Roof in Hazel Lane

Hazel Lane is a quaint footpath between Sudbrook Lane and Petersham Road and forms part of the southern boundary of Petersham. Here chocolate box cottages hide behind picturesque gardens that can only be seen by inquisitive walkers.

Avenue Lodge

There is no front gate to Avenue Lodge so the only view that you get of the front of the house is by peering over the wall from Ham Common.

St Michael's Convent

St Michael's Convent is one of the more impressive buildings on Ham Common, and that is saying something.

KS2 Results

St Richard's with St Andrew's CE Primary School in Ashburnham Road is clearly very pleased with its exam results and is now proudly advertising them with these large banners.

New Inn

The Winter sunlight highlights New Inn on the north-east corner of Ham Common and the cold keeps drinkers away from the seats outside and, from my perspective, improves the view of the pub.

Brick wall in Ham Street

I love brick and Ham is blessed with a lot of it. This long wall is in Ham Street, between Riverside Drive and Sandy Lane, and it hides the impressive Manor House from view. I like the way this wall leans and bulges like an elderly and much loved uncle.

Brown ducks

I am nothing like an expert on ducks, or any other birds for that matter, but this pair of ducks by Teddington Lock look unusual to me.

Rear of Rutland Lodge

The access to Rutland Lodge by car is via Rutland Drive off River Lane so this is a view normally only seen by residents.

Neglected plot

Royal Park Gate, which forms the southern border of Ham, is mostly well landscaped, particularly the main foot and cycle path that runs through the centre of it to the river. But this little plot on Horsley Drive is unclaimed by anybody and so has fallen in to neglect.

Sub-station

This is not the first picture of an electricity substation that I have taken and given my love of most things industrial it will probably not be the last. This one is well hidden off Douglas Footpath in Petersham.

Gone

This is what Ham Common Woods looks like now that the recent desecration has (I hope) been completed. The area is bereft of trees and bushes and all just so that the church is ever so slightly more visible. It's a scandal.

Christmas decorations

The extreme Christmas decorations in Lammas Road are famous locally, and justifiably so. This is just some of what adorns the house and garden.

Tree life

This tree in Petersham Lodge Woods caught my eye because of the growths on the trunk, which I guess is a symbiotic plant, but what I really like is the tangle of thin branches against the winter blue sky.

Coat of Arms

The gatehouse to Petersham Avenue is not as old as it tries to look but it is an impressive building none the less.

Greys

The sun had gone by the time I got to Teddington Lock on my walk around Ham which helped to show the different greys in the water and the new section by the Launch Lock.

EF05 OKT on the pavement

The metered parking on Ham Parade tempts some people to park in neighbouring roads and in some cases this also means parking up on the pavement.

Cornice

A closer look at Ormeley Lodge highlights the warm colour and simple but effective design of the brickwork.

New shed

The shed looks new but the doors are either old or, more likely, have been allowed to weather badly. Either way is makes for an incongruous picture.

Tucker's Christmas display (2008)

The butchers, R. Tucker, has the most impressive seasonal display on Ham Parade this year.

St Andrew's church

The view of St Andrew's church from Church Road is not particularly inspiring but a closer look gives the brickwork a chance to impose its strength and order.

Trees by Ham House

These trees form an irregular avenue from Ham House towards the river. The path in front of Ham House and the one leading in to it are both tarmacked but I am glad that this one is not, even if that means that it gets a little muddy sometimes.

Small extension

This is the smallest house extension that I have even seen. These works add about 1.5m to the living room downstairs and and en suite bathroom 1.2m wide to one of the bedrooms.

Path in Petersham Lodge Woods

This inviting path through Petersham Lodge Woods is sadly not very long, it joins the tow path just after the slight rise in the middle of the picture, but for a brief moment you can forget all about buildings, cars and other people.

Brown ferns

The ferns in Ham Common Woods are ready for Winter and have, for a while at least, added browns to the confusion of greens.

New House on Church Road

This house must have seemed very new when it was built and named and it still looks strikingly modern compared to its neighbours in Church Road.

Dips

This may not look very much but these dips in Ham Common Woods, opposite Latchmere Close, are popular with small children on bikes who like to launch themselves down the (relatively) steep bank at the far end.

Flowers for Peter Vahl

Two small bunches of flowers have been laid on Peter Vahl's bench on the tow path and this weekend's bright sunshine provided the perfect opportunity to pause on the bench, watch the world go by and think about all the people who have enjoyed walking in this beautiful area.

Ormeley Lodge in December

The low Winter sun shines brightly on Ormeley Lodge but the front wall is shaded by the trees across the road in Ham Common Woods, which makes the house stand out even more.

