London Trolleybus crossing the A3 at Shannon Corner, New Malden

Click on picture [293] for an enlarged version

From: "Tony Kerr" <kerr_tony@hotmail.com>

Shannon Corner, New Malden where Burlington Road bisected the Kingston-by-pass. This was in the days when you could have traffic lights on the A3! Nowadays there maybe a flyover but dense traffic often means that your journey is not that much quicker.

The amazing thing about these photographs is the sparseness of the traffic. I can remember that between New Malden and Kingston the trolleybuses would belt along hindered only by the compulsory bus stops.

From: "Andy Kyriakides" <anconky@yahoo.com>

What a fantastic site! Being from the Raynes Park area, and just the right side of 30, this was a great insight for me, I know Croydon well and especially knew the route that trolleybus 601 took, I've walked it enough times. It's amazing to see the changes that have taken place in such a short space of time.

The quality of your pictures is so good; it felt like I was there, only the old cars giving it away. I'm not really a bus enthusiast but I am a nostalgia freak, having vague memories of Shannon Corner without the flyover and the Rialto cinema in Raynes Park [now an office block for Eve Construction or something in that field], I ended up staying on your pages for 4 hours last night, such was the quality of it.

Who would have thought when you took those photos over 40 years ago, the effect they would have on complete strangers?

Notes by David Bradley

In picture 293, the public house forecourt sports a Police Box which was a common piece of street furniture from the early thirties throughout Britain. They were phased out, from 1969, with the issue to foot constables of personal 'walkie talkies'. The few boxes that survive today, in their original locations, are in Glasgow although in the 1990's a handful of boxes were re-introduced back into London.

In the 21st century it seems absurd that Police HQ contact with the beat bobby was through the flashing light on top of these boxes with the police constable using a whistle to summon urgent assistance from a nearby colleague.

More information: Police Boxes.

Pictures at this location 40 years later

Click on picture [1005] for an enlarged version

Click on picture [H1] for an enlarged version

Picture 1005, is the same position viewed in November 1999. The flyover maybe a huge benefit for travellers on the A3, but at a high cost to the general amenity to Burlington Road below. The graffiti enhanced concrete gas bunker, with ancient spoils from construction works long past, hardly makes this a nicely landscaped area for overnight guests at the Duke of Cambridge Public House. However, in early 2000, the flyover was refurbished with the area beneath the flyover used for a storage area for construction materials. With these works now completed, it is possible that the area beneath the flyover is now in a better state.

The construction of the flyover that followed soon after the demise of the trolleybuses meant the loss of much of the forecourt of this public house and indeed a foreshortening of the building itself; what a war time bomb failed to achieve a couple of decades earlier was overshadowed by a road 'improvement' programme!

Ian Howard's web site provides the picture of the public house as seen in December 2001. So much of the character of this public house has been lost over the years, with patrons now suffering from the constant roar of traffic on the A3 trunk road instead of yesteryear's gentle swish of a passing trolleybus.

Notice also, how mobile communications have swept away telecommunications street furniture replaced with today's forest of road signs and safety barriers. If trolleybuses ever returned to this area, so much would be spoken of the 'unsightly' overhead wires, but is this really justified when the area has already been disfigured so much?