Todi & Boys, Davis Road, Chessington Business Park
By Rob Robb, CDRA executive committee member
In 2023 Peter Shakeshaft (also a CDRA executive committee member) and I distributed flyers to Cox Lane Business Park about CDRA’s petition to extend the TFL 281 bus route over the Tolworth Roundabout and serve the Cox Lane Business Park as it used to do in the 1970s.
Trolleybus replacement route 281 had rush hour journeys extended beyond Towlorth Broadway to the Chessington Industrial Estate. On 6th September 1978, RM321 (FW) arrives at its Davies Road terminus there. This route would convert to Metrobus operation in August 1981.
Albi Todi, who is a director of Todi & Boys, kindly sent a letter to the TFL Director of Buses, Glyn Barton, asking for the extension of the 281 to cover the Cox Lane Business Park. Following this, we visited Todi & Boys on 26th March 2024 and received a very welcome reception.
Todi & Boys manufacture bespoke timber windows and doors. The company was established in 2013 by director and owner Todi Kurti. Todi has over 30 years’ experience in handcrafting Georgian sash windows and doors.
We started our visit in the design office where the bespoke designs are produced, followed by the wood store where they stock sustainable softwood from Sweden which has gone through the Accoya process which is a special non-toxic treatment applied to wood – usually pine. The process alters the cellular structure of the wood to give it superior strength and water resistance, plus exceptional thermal insulation. Pine is fast-growing so it’s a sustainable product too. It’s a rival to oak and can last for up to 60 years with minimum maintenance.
We next visited the production shop. Here, once the latest computerised precision machine cuts out the most intricate of design details, the windows are constructed by hand to a very high quality by the Todi & Boys team.
We next visited their glazing shop, where Todi & Boys manufacture their own double-glazed units from scratch. On a vertical bed, the large sheets of 4mm toughened glass are set up. Before they are cut to size, they are checked for imperfections. Two sheets of glass are glued together with a space that contains a desiccant, and the internal airspace is filled with either argon gas or krypton.
The glazing units are then inserted into the painted units, the windows masked up ready for painting in any colour the customer requires.
Finally, we were shown outside where a building extension is being built to house the new computerised paint shop and drying facility.
A big thank you to Todi and his team for taking the time to show us around.
Peter Shakeshaft and Rob Robb are Executive Committee Members of Chessington District Residents’ Association.
Read about the bus route 281 proposed extension in Tolworth to serve Signal Park.