The Conservative Party only have four seats left in South London. I have already visited three of them, and the other one is in Bexley, currently the only borough in South London I have never visited.
You might be surprised to know that this blogpost isn't political whatsoever, it just so happens that discussing all the Labour or Lib Dem constituencies that I've visited would take up loads of blogposts and I've probably already written about them before.
Croydon South
Croydon South has been Tory since it was established in 1974, and it's been Tory in its previous forms too since 1965. In general, aside from a brief flirt with Labour in 1945 and 1966, this area has been blue since 1874, and this year's election saw Chris Philp have a 2,000 vote majority.
I visited South Croydon a while ago, not thinking much of it aside from wanting to go somewhere one day, and took some photos around the train station. I could have gone on a trip towards Gatwick or Caterham, but I ended up deciding to look around the area. One of the churches, St Peter's, has a spire that stands out in all the photos, and I think they look all the better for it, whilst I also noticed the signs indicating nearby bus stops haven't been removed since the 455 was deleted. I could have photographed the Swan and Sugar Loaf, that is the inn which has since become a Tesco Express and is sort of a local landmark in the area, but I thought against it foolishly.
I took a short walk heading south, the main road bordered by one of many private schools operated by the Whitgift Foundation, Whitgift School. You can see their rugby pitches where the border isn't obscured, in fact lots of it is obscured, and soon I turned right and entered what is now Labour territory, abandoning my mini-trip as the rain came in.
A few weeks later, I headed off to Purley and wasn't all too impressed. I'm not sure what I was expecting to find, but the area isn't exactly the most intriguing at first glance what with its ordinary high street and large road junctions. I did find a book I wanted in a charity shop, though, so that was nice. There was this artwork on the walls surrounding a public footpath which I found intriguing enough to photograph, and eventually I opted to go home.
The large Lloyd Park is a rather pleasant park, though, what with its views of Croydon from a distance at one end and the more hidden forested parts nearer to Coombe Wood. I enjoyed my visit there a while ago and I'm hoping to return eventually for a more fleshed out blogpost.
Bromley and Biggin Hill
Biggin Hill will get a much better blogpost in the future, you can count on that.
This constituency is rather green and rural at times, and is also very new, having come about from Bromley and Orpington constituencies being split up. Biggin Hill has been blue since 1970, Bromley has been blue since 1859 when the Radicals lost the West Kent constituency.
I visited Norman Park at the end of last year with the intent of blogging about it, and only now will I discuss it. It's certainly quite big and open, the entrance next to Bromley Common by some horses, and the River Ravensbourne flows under the park, only exposed through an earthy culvert that's easy to miss. There was an odd bus stop which piqued my interest, as I don't think any bus routes ever served the park like this, and I also noticed the toilets had been closed for nearly a decade or so. Opposite lies Bromley FC's stadium, Hayes Lane. Having hosted the likes of Eastleigh and Ebbsfleet United for most of their history, Bromley are finally playing in League Two this season following a promotion that culminated in a nervy shootout win against Solihull Moors. I'll hopefully be able to watch them play as well, it would make for a nice change of pace compared to Millwall.
The stadium has been around since 1938 and can allow 5,000 in at a time. Wikipedia says the pitch is 3G, so they'll have to get it replaced if they haven't already. And if you trust Wikipedia, Bromley's even been host to international football with the CONIFA World Cup, as teams like Tibet, Abkhazia and Eastern Székely of all places came to visit Bromley. The semi-finals were played in Carshalton Athletic's stadium, which I've blogged about before.
I also visited the nearby Sundridge, a small village north of the town centre and which is home to a railway halt. Sundridge Park station is the median stop on the brief railway line from Bromley North to Grove Park and is the least popular of the two, what with it mostly serving a golf course and park I struggled to access. I didn't make it further than the tennis club before deciding to turn back anyways. David Bowie used to live here when he was part of The Konrads, way before he ended up releasing some truly innovative albums. Sundridge may be no Suffragette City, but it's a nice leafy place either way.
Biggin Hill is the true odd one out - no rail links, anti-ULEZ messages on road signs, effectively a large village that I was surprised to learn was in London. It's the site of an airport that housed the RAF and played a key role in the Battle of Britain during World War 2. It's not a place that has massive night life, but it holds up well either way. The first time I visited Biggin Hill by accident, I wanted to see Tatsfield instead, but the bus wasn't running as far so I was left here instead. That was also when I was more interested in taking bus stop photos - I wasn't one for visiting parks yet - and I've not been to Biggin Hill yet to visit it thoroughly. Hence the promise of a future post on it.
Orpington
I've only ever been to Orpington out of curiosity (and for shopping purposes), and it's not exactly the most attractive town centre that you'll find. There are the countless R routes, some of them leaving London and going on massive loops round villages or racing down country lanes - I went on the R9 back when I was more interested in buses, and got to explore an estate. There's St Mary Cray to the north, home to Cray Wanderers, one of the oldest football clubs in the world - except they play in Sidcup, and once at Hayes Lane. I visited the shopping park there and spotted the River Cray flowing mostly hidden; I also visited on the day of my GCSE results for no reason other than that I like travelling around London.
Old Bexley and Sidcup
Maybe one day I'll have written about it.
The moral of the story
There is none - I don't know why you were expecting any.
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