that window give some light to a cellar below?
What appears to be an extra white front door to the left of the black front door.
A shortage of chimneys for what is quite an old building. I don't think that the left hand part is a later addition.
A building with a history, described in 1973 at reference 2 - turned up by Bing on 'history 108 east street epsom') - as 'Victorian house of 1850s rather distinctive and pleasant'. I am reminded that a lot of the Epsom end of East Street was, in the event, redeveloped.
Across the road, the hollyhock was still pushing. Not clear whether these are new shoots for the new year or the old shoots still hanging in there. The hollyhocks on our estate tend to die down to ground level for the winter. This one most recently noticed at reference 3.
The upper part of the big building known to the planning people as Page House, known to me as Dagenham Motors (where we bought our C-Max from) and more recently as 'pets at home', is being converted to 27 flats of various sizes, starting at around 40sqm, spread over three floors. Pets at home looks to survive on the ground floor.
A sample of the flats. The story here seems to be 40sqm for the first person, then a further 20sqm for the next two and then a luxurious 20sqm for the one after that. Full story to be found at reference 4.
Interesting that with office blocks, conversion seems to be the way forward, whereas with old houses near us, the answer quite often seems to be demolish and start over.
PS 1: quite possibly also the day of the visit to the air line at Sainsbury's mentioned at reference 1, rather than the day of the bifanas claimed there. Shaky memory again.
PS 2: the start of East Street a long time ago. I did not have much success tying the buildings here to those in Street View this evening, although I think what was the Plough and Harrow, now 'Rock Salt' of reference 5, can be seen middle left. Long demolished cinema - the Epsom Electric Theatre - just visible far left.
References
Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/03/blue-crocus-day.html.
Reference 2: https://www.epsomewellhistory.org.uk/epsomseastend.
Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/11/leaves.html.
Reference 4: https://eplanning.epsom-ewell.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=SOSV9RGYG0K00.
Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/06/rock-salt.html.
Reference 6: https://www.postcardsthenandnow.com/. The new home for the postcard.
Group search key: 20260226.
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