A proper path

The remade path that goes past St Richard's Church, to cut off the corner of Ashburnham Road, looks very good. 

As a fairly regular user of this path, I appreciate the wide entrance to it from this side and also the resurfaced pavement next to it.

Ladder and skip

It is hard to miss this building project as the house sits prominently on the corner of Dukes and Dysart Avenues and also because the work is at roof level so it can be seen from some distance.

Two statues

Two very white and active statues of Venus and Mercury stand either side of the central entrance to The Wilderness behind Ham House.

28mph

A speed display sign is often deployed alongside Ham Common and while it is noticeable that some cars do slow down towards the official 20mph limit it is equally noticeable that many do not and it is not unusual to see a speeding car being overtaken.

I have posted this picture not because the speed, 28mph, is unusually high but because it was the first occasion that I could take such a picture with no cars in it and I was not going to wait for a bigger number, 28mph is enough to make the point.

The Manor House in Petersham

The Manor House sits on a prominent position on Tommy Steele Corner (I still call it that) and the only way to appreciate it properly is to cross the busy road to stand by the main entrance to Montrose House.

It looks as though the work being gone is just minor maintenance but I will cross the road against once it is finished to see the end result.

Beaufort Court aftermath

Having taken a picture of Beaufort Court while works of some sort were in progress I went back to see what had changed and, frankly, I cannot see anything different. 

In particular, the render on the balconies still looks weathered when this seemed to be what they were working on. They certainly could have done something while the scaffolding was in place.

Working on Beaufort Court

I take work-in-progress pictures like this because I want to record thigns that change and the materials of the works are a change, even if temporary, and they also hold the promise of future change once the works are completed.

Whatever is being done to Beaufort Court looks substantial with scaffolding towers on all of the blocks that I could see,

Four chairs

These four delightful chairs are next to the entrance to Ham House, where you can sit and admire the four identical chairs on the other side.

Backs and fronts

This garden square in Fellbrook deserves to look better than it does. The problem is that the road bends at a right angle with the houses on the left facing on to the road and so their rear gardens back on to the square.

The mix of rear boundaries is something of a mess whereas the front gardens of the house on the right lead neatly on to the square, as they should.

Different views of Clarendon SEND School

Clarendon SEND School is set well back from Meadlands Drive which makes it hard to get a good view of it from there so I went into The Copse to take a look from the side. The details of the building are hidden but the size and scale can be judged.

The new building will clearly impact on The Copse because of the height and the extent of that impact will depend on the finish of the building and the cover provided by the trees.

There is not much to see from behind the school, other than construction clutter, and the final view matters less as it can only be seen from the access road to Ham Polo and the German School.

Little birds

Every walk along Sudbrook Lane is brightened by this decorated post which changes several times a year. The current display is of little birds, perhaps a portent of spring.

Blue doors

My wanders through Ham take me to some less visited places, such as behind the Meadowview blocks of flats in Ashburnham Road. Here I was impressed by the straight lines and the hue of the bricks so was compelled to take this picture.

But, before I posted it I checked whether I had done so before and was disappointed that I had indeed done so, back in 2021.

Then I noticed that the garage doors once brown were now blue so I had a reason to post the picture after all.

Extending The Cottage

I get planning alerts from Richmond Council for applications near me so I was aware that there were proposals for The Cottage on Ham Common and was not surprised to see evidence of work stating there.

New path and more

Now saved from planned demolition, 14 Cedar Heights is being visibly improved. The rather formal path to the front door is perhaps the most obvious change and it is easy to mis that where there are now brown weatherboards there used to be white render.

Two signs

My near obsession with the variety of signs in Ham has somehow overlooked these two in Parkleys, while neither is remarkable the difference between them is interesting and in the competition between the two the upper one wins because of the better colour and use of lowercase.

Clear out

The clutter in the front garden all but obscures the house behind which is clearly having serious work done to it.

Faded sign

There are a few signs like this in Wates Estate which have been rendered meaningless by their faded illegibility. I am not sure if they still apply but there is no enforcement and no attempt has ever been made to dissuade me on my many wanderings through the area

Blocked path

A month ago I was cheering the newish footpath along Church Road, running past the Richmond Chase development, only to find it blocked today by a fallen tree. I have reported it (using FixMyStreet) so I hope that it will be cleared before too long.

