Not white

The rule here is clearly that fences must be white so it is a shame that somebody has chosen to break ranks and pick a different colour. The one saving grace is that it matches the front door but that is not a good enough excuse.

More posts demolished

It is little over a month since a series of posts were placed at the entrance to Great South Avenue on the north side of Ham Common and already the incompetent drivers of Ham have managed to destroy most of them.

I first reported the posts on 10 April, the very next day I posted a picture of the demise of the first of them, now several have gone on the west side, including the leading one with red and white tape on it, and another has been knocked out and partially replaced.

 

There were two posts on the other side but little evidence of them now remains.

Making an interesting house bland

Once upon a time 2 Ashfield Close was an interesting house, and I said so in 2015. One of the things that made it interesting was the unusual roof line and in the latest refurbishment that has been, unaccountably, removed.

The colouring of the house was interesting too and there is still some chance that the new frontage will repeat the use of more than one colour, but I am not that hopeful.

The house has also failed to learn the lessons of its near neighbour across the road which also had large picture windows which the new owners sensibly broke up with glazing bars,

Pavement blocked

This section of Ham Parade has got increasingly narrow thanks to The Bistro. They always had one A-board next to the tree, which was a little inconvenient, and the recent addition of a second has significantly reduced the space available to the many pedestrians who walk past here.

The situation is made worse by The Bistro, alone among the shops on that side of the Parade, choosing to build out right to the edge of their area significantly reducing the width of the pavement.

Sandy Lane hotchpotch

I am often critical of Sandy Lane and that is because of houses like this. What was once a fine period house has been ruined by an inappropriate renovation that takes no account of the house's heritage.

The too simple grey windows are the most obvious error and there is also the modern front door in a strange colour, the not very well matched bricks in the crude extension and the over paving on the front garden.

Lurid green nets

Ham Common has been scarred by the new lurid green cricket nets which have become the most visible thing on the Common to the detriment of everything else.

To show the impact I took this photo from some distance away (the tree intruding on the left shows that I was on the edge of the common) and even though the nets are a small part of the scene the dominate it.

I can only hope that the awfulness of these will has be appreciated by those responsible for them and that they will be replaced quickly.

Tree erased

I was surprised to see the tree at the entrance to Martingaes Close being removed and even more surprised to find that this was not to replace it with some better planting but with cold grey stone. The tree was not very special but at least it was a tree and that is so much better than not having anything there at all.

And they have not even remodelled the island to make it easier to cross the stupidly wide entrance to a small unimportant road.

I also note that some of the powers behind the (awful name) Ham and Petersham Association and Amenities Group live in Martingales Close and their inability to stop this destruction on their doorstep does not say much for their ability to "preserve and secure our environment".

Hiding 29 Ham Farm Road

There is a shared character in Ham Farm Road and number 29 has chosen to ignore it.

That character is one of openness with either no front boundary or a very low one. And that is set back from the pavement as the first metre or so of land is Common Land. This is usually just grass or small plants.

Number 29 wanted to build a front wall with railings and settled for a mid-sized wall (barely visible) with a dense hedge in front of it. This is not how the rest of the street looks.

I fail to see why this has been done. Privacy is not an issue as so few people walk along there and a substantial hedge hides the view of Ham Common Woods, which surely is the whole point of living there.

Ugly spikes

Sadly the refurbishment of Teddington Footbridge has included the addition of spikes in this section. 

They are the sort of spikes used to keep pigeons off but here the target is children who like to jump off the bridge here into the river on hot days. Of course the spikes will not work, either they will find a way to remove or block them or they will find somewhere else, possibly more dangerous, to jump from.

More damage

While the demolition of Ham Gate is the most spectacular (in a bad way) current example of damage caused by motorists it is not the only one. 

Obviously it took some force to knock out this post which strongly suggests that the motorist responsible was not paying any attention to the 20mph signs, or to the keep left sign on the island either.

We should not have to put up with this regular damage caused by irresponsible motorists or to the danger they present to other people.

Trench

The sad story of the destruction of the wildlife corridor through Royal Park Gate continues.

Having made several damaging changes to this area, which is land owned by Kingston Council, the resident of the end house in Manston Grove has now dug a trench alongside the property.

The grass area is part of the wildlife corridor that he cleared a few weeks ago.

Croft Way blocked

Sadly, I could probably fill this blog with pictures of obstructed pavements but I would just find that depressing and most people would find it boring, so I only show a few of the worst cases.

Croft Way is the main walking route from the centre of Ham to Ham Lands, the riverside and Teddington and that makes this complete obstruction of the pavement very annoying. I have reported this to Richmond Council, using FixMyStreet, and I am interested to see if/when it gets fixed.

Lost garden in Craig Road

I shall have to remember next spring to make a special effort to capture some more of the lovely gardens in Ham because, for the moment, it seems to be a story of one lost garden after another. This sad example is in Craig Road.

Another lost garden

This substantially refurbished house in Burnell Avenue seems determined to be at odds with its neighbours, the roof is the wrong colour and the frontage neither matches the original brick houses or those that have gone all white. And now the garden has been sacrificed for cars in a road that still prides itself in having a good number of good gardens.

A kill for a view

I have been following the building of this major extension at the end of Tideway Close for over a year and for all of that time I have been focussed on the design, particularly the inappropriate large windows, but the one saving grace was always that the house was largely obscured by vegetation, as in this earlier photo.

Regrettably that welcome screen has been removed.

 

The view is even worse from this angle and the extent to which vegetation has been removed is more obvious.

I suspect that most/all of the vegetation was on Council owned Ham Lands and so I have asked them to investigate. I am not sure that the extension, as built, has planning permission either so I have referred that to the enforcement team.

Concrete garden

It is depressing that while HUG is running a Good Gardens for Everyone project that the message has not got through to some people and this house in Dukes Avenue is getting a new solid concrete front garden which will offer no respite for wildlife or rainwater.

The destruction begins

The lanscaping of Royal Park Gate is one of its most attractive features and so it is sad to see that Kingston Planners are allowing another green patch to be lost. The footings are for pillars in a brick wall that will take the green space away from the public and add it to a private garden.

This is bad enough and subsequent developments there will make it even worse.

New steps on Majestic Way

I complained nine years ago when some small steps were created on this ridge along what has come to be called Majestic Way, the path that runs across the front of Ham House and ends in the middle of the bend in the river, more or less opposite Radnor Gardens. My arguments then were that the path is pointless and the steps are a built thing in a natural environment.

Those arguments apply even more so to the substantially larger new steps. I really do not like them.

Infestation of artificial grass

Frankly, I am almost lost for words here.

I went to Lawrence Road looking for a new garden pond, definitely a good thing, but just a few doors away I found this large expanse of horribly green artificial grass, most definitely a bad thing.

More trees gone

I posted a picture of this small plot of land in Royal Park Gate back in January when some lines of the grass suggested that something was going to happen, and now it has. Unfortunately it is bad news.

The trees shown in my previous photo have gone leaving scars in the grass to show their passing. I have simply no idea why this was done or even who did it. I presume that the land is managed by Kingston Council but that does not mean that they did the damage.

Update: I'll leave the original text above as it stands as a historical record but I now more about this patch of land. Despite being designated as Open Space by Kingston Council It is actually owned by 39 Wittering Close, which is behind the vegetation strewn wall on the left. It changed hands a couple of years ago and since then the new owner has made several land grabs to get this patch included in their garden which, so far, Kingston Council have managed to rebut, and long may they do so. It is the new owner who earlier marked out lines here, for a proposed wall, and who removed the trees.