Sandy Lane Playground

I have wanted to post a picture of Sandy Lane Playground for some time (years!) but taking pictures with children in is got a great idea and so I had to wait until the covid-19 partial-lockdown to find it both empty and in daylight.

In the distance, houses in Meadlands Drive look curiously over the empty park.

Grey windows in Dysart Avenue

There is a lot of work going on at this house in Dysart Avenue and so far it looks promising with some lovely grey windows at the front of the house.

All Sold or For Sale?

The strange and worrying story of the Royal Oak / Ham Institute continues with boards proclaiming that it is both All Sold and For Sale.

I would like it to become a pub again one day, however I suspect that is unlikely despite the good work that the Ham Institute did on the interior. 

Paving Ham Street

First a moan about the technology; I have been using Blogger for this blog for many years, well before Google bought it, and in that time there have been a few updates with little change, until now. The option to edit the raw html has either gone or been well hidden so I do not have as much control of the formatting as I would like. I just hope that it still works well enough and that, for example, the text remains below the picture and not along side it.

Ham Street should be familiar to every reader of this blog as it runs through the heart of Ham and defines much of its character. Recently it has had a minor face-lift with the replacement of the paving in the area around the general stores. As with the other side of the road, the new paving looks nice but there is just not enough of it as the pavements should be wider.

Then and now: Ashburnham Road shops

This is another photo taken by Kenneth Kirchen in 1967. Obviously this is the parade of shops in the south-west corner of Ashburnham Road. I do not know if it has a name but it should to avoid confusion with the parade at the north-east end of the road.

It is not possible to recreate the original photograph today as Albany Court is in the way, filling the field of grass above, so I have tried to take one from a similar angle at least.

The parade has not changed much in general appearance though all of the shops are different and the trees have grown to hide some of them.

Changing windows

This is yet another view of the fairly major project underway at the end of Thamesgate Close. This time it is of the side of the house, which directly overlooks Ham Lands, and I have chosen ot because of the changes to the windows.

The slightly yellower bricks around the four windows (and the lack of glass) show that they are all new and, almost obscured by the tree, you can also see that a previous window has been removed.

Balconies

I have tagged this as Ashburnham Road as this is where these flats, Meadowview, are located but if you want to see these balconies you have to go around the back to Riverside Drive or Rushmead.

The lower of the two balconies is crying out for attention and deserves it. I also like the one above which is why I have included it, rather than cropping the picture. Both balconies show what can be done in a small space and they both reward a good look as you pass.

Wild flowers on Ham Village Green

I keep coming back to the wild flower gardens on Ham Village Green because I like them so much, and it is easy to see why. This is the patch of flowers on east side looking towards Ham Street.

There is another patch of wild flowers in the middle of the Green next to the recently added curved bench.