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Secret Curmudgeon: Sad to hear about death of Richard Briers (From This Is Local London)
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Secret Curmudgeon: Sad to hear about death of Richard Briers
9:00am Sunday 24th February 2013 in News
Secret Curmudgeon: Sad to hear about death of Richard Briers
I was sad to hear of the death of actor Richard Briers recently.
Only last week I was listening to a radio show where he played – brilliantly, I should add – the comedian Tony Hancock, focusing on the troubled comic’s final hours.
And I was also a big fan of the kids’ cartoon he narrated – Roobarb – complete with that trippy, wobbly animation. Don’t make ’em like that any more, eh?
I must admit though, I was never a fan of The Good Life.
All that nice suburban humour wasn’t really my cup of tea, but it did introduce me – as a child growing up in the north of England – to this place called Surbiton, or rather a TV producer’s version of Surbiton.
I never thought years later I would be living there – although my life didn’t quite turn out to be on a par with Tom and Barbara Good’s.
I lived in Surbiton over several years and I would always laugh at the usual reaction I’d get when I told someone where I lived.
“So, where are you living?”
“Surbiton.”
“Surbiton. That’s a bit posh isn’t it?”
Yep, staring at my small bedsit wall covered in mould and my mushroom farm of a bathroom I’d say to myself “yep, I’m really living the good life here”.
I’ve never really understood the “posh” moniker – and places such as Twickenham also suffer from this. I think it’s just based on house prices and the fact Surbiton is at a comfortable distance from central London.
Apart from that it’s just like anywhere else isn’t it? A high street, a McDonalds, average pubs, a few parks and a train station.
Maybe the reason it gets the “posh” label is because it’s slightly less rubbish than everywhere else.
DB says...
10:13am Sun 24 Feb 13
If you go back to the 1950s, Surbiton was made up of a lot more big houses than it is now. These still exist on the Southborough Estate but most of the ones elsewhere in the town have either been demolished to make way for flats or converted into flats themselves. Because of this Surbiton is not really 'posh' anymore as it has a much more mixed population.
This is reflected in the High Street which really has become a bit down at heel over the years.
The boom in house prices in London over the last 15 years has started to make Surbiton 'posh' again in a different way. Young professionals who are priced out of places further into London are coming here and pushing up the prices of smaller houses and flats in the centre of town and there have been quite a few new restaurant/bar openings to support them.
Surbiton's riverside location and proximity to London will always make it a sought after area, but now it is more as an upmarket London suburb than it is as an executive commuter belt area like it was years ago.
I think it is difficult to apply the word 'posh' to whole areas anyway. Take Esher which is 'posh' in the proper sense of the word,most of it is lovely, but there are still poor areas and the High Street doesn't really scream 'posh' either.
The Good Life style of executive living in large detached homes still exists in Surbiton on the Southborough Estate, but it is no longer typical, and I doubt a similar show devised today would choose Surbiton as it's location.
The ironic thing is that the good earning executives still do live here, but often in smaller houses and flats because houses prices have moved up so much that the £80k salary that Tom would have earned in today's money in the Good Life wouldn't buy you much in Surbiton today!