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September 2026 — plaza parties, plaques, plushies & participatory projects
Oct 1
8 min read
Originally shared in our September 2026 email newsletter. You can sign up to receive our monthly updates here.
Ladies, gentlemen, and all those besides,
This writer would like to start this September instalment of the TCB newsletter with a personal apology. I, not we. Me, not us. Truly unprecedented* stuff.
Last month, when I wrote about banking the surplus word count from a rather brief August, I wholeheartedly believed I was half-joking. September was looking busy, sure, but not that busy.
Reader, I was wrong.
In light of this, consider the following epic a monument to my own hubris first, and a surprisingly readable review of the goings-on at (presumably) your favourite RBK-based non-profit with a three-letter acronym second.
Like all great writers, I follow the time-tested method of working chronologically and doing my introductions first. This is to say I have no idea how many words await you below, but I do know it will warrant this especially apologetic preface.
We — as in, you and I — have to cover our usual annual events, several new and unusual ones, the launch of a major project in Tolworth we could do with your help with, and a few other happenings from as recent as yesterday.
I don't know about you, but I can't wait. Shall we get started?
* I shall be maintaining my thin veneer of pseudo-anonymity for everyone’s sake, for I am much less entertaining in-person. On that note, submissions for pen name suggestions are now open.
New project: say hello to Art for Tolworth
Commissioning collaborative creativity at Tolworth Hospital
But before we dive into this past month, we need to share something we’re rather excited for — we’re working on a brand new project in our old (and continued) stomping ground in the south of the borough.
St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust approached us with an idea to welcome the arrival of the new Tolworth Hospital: a creative programme where the art comes not from commissioning specific pieces, but is instead created through collaboration by those at the hospital already.
Workshops will be tied to locations across the new building. Each one of its social spaces, wards and courtyards, used by different people with different experiences, will become creative places with their own identity, reflecting those who pass through or use them every day.
If all of this sounds a bit vague, good! We can’t tell you exactly what will become of the project at this stage, because the process (and the people behind it) is what will shape what Art for Tolworth ends up becoming.
But we need your help to make sure this project lives up to its potential. Our first round of commissions are now open, and we’re looking for artists and generally creative people to get involved. Perhaps that’s you, or maybe you’ve had a name in your head since you started reading this section. Either way, interested parties should head over to our website to learn more about the project and apply.
There are three opportunities going at the moment, with varying scopes and corresponding funding. Applications for all three closing at 11:59pm on Sunday 1 November, so get your skates on and check them out sooner rather than later.
Celebrating Surbiton in style
Diaries from an unofficial official town square
Straight out of the gate, thank you so, so, so much to everyone who took part in any of this month’s Celebrate Surbiton gatherings outside the station: to the vendors who pitched up each and every week to man the stalls, to the musicians, choirs and storytellers who took to the stage, and to our team of staff and volunteers — spot the hi-viz above — doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes. The incredible response and turnouts we saw are down to all of you, your hard work and your good spirits. Same goes for the endless list of partners who pitched in to make this happen, including but not limited to:
Surbiton Town Centre Partnership
Friends of Surbiton Station
SWR and Network Rail
Kingston Council
If you weren’t able to make it down — you were missed!
If you weren’t able to make it down — you were missed!
It was quite incredible seeing the transformation each week: car park and taxi rank by day, plaza by night (or late afternoon). The forecourt was nearly unrecognisable. Within 30 seconds of a train arriving, a new wave of commuters would flood out the station, fanning in all different directions and diffusing into the crowd outside. Some would trickle through the tables and stalls like running water, while others slowed down mid-email, heads turned towards the sunset as they tried to figure out what an earth was going on.
In case that tell-don’t-show description wasn’t quite vivid enough, we have a few videos on hand to provide that full immersion in the festivities.
Apologies for any resulting FOMO from those, but despair not! This isn’t the last of Celebrate Surbiton. In fact, it will be back just over a month from now for an extra-special Christmas session. That’s Thursday 3 December for you sensible schedulers. For the rest of us with planning skills of mere mortals, we will remind you closer to the time, both here next month and across our socials.
