There's partying in the streets!

Retail insanity continues apace in Worcester Park with the opening of "Mr Ink" last Friday. They originally put up the frontage weeks and weeks ago but were hiding it, probably for fear of spoiling the 'surprise'. Here it is pictured in all its yellow glory next to Superfish:

Without wishing to sound like a complete miseryguts I can't help thinking that the residents of WP are going to be less than excited by this so I'll give it my usual 6 months. On a plus side they were giving away helium balloons and Brinkster Minor obtained one which, when it exploded in the warm spring sunlight several minutes later, nearly healed several bystanders of their constipation. Great stuff.

Pride of place in the league of retail insanity, however, goes to the curiously named Worcester Supermarket.

It's been open a few weeks now and I've yet to see a real customer in there though the other week I did spot a woman empty-handedly perusing the shelves who I suspect was the significant other of one of the staff, and last week there was a young man at the counter who I think was trying to look like a customer engaged in conversation when in fact he was another member of staff. With Costcutter long established, Ryan Gate cornering the market on quirky and Sainsbury's providing the heavyweight muscle at the top of the hill I can't imagine why they think dropping this monstrosity into a row of shops where it's notoriously difficult to park is going to make money. If they last 6 months it'll seem like a lifetime.

For the amateur detective amongst you I have a puzzle. This image from the Francis Frith website purports to be an aerial photo of Worcester Park from 1923, but for the life of me I can't work out which bit:



My initial thought was that the road in the middle would be Central Road because of the buses in picture but that doesn't seem to be right (flat and straight) and there's no sign of the railway so it can't be near the station. Unless their definition of Worcester Park has strayed further afield than I'd expect I'm starting to think it could be mistaken identity on their part?

I thought this picture of Central Road from 1950 was excellent though, like being on another planet:

You can contrast it with the current state of affairs at the Worcester Park Gallery.