It’s at least 20 minutes before opening time and a queue has already formed outside The Hope. Although an occasional red London bus zooms past, this isn’t a bustling high street. Here, at the Sutton/Surrey borders, is one of the sleepiest corners of the capital, where daffodils, scorched in the sun, droop lazily as spring turns to summer. I take a walk to avoid waiting around in the queue. On a nearby wall someone has scrawled: ‘No to ULEZ’ despite Carshalton’s traffic congestion en...
