Even by the standards of a British summer, Putney is having an extraordinary few days: from thunderstorm to heat red alert in under a day.
The thunderstorm on Monday night was heavy enough to overwhelm the drains in West Putney. At the Upper Richmond Road end of Gwendolen Avenue, water pooled right across the road and the pavement by the church; by yesterday morning a tide mark showed it had covered the whole road, and was only slowly draining away.
Manhole covers were displaced in at least three spots in the area: the top of Gwendolen Avenue, Dover House Road, and the West Hill subway, where watermarks high on the wall and mud underfoot suggested floodwater had pushed the cover out. Thames Water said it had received reports of dislodged covers in the area and spent much of yesterday morning locating and refitting them.
The scenes around the open covers were their own kind of strange. At the top of Gwendolen Avenue, someone had laid bin bags over a hole to warn people off. On Dover House Road, a bin had been place by the hole and a police car with officers inside sat beside it, watching it, as buses weaved around.
On Disraeli, part of the road caved in – it’s unclear because of the weather or the recent roadworks – resulting into another resident-led impromptu fix.
Scene across London
Across London it had been a violent night. The Met Office logged more than 29,000 lightning strikes in 24 hours, the fire brigade took around 400 calls, roads flooded, and at least two house fires were possibly started by lightning.
The storm left its mark underfoot, too. The mud it washed across Putney’s roads and pavements had still not dried out as the heat built. Wet mud on a baking hot day, the two extremes side by side.
Today, we face the exact opposite problem: a Red extreme heat warning, temperatures forecast at 36°C, and the Met Office warning of a real threat to people’s lives unless they take steps to keep cool. It is only the second red heat alert the country has ever issued, after July 2022, and London could touch 39°C on Thursday as June records fall.
The trains have been caught at both ends. The storm flooded part of the Elizabeth line at Heathrow yesterday and hit South Western Railway as far out as Hampton. In SW15, the District Line was suspended before 6am, with no service at Putney Bridge or East Putney all morning and the Circle line down too; it was still on severe delays into the evening. The two routes into London have buckled together before, though rarely in storm and heatwave at once.
Transport today
Now the heat brings its own problems. The red warning runs until Thursday evening, and TfL imposes temporary speed restrictions across the network when the rails get this hot. South Western Railway, the main line out of Putney, is running fewer, slower trains until Thursday and asking people to “only travel if essential” today and tomorrow. When the District Line failed yesterday, TfL’s listed alternative was that same railway.
The official answer to a broken Tube line, in other words, was a railway telling people to stay at home.
For anyone who has to move, the advice is simple. With the morning rush and the worst of the heat still to come, check before you travel and keep today’s and tomorrow’s journeys to the essential. Put the bins out early, too, as the council has shifted collections to 5am this week.
And on Monday, Wimbledon begins, when the District Line carries its heaviest crowds of the year. It has failed during the fortnight before.
Anyone who spots a cover still missing can report it to Thames Water, which says it will send engineers to make it safe.
