Mobile tyre fitting
in Bell Green.

A fitter at your car
in Bell Green.

Nearly everything that goes wrong with a tyre around here was picked up on the A21. Bromley Road and Bromley Hill carry lorry traffic all day and shed the sort of metal that works its way into a tread without anyone noticing. The light comes on later, usually outside the house on one of the residential turnings off Baring Road or Burnt Ash Lane. That is the easiest job of the lot, because the car has already stopped somewhere sensible, so read the size off the sidewall over the phone and the right one travels with the van.

Drives, bays and car parks.

A drive is first choice and most addresses here have one, so the car never moves and the fitter needs the width of it plus kneeling room. Otherwise a residential turning off Baring Road or Chinbrook Road does the job, with the car tight to the kerb and well away from a bend. There is a yard or two on the Chiltonian Industrial Estate for vans, arranged with whoever runs the site. A supermarket bay is short stay and overlooked, which makes it a poor plan for a full fit.

Calls come in from the Downham streets, from the roads dropping towards Bellingham and Beckenham Hill, and from drivers who have left a car near Grove Park station for the day. Vans ring from the Chiltonian Industrial Estate, where there is room alongside a unit if whoever runs the site is content to have a fitter on the premises. What this corner lacks is a public car park anybody could be sent to, so a driveway or a quiet turning is the realistic answer, and most addresses here have one or the other. The A21 is no candidate at all: Bromley Road and Bromley Hill are through routes with nowhere safe to stand a jacked car. Both BR1 and SE6 fall inside the ULEZ, and a car raised on a jack is not being driven, so nothing falls due.