They’re back! In the first bit of good news in Surbiton in a year, the clock hands on the station tower – the symbol of the town – have returned! It’s a moment of cheer in a time of gloom… on a par with ravens returning to the Tower of London. Loosened and ultimately ripped

They’re back! In the first bit of good news in Surbiton in a year, the clock hands on the station tower – the symbol of the town – have returned!

It’s a moment of cheer in a time of gloom… on a par with ravens returning to the Tower of London.

Loosened and ultimately ripped from their deco moorings by successive storms at the start of 2020, the missing hands have come to represent the absence of normal life in the town since the pandemic started.

For 12 months, anyone wanting to know the time has had to figure it out for themselves as (right) two stumpy little remnants have been uselessly circling the famous example of magnificent classic 30s design.

Now, thanks to engineers from South Western Railway braving the chill at the weekend, they’ve been restored… and Surbitonians will no longer glance up at an empty clockface when they’re passing.

It’s still some way off, but here’s a potent sign that life is very gradually returning to how it once was.