BP63 RYZ

Fox House refreshed

It is clearly the season for external painting and Fox House on Upper Ham Road, facing Ham Common, is joining in.

No windows

What was Ham Institute (briefly) and before that Royal Oak, on the corner of Sandy Lane and Ham Street, is being taken from us as a social place and is becoming a private house. It is being enlarged in the process and has gained a box extension at the back, taking most of the pub's patio garden. 

What I find surprising is that there are no windows one the two visible sides and so it is possible that the final result will be quite austere.

South Lodge signs

1A and 3A South Lodge are round that back and are accessed via Bishops Close. They are earier to find now thanks to this clear and prominent sign.
 

For comparison, 4A (on the side of the lodge) has an older sign. This is equally attractive though slightly less clear thanks to age and the size of the house number.

Cedarwood exposed

Cedarwood is one of the best houses in the area, certainly in the top six, but until now the only view of it has been through the large front gates. Now it is going though extensive changes and the best of these is the removal of a high leylandii hedge along The Shires which has exposed that side of the house for the first time.

The bay window was a handsome reward for the long wait.

Uncomfortable bench

I sat on this bench to prove that it is as uncomfortable as it looks.

The condition of the back rest suggests that it needed repairing but the new pieces of wood on the seat are too narrow and, as a result, the gaps between them are too wide. The corners are also new and square, adding to the discomfort.

 

This neighbouring bench is still in its original form and the planks that make up the seat are wider and have rounded corners. It is a shame that the existing successful design was not copied when the other bench was repaired.

Raised bed

It is always nice to be forced to stop walking for a moment to appreciate a garden, as I did with this one on the corner of Dukes Avenue and Lawrence Road. That fortuitous positioning means that you see this raised bed side-on as you walk down Dukes Avenue.

Over mown

While the grass verge on Riverside Drive by Wates Estate has mostly been left unmown, this section by Perryfield Way has been mercilessly mown very low and in straight lines like the main lawn in a country house when it should look wild like Ham Lands on the other side of the road.

Daisies

The strip of grass between Riverside Drive and Wates Estate has (mostly) been left unmown, as it should be in No Mow May, and looks all the better for it. I especially like the areas that rise slightly so that that you are looking at the daisies side-on rather than looking down at them.

Ham Common Woods (May 23)

This is a periodic reminder of how lovely it can be to walk though Ham Common Woods.

Car park closed

The car park on Ashburnham Road, next to the shops at the Ham Street end of the road, is closed for a week from 21 May for secret reasons. It may be just for something mundane like a spot of resurfacing but I hope it is for something more exciting like some more filming.

Flowers on Ham Common

Ham Common has been poorly managed for years and over mowing has been a part of that so it is good to see that large patches of flowers have been allowed to bloom this year. From a distance they look like little more than smudges on the grass.

A closer look reveals that the smudges are clumps of small flowers

An even closer look reveals that those flowers are Red Sorrel.

Matched bricks and tiles

Woodville Road remains a hotbed of extensions and it is good to see that this one has made such a good job of matching the bricks and the tiles. It is getting the basics right that help the extended house fit in with its neighbours. Obviously I approve of the solar panels too.

White signpost

There are a few white signposts in Ham but while most are almost hidden by the neighbouring vegetation this one, on the corner of Ham Street and Riverside Drive, delights in it.

Another blocked path

This path off Neville Road gets blocked very quickly so I was unable to determine where it leads, or, more accurately, used to lead.

Seriously blocked path

When a posted a map of all the walking I had done in Ham (while using the MapMyWalk app) I noticed a few embarasing gaps of roads that I has walked (several times) but not while recording my walk so I went out to fill those gaps, which I did. 

I also tried to walk all the paths off those roads but I was less successful in doing that as some were blocked. This. the most extreme example, is somewhere between Neville Road, Stretton Road and Russell Gardens.

Tidy path

The many paths that run through parts of Ham are a continual fasination for me. This one runs north-west off Mead Road and while it only goes along the back of a few houses somebody has deemed it important enough to be trimmed. That was enough to tempt me down it even though I knew that I would have to come back the same way.

Garage finally taking shape

I am used to house renovation projects taking a long time but I did not expect this garage in Royal Park Gate to take over a year to get this far.

