A new look for Great Fish and Chips

Great Fish and Chips has only been on Ham Parade for a few years (since May 2015) so it was something of a surprise to see it go for a new image. Gone is the brash blue and in is a more subtle brown. It is definitely an improvement.

Richmond Chase progresses

The building of Richmond Chase continues southward.

On the east side some large Victorian style houses are being build behind a temporary fence. There are no Victorian houses in the area; this is Tudor not Canbury.

On the west side is a mix of town houses broken up by more Victorian Style houses. There are no other town houses in the area either.

At least for the moment these inappropriate houses are hidden behind a delightful forest of scaffolding.

New bench for Ham Parade Market

The plaque on this bench says that it celebrates the arrival of Ham Parade Market in October 2017 so it is a little odd that it faces away from the market and towards the traffic. Apparently the organisers wanted it to face the other way but Richmond Council insisted that it should be placed like this.

The bench gets used a lot, not just when the market is there on the first Saturday of each month. If you see a small group of people around it you can be fairly certain that they are playing Pokemon Go as there is a gym there.

Roof garden

The little block of flats on Croft Way has always intrigued me because they look like nothing else in the area. That difference is accentuated by the roof garden at the east end of the block that makes unexpected shapes against the sky.

Something unusual lands in Ham Parade

I have absolutely no idea what these things are but given the branding and the location, there used to be a telephone kiosk there, I guess that they are some sort of communications device. I could go and give it a closer look to work out what it does but I am not that interested and I've not seen anyone else go near it either so the feeling seems to be common.

Ormeley Lodge with scoffolding

Any excuse to take a picture of Ormeley Lodge is a good excuse and this excuse was the presence of a scaffolding tower that tempted me to zoom in on the beautiful bricks and the detail along the roofline.

Fixing things in Royal Park Gate

Royal Park Gate is no longer new, it is over twenty years old now, and it is starting to show some signs of ageing. This is the block nearest the river. I have no idea what all the scaffolding is for but it has been there for several weeks.

Remodelling Latchmere House

On most of my visits to Richmond Chase the only signs of work has been on building the new houses and now I can also watch the remodelling of Latchmere House.

This is the view of the front of the house viewed from somewhere near the show house. The approach to Latchmere House used to be quite impressive as it could be seen almost as soon as you turned into Latchmere Close but now there is a wall of housing in the way with only a narrow gap to see through.

The longest view to Latchmere House will be this one, looking up the new road through the centre of the development. It is considerably less attractive and I presume that it will remain so after all the works are finished as the property's listing dictates that little can be done to it.