Rebuilding 16 Sandy Lane

A week or so ago when I first posted a picture of the rebuilding of 16 Sandy Lane I was thwarted by the green mesh across the front of the property so I was pleased to find on my latest visit, as expected,  that a hole had developed in the mesh allowing me to take this picture of the whole site.

Sandy Lane foundations

Sandy Lane has seen a lot of change in recent years as houses in large plots have been extended or even, as in this case, demolished to make even larger properties.

Annoyingly there is a green narrow mesh screen across the front of the property which my camera gets confused by, focusing on that rather than the works behind, and so all I could get this time was the view from one edge.

Ham in flowers

This short journey along Sandy Lane ends at the Ham Street end with a small display of flowers. It is easy to miss the significance of the flowers and a closer look is required.

The flowers spell "HAM" which is a very nice tough. I especially like it as some people would claim that this is actually in Petersham, but I agree that it is Ham.

An uncertain future

Yet another house on Sandy Lane is about to be worked on. Judging by the lack of scaffolding and the relatively small size of the house, I suspect that this may be a demolish and rebuild. As with all the other construction projects in Sandy Lane, and elsewhere, I will keep visiting and noting any significant progress.

Ready for work

This house on Sandy Lane looks ready to start the next stage in its life though the limited anount of scaffolding suggests that it may not be that different from the last one.

15 Sandy Lane remodelled

Things have clearly changed at 15 Sandy Lane and not necessarily for the better. The house is a bigger, e.g. the garage has been included in to the main house, but it is also much blander, e.g. the terracotta tiles in the bay between the two windows have been removed.

There are a few little details there, e.g. in the small panes at the top of the windows, but these are lost in the uniformity of the painted front. I expect the porch to be painted too, it needs to be.

Leaning tree

While I usually try and mix which part of Ham I post pictures of I have collected several of Sandy Lane so I thought that I would post them as an end-to-end theme, starting with the Petersham Road end in the east.

This young tree has been forced to lean by the strong winds battering it and it does not have any support to help it. It will be fine though it looks a little odd against the vertical lines behind it.

The eyes have it

With very little of the house still visible it is hard to judge the nature of this project in Sandy Lane but I do like the way that it seems to be looking at you.

Clear out

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

Delta House on Sandy Lane

While I find the mix of house styles in Sandy Lane more of a curse than a blessing I have always liked Delta House for its distinctive modernist styling, though it would look better if there was a front garden.

My limited, and frustrating, research failed to find a house number for the property, and it might not have one, which makes the absence of any identification on the front of the house, or entrance gates, rather bemusing. It is possible that the brass plate by the door says "Delta House" but being unreadable at this distance renders it useless.

This is one of the houses included in the modernist architecture guided walk Perambulation Nº27—Richmond to Ham by Stefi Orazi.

Wall up

In July I noted that the wall to 50 Sandy Lane had been demolished and while it looked good without a wall it was likely that it would be replaced, and it has. 

And a very good wall it is too, thanks to the decoration.

Wall down

50 Sandy Lane used to have a front wall and something of an arch over the driveway and all that remains is two rows of bricks alongside the pavement. 

I actually quite like the idea of a hedge rather than a wall but I suspect that there will be a new wall instead.

Two times 16

Sixteen Sandy Lane wants you to be sure that this is number sisxteen so it has the house number on both gate posts.

Long grass

I do not understand Richmond Council's approach to verge mowing with areas that were left to grow previously being cut this year, e.g. Broughton Avenue, so I was pleased to see some grass left to grow naturally in Sandy Lane.

New door

The building on the corner of Ham Street and Sandy Lane that used to be a pub, The Royal Oak, has gained a new door onto Sandy Lane as part of its conversion into a house.

62 Sandy Lane

The 1960's style font of the "62" is more than enough to justify this photograph and the unusual staggered wall is interesting too.

Sandy Lane sign

I am interested in this street sign as it appears to be a transition stage between the oldest and newest style because it has the newer serifed font but it does not have the area name in the bottom right corner.

That suggests that street signs have been through (at least) two design reviews which seems like a lot of effort for something so simple.

Mallard expands

Mallard is a semi-detached house made prominent by its location on the corner of Sandy Lane and Arlington Road and it is along Arlington Road that it is expanding into two blocks that bear little relationship to the original house.

b.t.w. this is one of several houses that I have been in that have been updated in the last couple of years. When your kids go to local schools you get to visit lots of houses which is great for the architecturally curious!

32

32 Sandy Lane makes it absolutely clear that it is number 32 with this large and attractive house number built in to the wall by the gate. 

It is an elegant and slightly unusual typeface with interesting features, like the bulbous end to the bottom of the "3" and the varied width of the text, which is especially obvious in the downstroke of the "2".

POST BOX

As expected, the hole in the new wall at 32 Sandy Lane was for a post box. It looks a little odd being recessed that far back but that is better than protruding over the pavement.

The wording seems a little clunky and unnecessarily long to me, just "Post Box" should have been sufficient. The clunkiness comes from the choice of words, particularly "place" and "envelopes" where "put" and "letters" seem more natural, and "into this box" could be simply "here".