A big welcome

One of the advantages of delivering Ham and Petersham Magazine is that I get up close to a few hundred properties every couple of months and that means that I can discover things like this charming sign on a house in Royal Park Gate.

Veranda

This will probably be my last mention of this new house on the junction of Sandy Lane and Clifford Road as the work seems to be complete and I think I am ending on something of a low note. Having previously suggested that the frontage needed a porch I am slightly disappointed by the veranda that arrived instead.

The veranda fails to give the house gravitas and the decorations on the pillars are out of keeping with the simplicity of the rest of the house.

Thomas Aquinas Community Cafe

I will let Thomas Aquinas Community Cafe describe themselves. "We provide a safe and friendly atmosphere were anyone is welcomed and would meet old and new friends. We offer refreshments for Pay As You Feel to reduce any hindering reasons for people to come. We support the idea of social justice and of reducing food waste and collect surplus foods from a local cafe and bakers and hoefully more grocery shops in the future." 

The cafe is open every Thursday morning and this is advertised by a sign next to the entrance and a larger A-board on Ham Common.

Inside there is an impressive range of cakes and pastries.

On my visit the place was pretty full and there were several people that I know there, but this blog is about places not people so there are no pictures of them.

Petersham Common sign

This sign for Petersham Common, on Petersham Road close to Rose of York, is a little out of my normal geographical range for this blog but I wanted to include it for a couple of reasons. 

Firstly it is a neat sign and secondly becuase some people, wrongly, think it is good place to add a horse trough planter and one may be coming soon. They are wrong for several reasons; the sign is in a place where few people notice it, the trough would detract from the sign as the one on Ham Parade does, and the vegetation around the sign will obscure the trough.

Extended cottage

The extension to The Cottage on Sudbrook Lane is looking good from this angle, which is about the only angle you can see it from until the hoardings come down.

The house was previously rendered and painted white so the new look is much like the old one. The windows are different and look better.

Refreshing Avenue Lodge

Avenue Lodge is in one of the most prominent locations in Ham, sitting on the north side of Ham Common next to the path to Ham House. The high wall on two sides that tries to hide it does a decent job and the house is fairly secretive but when works go on at this scale they are very obvious.

The house was sold last year and it appears that the new owner is refreshing the place.

 

The side view, by the entrance to Great South Avenue, shows more of the scope and extent of the work being done with the exterior wall being prepared for a fresh coat of paint.

Gate House Garden plaque

When I first posted a photo of the Gate House Garden plaque in 2007 it was difficult to read and I a pleased that it has been cleaned up.

Locksmead Close extension

The latest in a long live of extension projects is on the corner of Locksmead Close and Headway Close and, unusually, is a side extension rather than a rear one. It is too early to comment on the appearance, other than the reasonable but not entirely successful attempt to match bricks, though the the loss of the the sliver of green on Headway Close is a shame. 

Like all the other extensions, this is a small change but the cumulative effect is to diminish the character of the area that is nothing like as homogenous as it was just a few years ago.

Blue pipe

The Parkleys pumping station, just off Hag Gate Avenue, is an enclave of machinery in the woods and it attracts other mechanical items to it, like this blue pipe running from a tanker on the road to the pumping station.

Different roofs

Several properties in the standard stye social housing along and south of Ashburnham Road have had their roofs replaced in the last few years and their while new tiles are brighter than their neighbours they are in the same style and time will make their colours the same too. 

For reasons that I simply do not understand, the owner of this property has chosen to use grey slate. And they have compounded the error by doing the same with the porch.

The Parkleys Street Party

I am not remotely interested in going to a street party, or in celebrating the coronation in any way, but I appreciate that other people do and I particularly appreciate this poster.

Coronation flags

With only a few days to ago the approach to the coronation of King Charles III has been very muted and these flags in Gate House Garden are the most visible sign of the coming event.

Missing post box

The arrow claims to be pointing towards a post box; it doesn't (yet).

This is the frontage of the latest property in Burnell Avenue to join the expansion craze, number 2 I believe. 

The other projects along there have not resorted to hoardings like this so I have been able to check on progress every time that I walk past but this one is going to be more frustrating. I was looking for a letter box in the hope that it offered a glimpse inside but it looks as though I am not going to be able to do that either.