Mess two

The gang master in question on this occasion, two large holes on the edge of Epsom Common, is Balfour Beatty, with half a dozen or so of their vans being parked on Stamford Green Road during the day for the past few weeks. The smaller of the two holes is snapped left.

The two large holes are something to do with the mains electricity, possibly the large cable which connects Epsom to the substation at Malden Rushett. And whatever it is involves a lot of fifty gallon drums of something, some of them from France.

We sometimes wonder whether the substation counts as critical national infrastructure, but a chap once told me in TB that if we lost the whole substation, another one would kick in in a second or so. Your computer might notice, but you probably would not. It seems that there is a ring of the things all around London.

PS: my understanding had been that a fifty gallon drum was the unit called a barrel when there is talk of oil prices going up or down in the media. However, checking in wikipedia, the oil barrel seems to be a more modest 35 gallons. With our own Richard III getting a walk-on part.

Reference 1: the holes: 51.334331, -0.282867.

Reference 2: the substation: 51.343138,-0.3246451. Best seen in satellite view.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_(unit).