The OPZ - Redhill

In the second instalment of the OPZ series, I've visited one of the farthest places rather early. Only six South London bus routes get beyond the M25, and three of them go to Bluewater, so of the routes that don't end by a capitalist beacon, there's only the 246, 405, and 465 left. From those, the 405 goes to Redhill, which is where I went.

Up until 2001, the 405 was a regional bus service which even ran further onwards into Crawley, but TfL later took the reins of the route and cut it back to Redhill - still quite far from its most northerly terminus in Croydon, yet still a reduction of nearly 15km. Now with that context out of the way, here are some fun facts about Redhill!

1. It hasn't always been called Redhill.

No, really. Redhill is rather modern for Surrey standards, in fact it only came about due to the construction of a road in the early 19th century - before, it was, as Visit Surrey puts it, a "waterlogged wasteland". This wasteland later became a settlement, thanks to the arrival of the railways in the 1840s, centred around Warwick Road, so they named this blossoming town...Warwick Town. 

In fact, Redhill may have got its name from the postal service. It had a department by Red Hill Common, and the service marked letters with "Red Hill" - eventually, the postal service moved to Warwick Town, and Redhill became a more popular name for the town. The Warwick name lives on, though - Warwick Road does still exist, and a shopping centre by the bus station is called Warwick Quadrant. 

2. The station has a platform 0.

Redhill station has been here since 1841, but there used to be two of them, each one opened by different operators - come 1844, though, they'd merged into one. The naming history of the stations is rather confusing - the station only took its name of Redhill in 1929 - but it's managed to survive since.

 

What isn't so historical, however, is Redhill's Platform 0. It only arrived in 2018, and sees services to Reading via Guildford on Great Western Railway. It's also one of only ten stations in the UK with a platform 0; visiting the stations also means I've managed to visit three stations with a platform 0 (the others being King's Cross and Leeds) but experiencing the platform itself isn't advertised as a major attraction in Redhill.

3. Redhill is doubly OPZ.

Not only is Redhill the boundary for Oyster users by bus, it's also the boundary for Oyster users by train. I initially got to Redhill via train to Reigate, but Reigate itself isn't actually in the Oyster boundary - Redhill, however, is, so to get on to Reigate, I'd have had to touch out by Oyster, and then buy a paper ticket to complete the journey. 

The reason, as always, is Gatwick Airport - Redhill's only in the Oyster zone because of an extension of the zone south to Gatwick, and Redhill happens to be along the route. It's one of five stations in zone D, in fact - Gatwick is in its own zone. 

• The town centre 

Redhill is an ordinary commuter town, possibly checkpointed by a large Sainsbury's in its centre, which best describes how non-descript it ultimately is. The main nexus of Redhill is situated on a traffic island surrounded by main roads, with a high street cutting through it. The shops, including those you'll find in the Belfry shopping centre, aren't dissimilar from other towns. This, of course, is to be expected - commuter towns in Surrey aren't particularly renowned for their commercial potential. 

 

Leisure-wise, the Redhill Memorial Park lies just north of the gyratory, and has a playground and cafe within its area. The park itself is in remembrance of soldiers who fought in World War 1, and upon further reading appears to be the site of a VC commemoration stone. The stone is in honour of Lieutenant Hallowes, who was born in Redhill and died in service in Belgium. 

 

Otherwise, I couldn't find much in Redhill - Frenches Ponds is an algae-engulfed lake, and most ducks preferred to rest on the grassy plain instead. The headquarters of SES Water, the privatised water supply operator to 675,000 people, can be found here, and the fact I consider this blog-worthy concerns me somewhat. 

     

Without even realising it, I also ended up leaving Redhill as I passed the headquarters. An exit as undramatic as the town.

Luckily, I managed to find something interesting on my visit, though the caveat is I had to walk towards the neighbouring Reigate. Walking on the A25 (ticked off my list!) with slight rainfall along the way, I passed the bizarrely-named Donyngs Leisure Centre.

Aside: It seems like most people don't care why Donyngs is called as it is - one vowel in a name is peculiar, to say the least - and I'm not surprised; people have lives to live. However, for anyone intrigued by the last sentence, I did find this podcast episode where it seems that Donyngs comes from a house of the same name that formerly stood on the site.

Walking further through the side roads of Redhill, following the directions of my map app, I managed to find a windmill, situated just off Wray Common. Built in 1824, it acted as a corn mill, and became a Grade II* listed structure in 1951l; by 1967, it was converted into residential accommodation. In the 2000s, it underwent restoration attempts, and the windmill certainly looks charming as it is. Seeing it, I felt like I had been justified in venturing to Redhill after all, even if it is quite far out from the centre.

A lengthy trek back to Gatton Point followed, supposedly to the place where the road that started Redhill begins. East Surrey College can be found here, along with the large Gatton Park, which I didn't visit - perhaps I'll come back for a future blogpost. I managed to walk just in time to catch a 405 back to London, passing over the M25, and the county border, whilst the rain was truly hammering down. I'm not sure I'll come back to Redhill proper unless necessary, but it's fine as it is.