Still working on Latchmere Lodge

I'm keeping an eye on the progress on Latchmere Lodge and every time that I go past I can hear the sounds of work being done inside but there still seems quite a bit to do.

Graves

The graveyard at St Andrews church eats in to Ham Common Woods which means that you can see into it and across it from many angles. I chose this angle mainly for the shock of red in the corner.

Ham Common in December

The trees are bare and the sun does not get very high, bright or warm, but Ham Common is still an uplifting place. The trees in the middle of the picture are part of the avenue that leads directly to Ham House.

Reston Lodge

Reston Lodge is the most visually impressive of the larger houses clustered around Tommy Steele Corner because, uniquely, it is a brilliant white and it does not hide its grandeur behind a massively tall wall, unlike many of its bashful neighbours.

Looking across Ham Common Woods

One impact of opening up the view of St Andrews Church from the road is that you also open up the view of the road from the church. Previously the trees and brambles screened off the ugly urban world but now it intrudes in to what used to be an area of rural tranquillity.

Gated path

One of the nice things about several of the built up areas in Ham is that there are small paths, or twittens, that allow pedestrians to move more freely through the area. This one links Stretton Road and Wiggins Lane and, bizarrely, has a gate in the middle of it.

Empty flats

These flats in Croft Way were completed some months ago but there is still no sign of them being occupied or even being actively sold, note the lack of "for sale" signs.

Rustic fence

Volunteers are building a new rustic fence along Great South Avenue at the Sandy Lane end. There is a tall metal fence not far behind it so I am not sure what the point is.

Determined leaves

The high wall by the side of Ham House has protected the lower parts of the trees from the main savagery of the Autumn winds but the last few struggling leaves have already lost their fight for colour and are now too weak to resist even the smallest of winds and are falling to the ground to join the earlier victims.

Bell-pull at Rutland Lodge

Rutland Lodge is opposite Montrose House on Tommy Steele Corner, Petersham. The house itself is rather grand, even though it has been converted into flats, but the old iron bell pull on the imposing front wall is a treasure.

Trimmed tree in Ham Common Woods

This is one of the trees on Ham Common Woods that, while being allowed to live, has had all of its lower branches removed so that you can hardly see that there is a tree there.

Too wide

The changes to Great South Avenue in the last year are remarkable, and bad. Just over a year ago it looked like a country lane but now it is wide, bland, soulless and uninviting. This is no longer a path that I look forward to walking down.

Clearing the trees

In the foreground we have the section of Ham Common Woods that lies between Ham Farm Road and Church Road and beyond that we have the main section on the woods that lies between Church Road and Ham Gate Avenue.

Now that several trees have been removed from the first section it no longer looks like the rest of the woods and a little bit of Ham is less wild, less mysterious and less interesting.

New look for "Tommy Steele Corner"

It is some years since Tommy Steele moved away from Montrose House in Petersham but most locals still refer to the sharp bend on the Petersham Road by his former house as Tommy Steele Corner. Until recently views of the rear garden were protected from the gaze of curious people on the upper deck of the 65 bus by a border of high trees but now they have all gone.

New branch in an old tree

Once they have lost their leaves, the strange shapes that some trees make is exposed for all to see. Here a newer branch is growing straight up in defiance of the contorted route taken by its neighbours.

Towards Church Road

I am taking quite a few pictures of Ham Common Woods at the moment so that I can remind myself of what it looked like after all the "restoration" work has been completed. It is the grass at the bottom of the picture that is being restored at the expense of trees and bushes.

Purple fungus

Deep in the heart of Ham Common Woods is a small clearing that had some work done on it a few years ago that left a few logs on the ground, one of which has attracted a rather interesting purple fungus.

Piles of logs

As trees are felled and trimmed in Ham Common Woods, just to "improve" the view of the church, these unnatural piles of logs are appearing as evidence of the destruction. Healthy trees do not rot very quickly so these reminders will be there to haunt us for many years to come.

Steps

One of the hidden treasures in Ham Lands is Petersham Lodge Woods that occupies a small area next to River Lane. There are no paths through it so there is no reason to go in there unless, like me, you just like exploring places. And one of the ways out is via these steps.

Doomed tree

This oak is one of the many trees that is being removed from the section of Ham Common Woods bounded by Upper Ham Road, Ham Farm Road, Church Road and St Andrew's Church, so that the grassland can be "restored".

Trees, fence and gate

The late autumn sun brings a sharp contrast to the trees, fence and gate by Douglas Footpath.

Fast water

I watched the river reclaim the flood plain in front of Ham House for a fascinating 20 minutes or so and even with the sluice gates closed the water swept from the pipe at almost walking pace dragging fallen leaves along with it.