Different waters

The turbulent waters racing over the weir are in stark contrast to the almost still waters on the approach to the lock.

First look at Little Orchard

Most of the scaffolding has gone from Little Orchard (on the south-east corner of Sudbrook Lane and Bute Avenue) and as the high wall hides most of the house any judgement must be made on the roof alone, and I think it is a little bland.

I like the chimney with its rendered bands but the rest looks uniform and predictable.

The front of the house may look more interesting. I will have to wait until they have finished worked there and for a view through the gate to find out.

Large trim for Ham Common Woods

One of the main things that I try to do here is record changes and this is one change that was a big surprise to me. 

I walked along Ham Gate Avenue late one afternoon when everything looked normal (I even moved a Lime bike to the edge of the path) and less that 24 hours later I walked down there again and it the Woods had been trimmed back massively from the path on the north side.

This photo shows the depth of the trim, far more that the one meter or so that I am used to (this is what it looked like in 2014), and you can just about tell that the trimming goes all the way along Ham Gate Avenue.

I presume that some vegetation will grow back quite quickly but I suspect that it will take some years to look as good as it did in 2023.

Looking tired

This house in Martingales Close is looking decidedly tired, particularly the wonky porch, and the blacked out windows suggest that it is empty so it may be waiting from someone to bring it back into life. If that happens then I hope that it is done with more sympathy for the character of the road than some of the other "improvements" done there.

Park Lane Stables

It is almost a year since I commented on the seemingly slow progress on the building works at the stables by Ham Polo so it is good to see them finished and even better to see the final results. It is a good modern building that sits comfortably in its setting.

The name confuses me though; this used to be Manor Farm Stables then Park Lane Stables RDA moved in after losing their Teddington base (in Park Lane funnily enough) but I thought they had moved back there so I am not sure what is going on, except that the banner says Park Lane Stables and I am happy to go with that.

Harris Beauty Clinic

After two years, the unit that was once a Chinese takeaway called Chef for You has finally found a new tenant and is to become Harri's Beauty Clinic.

Path improvement

A desire path was created years ago past St Richard's Church to cut off the corner of Ashburnham Road and while some work was done to formalise this busy route it was remained uneven and prone to water-logging. The rebuilding work going on now looks more substantial so I hope that the desire path becomes a proper one.

Cedar Heights / Petersham Gate

The two bus stops by Petersham Gate have been renamed to "Cedar Heights / Petersham Gate", for reasons that escape me.

Clearly Petersham Gate is much more of a landmark than Cedar Heights (I suspect that many people living in Ham do not know where Cedar Height is) so I see no point in including the street name as well, much less the need to put it first and in larger text.

Convoluted tree

Until recently, the lovely curved branches of this tree in Martingales Close were hidden by its rather messy and shapeless foliage. Of course that foliage will grow back but I hope that the shape and the character of the tree remains visible for many years.

Bishops Close is wet

The first section of Bishops Close, nearest the Common, is decidedly wet with water rising up between the paving stones in several places.

The extent of the problem can be judged by the amount of water flowing towards the nearest gutter and the high-tide line on the pavement.

I thought that I would be a good citizen and report it to Thames Water via their website, only to find that four people had beaten me to it.

I am sure that Thames Water will be there very soon to fix it!

Avenue Lodge

Avenue Lodge has had quite a bit done to it in the last couple of years so it was good to find it in top form and making the most of the clear bright winter sun.

Red steels

I like to use the path that zig-zags though the Locksmeade development from Riverside Drive to Fisherman Close as there are usually interesting things to see and on this occasion that included a set of red steels.

The temporary ramp suggests that it is the house straight ahead that is being worked on though there is no other sign at the front of a project that requires this amount of steel.

Polo project

It is unclear what all the machinery at Ham Polo was doing but I just like to see big machines in operation. It also raises the anticipation that things may look different once they have finished.

Grey garden

I have shown the refurbishment of 43 Lammas Road a couple of times while it was in progress and this is the finished result and while the house looks okay the "garden" is a relentless and boring grey.