Pavement repairs

Too often when pavements are dug up for utility works they are repaired with no attempt to match the existing surface, leading to street scars which blight areas like Ham Parade, so it was good to see that the pavement along Riverside Drive is being resurfaced appropriately. 

Snowdrops

This distinctive tree in a corner of the The Plats at Ham House is made even better by a thick cluster of snowdrops beneath it.

Gate House clean-up

The former Gate House on Upper Ham Road, at the top end of Ham Parade, as been empty for a year and this is the first sign of activity that I have seen there since then. 

Time will soon tell whether the cleaning and tidying-up are for a new tenant or the effort of the landlord to try and entice one.

Winter flowers

The green central reservation between the two paths to Tedding Lock is bursting with delicate flowers. The colour and the hint of a spring to come are both welcome.

Something is happening to Wilmer House

Obscured by the netting is Wilmer House, in the quiet bit of Church Road that runs between Latchmere Lane and Ham Gate Avenue, where something major is going on.

Curved path coming

I make a point of walking along Lauderdale Drive from time to time just to see if anything has changed, which is not very often and the last time I posted a photo from there was almost two years ago. Luckily there was a change this time with the beginnings of a curved path.

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.