Football on Ham Common

Ham Common hosts football games on Sundays at the moment. Last weekend there were two organised games on at the same time, either side of the avenue of trees leading to Ham House. This is the game on the north side with the New Inn in the background. In the foreground is one of the new trees planted to fill gaps in the avenue mentioned earlier.

Ham Common trees

This line of trees is along the south-west side of Ham Common.

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This is possibly the most dangerous parking that I have ever seen in Ham! Behind the parked car you can see the two lanes of north-bound traffic that are now faced with a rather sudden, and unexpected, reduction to one lane. Madness.

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This is almost as bad as parking gets on Ham Parade. The double yellow lines are there as this is where two lanes of north-bound traffic filter into one, often jostling for position to do so. Clearly a very dangerous place to park, but some people ....

Thames Young Mariners

Hidden in the wilds of Ham Lands is the Thames Young Mariners sailing centre. This photo was taken from the towpath which is the only place that you can see it from. TYM splits Ham Lands into two parts and to get round it you either have to go on the river path or up to Riverside Drive.

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This 4x4 with trailer is parked partially on a bus stop (with a 65 bus approaching) and partially in the zig-zag zone for the pedestrian crossing.

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The white lines mark the parking bays and you would have thought that a small car like this could fit easily into a single bay.

Hardwicke Road flats

There are not that many blocks of flats in Ham, and most of those are clustered together in the middle, but these are in Hardwicke Road. This picture is taken from the footpath from Teddington Lock.

Ham House

These railings are in the front-left corner of the grounds of Ham House (next to the bridle path) and I guess that they are to deter people from trying to climb in from the ditch.

Wates Estate

Ham has a broad mix of houses, from the small blocks of social housing dotted around the area to the various mansions clustered around Ham Common. This is part of the Wates Estate which covers the large middle-ground of good family homes.

The Wates Estate was built on newly drained land on the east edge of Ham in the 1960s and follows Riverside Drive around the large curve in the river.

The houses themselves are quite attractive but what makes the estate special is the layout which carefully avoids straight lines and has lots of little green areas, like this one, that are nicely landscaped. There are also plenty of paths between the various roads so pedestrians can pass through the estate easily while cars are kept out of the way.

Ham Common (the wild bit)

Ham Common consists of two very parts parts, the manicured side on the west side of Upper Ham Road where men play cricket and children feed the ducks, and the wild woody part on the east (pictured here) where few people go, I'm pleased to say. I saw a heron in there last week, but no people.

Lawrence Hall at Cassel Hospital

Cassel Hospital is in a rambling building in several sections and this part of it, Lawrence Hall, is some distance from the main entrance on the north-west end of the complex, next to Langham House Close.

Doctors Surgery

Surely there should be an apostrophe somewhere!

White cottage, Lock Road

Another attractive cottage in Lock Road.

Langham House on Ham Common

Next door to the newest house on Ham Common (when this was taken), Forbes House, is this rather impressive older one, Langham House. Of the two, Langham House looks more at home on the Common with its dark brick, neat wall and mature garden.

New house on Ham Common

The style may be old but the house is pretty new. It commands an imposing position on the south side of Ham Common looking north.

Rowleys

Rowleys bake their own bread on-site and while the range is rather limited it is all good and sells out very quickly. The cheese sticks are a local favourite and you see many people buying six or eight at a time.

Ham Fruiterers

Ham Fruiterers looks rather more inviting when it is open!

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This picture speaks for itself.

Lock Road (towards Teddington)

This is looking down Lock Road towards Teddington, which is the newer end of the road. In contrast to the cottages at the Ham Common end, here we have typical between war houses in two main styles; with and without bay windows upstairs. In the distance you can see the even more recent block of flats in Hardwicke Road.

Cottages in Lock Road (Ham Common end)

Lock Road slips gently from the south-west corner of Ham Common towards Teddington Lock. The buildings vary greatly along the road and get newer (and less interesting) as you move away from the Common.

These cottages are typical of those on the north side of the road at the Ham Common end. Facing them are smaller cottages arranged in terraces rather than pairs.

Ham Pond

This is looking north-west over Ham Pond to the houses on Ham Common (that's the name of the road).

Body found on Ham Common

A dead man was found on Ham Common recently. The circumstances are not suspicious but the police are looking for information anyway. This is the second such incident in a couple of years, the last body was in nearby Petersham Common.

Back Road shops

There is a small parade of shops in Back Road, just off the south-west corner of Ham Common, but they have seen better days.

Ashburnham Road

Ashburnham Road forms one of the borders of the built up area of Ham. The other side of the road is the large wild and wet area, Ham Lands, leading up to the river.

