What is going on with the nutter who has taken up residency outside Honor Oak station in the mornings with his guitar?

This guy is clearly not well and is often heard being abusive to people going into the station.

Can anything be done?

I believe you mean the Honor Oak Guitar man? He is the stuff of legend, has his own facebook fan group. Has been there for years, don't think there is any reason to feel threatened by him, despite the occasional verbal abuse.

I feel sorry for the team that have to work near him.

My wife was selling British Legion Poppies last year, and said that 40 minutes of his somewhat ropey Keith Richard's impression was enough to drive her to distraction.

No question though, he is one of HOP's characters.

Lets all chip in and buy him a microphone and amplifier!

Actually, Lets not and spare our ears!!!!!!!!

or some soap to wash his dirty mouth out with.

I always want to shout "ROCK AND ROLL" at him with a raised clenched fist when we drive by or stand in front of him waving a lit cigarette lighter but my wife won't let me.

And has he invited his friends? Train home to HOP last night there were two rather smelly guys on the train yelling "We're on the soul train!" and playing the harmonica badly.

They got off at HOP as well.

He is a legend.

The guitar guy has been around forever. His musicianship is undeniably terrible but I've never heard him being abusive. Is this a new development? He's always seemed harmless to me.

He disappeared from Honor Oak for a bit once. I felt strangely concerned when I spotted him in the West End looking lost and vulnerable. It was almost a relief to see him again, muttering and strumming away ineptly, back on his old turf where he was less likely to get beaten up or exploited.

Most local people's attitude to him seems to be one of wry eyebrow-raising amusement. Maybe that actually says something positive about the neighbourhood?

There but for the grace of god and all that stuff...

Could somebody speak to him and recommend that he goes on X-factor?

As somebody who rarely uses Honor Oak Park station I feel that me and the rest of the world are missing out on this musical legend. And if he could be abusive to Simon Cowell then the world would be a better place.

I agree completely with Spud. I feel better about HOP because our singer does seem quite safe around us. I heard years ago when I moved to HOP that he had a nervous breakdown when his lover left him and he has never recovered. That could be an urban myth so it is not to be relied on. In any event, it seems pretty clear that he has mental health issues and is more in need of protection than derision.

Anyone else thinks that the people manning the barriers in the evening at Honor Oak Park are doing a terrible job, for example standing in front of barriers and blocking access to one of the exit barriers when everyone is trying to go out in rush hour. We have also experienced less than an helpful attitute when we were ladden with luggage on our way to our holiday and were basically told that we could not use the wide barrier and had to try to squeeze everything through the normal barrier despite the guy standing there doing nothing. Last night was a joke as the guy tried to open one of the barriers because there was such a crowd but ended up closing it on someone and fubbling around for so long that everyone had to wait in the station and stairs to finally manage to get out.

I might be wrong about this, but when London Overground took over the running of the HOP station, all the existing Southern staff disappeared. But this week the Southern staff seem to be back, howbeit with a 'new' memeber of 'overground' staff too.

I suspect they went on a TfL customer service course.

I have also noticed that whoever is manning the station seems to go on a long break around 6pm when most people will be arriving home and hoping to renew their tickets for the following day.

Having just three gates at HOP is a bit of a rush hour nightmare. I've tried to go to London Bridge from HOP at between 5.30 and 7.30 a few times recently, when all three barriers were set to "exit the station". It makes sense to try and ease congestion, but is a bit of a bother when I'm actually trying to get in and all gates flash that lovely little red cross at me. I then had to find the guy manning the gates who had to manually switch one of them 'round to entering the station. At which point the train had happily taken off towards London Bridge without me. Will be interesting to see how that'll pan out once the ELL is up and running, and congestion is likely to be worse.

Tinkerbell, last night the wide exit seemed to be set to operate bi-directionally - green arrow on both sides.

Was this during the rush hour? Went again a few days ago, all red then. But if they've changed it now, then great!

It was at about 17:30 last night.