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.