Entering Ham

This is the view of Ham you get as you enter from Teddington via the footbridge. It's the large wild area, Ham Lands, that gives Ham its character.

Boundary changes in Ham

When the borough boundaries were last reviewed, around 1992, some changes were made to Ham with the Parade and Parkleys being moved wholly into Richmond from Kingston (RBK).

The lower shaded area shows how the borough boundary used to cross Ham Parade and the upper shaded area shows how the boundary used to cut through Parkleys (which had not been built when the boundaries had been drawn) and even went through some of the blocks.

There is no material impact from the change though there is some confusion caused by the post codes staying the same so, for example, shops on Ham Parade have a KT2 post code which suggests that they are in Kingston.

The new boundaries still have some anomalies. On the far left of the picture you can see that Kingston still claims the north side of Dukes Avenue. The reason for this is that there is a Kingston school just along along the road there and they wanted to keep the Kingston school in Kingston, though I note that elsewhere in the Borough, Kingston's Green Lane School is actually in Sutton.

New house in Ham Farm Road

This new house is on Ham Farm Road which goes along the south side of Ham Common Woods. The other houses in the road were built in the 1950's and have a distinctly modern look too but they are constructed with brick and wood so look quite traditional when compared to this newer arrival.

Cricket on the common

There is a cricket pitch on the south side of Ham Common and there are games played there most Sundays in the summer. The roller and other equipment are kept on the edge of the common.

White cottages

These lovely cottages are on the north side of Ham Common, next to the New Inn.

The New Inn

The New Inn has a prominent position on the north east corner of Ham Common looking south over the common. Because of its location it gets lots of passing trade and it does a lot of food. Sadly it's not that good as a local pub.

South Lodge on Ham Common

South Lodge is on the north side of Ham Common, on the corner with Bishop Close. I presume that it was a lodge at some point, i.e. a single dwelling, but now it is collection of flats pretending to be something grander.

St Michael's Convent

This is the corner of St Michael's Convent on the junction of The Common and Martingales Close. I like it because it is old brick and one of the walls is leaning outwards rather a lot.

Hardwicke House

Hardwicke House is on the north side of Ham Common.

Pope Court, Parkleys

Parkleys has good architecture surrounded by established plants. Excellent!

Little green

On the north west and north east corners of Ham Common are little green areas separated from the main part of the common by the road that goes around it. This is the green on the north west, the road is the other side of the line of trees on the left and the building in the centre is Thomas Aquinas RC Church.

Ham Pond

Another picture of Ham Pond, and I'm sure there will be more. This one is taken from the north west corner facing south east.

Gray Court, Parkleys

Parkleys is a Grade II development of flats on the south side of the wild part of Ham Common. One of the features of the development is the extensive planting which makes the area very attractive.

Gate house

This house is one side of the bridle path that leads from Ham Common to Ham House. It once appeared in a tv commercial covered in artificial snow.

Newsbox

Newsbox is a typical newsagent and is one of the two on the parade, one on each side.

Ham Fruiterers

Ham Fruiterers is a little gem and we buy something there most days. Unfortunately it closes early on Saturdays so it looks pretty boring here. I'll take another photo sometime when it is open!

The Bistro cafe

The Bistro is a fairly traditional cafe which serves full breakfasts and large mugs of tea all day. Not open in the evening.

Southcroft Chemists

The pharmacy occupies two units on the west side of Ham Parade.

Le Look Image

Le Look Image is one of the parade's two hairdressers.

Aristocrat

Aristocrat is one the parade's two dry cleaners. They are almost directly opposite each other on separate sides of the parade.

Giftbox

Giftbox is a small stationers that seems to sell everything. It has a fantastic collection of cards for every occasion and the display case they are held them has pull-out trays to make it easy for you to sort through them.

Ham satellite photo

This picture from Google Earth shows clearly how green Ham is.

The green triangle in the centre of the picture is the formal part of Ham Common and the wooded area to its left is the wild part of the common, Ham Common Woods, that leads up to Richmond Park. The other large green areas are school grounds, a golf course and the grounds of the Cassel Hospital.

Ham Parade is at the bottom of the picture, slightly to the right of the centre. The road it is on goes between Kingston and Richmond.

Mervyn Smith

Mervyn Smith is one the the parade's three estate agents. Appearances may be deceptive but I believe that it is the only independent one, that is Mervyn Smith is a real person and he runs it.

Saqui

Saqui is a fairly typical Indian restaurant, and there is nothing wrong with that! It sits neatly in the middle of the west side of Ham Parade between an estate agent and a launderette.

Launderette

The launderette, between Saqui and Glencorse, is probably the ugliest building on Ham Parade. The nicest thing about it is the reflection of the flats on the other side of the road.