Gutted

A convenient gap in the fence allowed me to see the full scope of the work being done to this house in Maguire Drive alongside the main path through to Dukes Avenue.

It also reveals some of the details of how the house was constructed, with the steel beams supporting the first floor, and how the outer layer of bricks was added some time after the house was originally constructed.

Ham House at Ham House

Ham House has several children's activites out across the gardens for the summer holidays and this model of Ham House is one of them. It is in the courtyard next to the former dairy and close to the shop.

New homes for all Londoners

The first sign of the many years of construction work to come at Ham Close is this vivacious sign tucked away on the west edge of the site.

Porch at St Andrew's

The impressive and convenient (it has two bench seats) entrance porch to St Andrew's is such an established feature that I somewhat took it for granted and had not posted a picture of it before. That has now been corrected!

It was looking particularly good on this day thanks to the flowers and the recently painted "S" and "A" on the gate posts.

Major works in Ashburnham Road

What started with rebuilding the end wall has grown to cover all of the flats above the shops at the Croft Way end of Ashburnham Road. 

 The end flat is being gutted in preparation for serious renovation and the remaining flats are being painted. 

You can see the need for the painting in the condition of the windows just to the right of the scaffolding.  The condition of the windows is so poor that it is obvious that they should have been addressed years ago and I wonder if the lack of maintenance means that some of the windows will need to be replaced, there is no point putting good paint on bad wood.

Unexpected barrier

Thames Water, having put a green fence around Parkleys Pumping Station just of Ham Gate Avenue, are installing a more substantial barrier nearby. It seems to be guarding just a standard manhole cover.

The presence of the yellow gate suggests that there is more of the barrier to come in which case the already intrusive construction will be even worse.

LR15 KLA in Croft Way

I want to use this specific example of the driver of LR15 KLA parking on double yellow lines and obstructing a dropped kerb to make a more general point. 

The parade of shops at that end of Ashburnham Road is busy and that means lots of people crossing Ashburnham Road and Croft Way to get there but there is no provision there to make it easy for them to do so, e.g. traffic islands. Worse than that, the entrance to Croft Way has been widened to make it easier for cars to go around the corner but making it further for pedestrians to walk.

I hope that once Richmond Council have fixed Ham Parade with the pedestrianisation of the slip road that they look at making similar improvements to the areas second busiest shopping parade.

Intelligent sign

A more typical sign would just say "Dryden Court 13 - 16" and leave you to work out where the flat you want is but Parkleys takes a more intelligent approach by aligning the flat numbers with their positions in the block. So simple, so effective.

Making good

It is clearly sensible that when road works have been completed the final stage should be to restore any markings that were destroyed in the process but, as this example at the junction of New Road and Ham Common shows, there is an argument that the making good should be extended slightly where the existing pain work is in such a poor condition.