Tolworth Teddy Bear Hunt & Picnic
Roundabouts and marmalade sandwiches on the Broadway
If you are reading this fairly soon after receiving it, you still have time! Until the end of this week, Sunday 4 October, the bears remain lying in wait in their hiding spots.
[Editor's note: this has been and gone now, dear reader, and happens to be an excellent excuse for a reminder to subscribe to our email newsletter here so you're always among the first to hear of these things.]
Simply download your own copy of the map here or grab a screenshot of it below, and you can set off on your own bear hunt at your leisure.
And while the picnic may have come and gone by now, there’s nothing stopping you from heading down to the roundabout with your search party for a surprisingly picturesque lunch spot. Alternatively, wander beyond the station to TCFF for an extra-concentrated dose of nature — just make sure you check for any uninvited guests of the bovine variety before cracking out the sandwiches…
In case you needed some picnic inspo…
Thomas Pooley, who’s he?
New plaque dedicated to the man responsible for the Surbiton of today unveiled in station ticket hall
Here’s one you may have missed: we’ve been part of ongoing efforts to recognise Thomas Pooley with a plaque dedicated to him and his efforts on display in Surbiton Station. But who is Thomas Pooley? Why the station? Why should I care?
Brevity is not this writer’s strong suit. But for you, dear reader, and for dear old Mr Pooley, they will try.
In a way, Thomas Pooley is Surbiton’s founding father. When wealthy landowners and owners of coach companies — Victorian horse-drawn gentry rather than National Express — managed to divert the new mainline south to the new Kingston-upon-Railway station in Surbiton, the train companies didn’t think much of the place. It was essentially a handful of houses scattered across the mostly pastoral landscape. The station was therefore not the large interchange it is today, but instead a mere halt on the way to bigger and better places on the line: somewhere to stock up on supplies and pick up or drop off the few passengers willing to transfer themselves on the last stretch to Kingston.
Thomas Pooley meanwhile saw Surbiton not as it was, but as what it could be. He sketched out what would arguably become the world’s first railway commuter town, using the same railways which overlooked Surbiton as a destination to drive his own brazen placemaking. Much of his layout for the town remains the same today, shaping present-day Surbiton as much as it did back in the 1840s.
However, you may well have never heard of the man. That’s because Thomas Pooley never finished building his vision. The Coutts bankers behind his line of credit watched the progress Pooley was making and began to realise the potential in his plans. There was money to be made here in Surbiton; money they could get a bigger cut of if they were running the show instead. It was 1842 when Pooley found himself unable to finance the project any further, and the bank swooped instead.
The plaque is on display in the station ticket hall, built on land donated by Pooley to ensure the station was positioned at the heart of his new railway town.
Thanks for that one, Pooley.
Back to basics: Seething Village Fete
Food, drink, music and more with the usual suspects
When does summer end? Meteorologically speaking, it ends on 31st August. Astronomical egg-heads say they’ve cracked it, settling on 23rd September on the Autumn Equinox. Our professors at Seething University say ‘sod that’, and head down to St Andrew’s Square for do some mead tasting at the Seething Village Fete.
The day of this year’s fete, Saturday 12th September, is almost equidistant between those two dates as it happens. An intentional compromise or not, it at least provides something of a scientific backing to the Seething Village Fete being one of the best send-offs for the season around.
From traders with their arts and crafts, a summer-ish selection of stalls to sip and snack at, and enough good music that this writer missed his train as to not miss the rest of the set. One particular highlight, besides the (homemade and dangerously smooth) mead tasting of course, was a human fruit machine: not only good fun for a good cause, but also a surprisingly good spectator sport. Highly recommended.
Dates for your diary
…and TCB’s TBCs worth looking out for.
Y̶o̶u̶ we made it!
Well done, dear reader. It wasn’t easy, but you have made it to the end. Remember Art for Tolworth? Good times. Simpler times. Back when our writer’s laptop hadn’t started burning their lap in protest.
But it’s newsletters like this one where the journey matters just as much as the destination. Thank you for helping in your own way to make September one of the most exciting journeys yet. We would tell you we miss it already — and we do — but there’s no time for that with even more to look forward to just over the horizon. We do hope you can come join in the fun.
Until next time,
— The Community Brain team
