Revived gates at The Manor House

The large wooden gates, there are several of them, at The Manor House in Ham Street (by the junction with Sandy Lane) used to be pitch black and now they are a medium brown, the sort of colour a beer should be.

The gates have exactly the same design as they had before so I presume that they are the old gates after a serious clean rather than new gates built to look just like the old ones.

New wall at Montrose House fully revealed

The closure of the Petersham Road for five weeks has had one benefit, I was able to stand in the normally busy road to take this picture of the new wall at Montrose House, revealed for the first time in all its glory with the removal of the barriers that had been protecting it for several weeks.

A neat garden in Dukes Avenue

I like what they have done to this garden in Dukes Avenue. Stones and gravel are a familiar combination and this is a particularly fine example of that with its large grey slabs and slightly lighter grey gravel. Add to that the slightly decorative front wall and the wooden storage cabinet with a green roof and you have a pretty and functional garden.

Tired looking bridge

When I first moved to Ham, around twenty years ago, there was an enthusiastic man who seemed to spend all his time painting the footbridge by Teddington Lock. He did this because nobody else would. Finally, he shamed Richmond Council into doing something and the bridge got painted properly.

That lasted for several years and the bridge has always looked decent if not tidy. Until now. The state of the bridge has deteriorated to embarrassing again.

A garage becomes a house

Ham Farm Road is one of my favourites locally because it has an interesting mix of houses and so I walk down there more often than most roads. It helps that it is peaceful too. For most of this year I have been walking along there to check on the progress of a massive extension to a house at the end of a lane off the main road and now the garage at the entrance to that lane is being extended and converted into a house, at least that is what it looks like to me.

The construction of the new house is best viewed from a distance and I took this picture while walking along Church Road. The wild flowers and grasses in the foreground are the part of Ham Common that lies between Upper Ham Road and St Andrew's Church.

Often conversions like this can be considered as over development, that is putting too much building on the site, but in this case, as with the extension at the end of the lane, I think it works.

Flowers on Ham Village Green

There have been several small improvements to Ham Village Green in recent years that have transformed it from a boring expanse of grass to a place that I enjoy walking through.

Planting has been one of the main elements of this transformation and there are now a few patches where either the grasses are allowed to grow high or colourful flowers have been planted.

One patch of flowers, and the one that is in bloom at this time of year, is in the north corner of the (roughly) diamond shaped green formed by the meeting of Wiggins Lane and Woodville Road.

The top picture looks north toward Woodville Lane and the bottom one looks south towards the shops  in the corner made by Ham Street and Ashburnham Road.
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Wild flowers brighten a quiet corner

Where Ham Street meets Riverside Drive there is an area of almost pointless greenery. A lot of the green space is given over to sports, allotments and a playground but the corner is abandoned and left without a purpose. Or rather it was until now. It has become home to one of the growing number of wild flower plots in the area.

This plot is particularly welcome because it is visible from a long distance thanks to its prominent and exposed position.  The flowers are tall as well as colourful and that makes them even more obvious.

Ham Glebe approaches completion

Ham Glebe has taken a while to reveal its final look and not that much has changed since I last posted a photograph of it in May. That was a lot of walks along Church Road with little to show for it until, finally, the exterior finish looked to be completed with some light brown touches on the doors and windows to sit among the dark brick and the light render.

If I was to be fussy I would say that the approach to the house is a little harsh with the large expense of solid wall but things are not finished yet, and there is the garden to come, so things may well improve. I'll keep walking along Church Road to keep an eye on progress.

Argyll House in Ham Street

Argyll House is at the northern end of Ham Street, close to the junction with Riverside Drive. It is a fairly unremarkable building constructed with the same brick that was used for a lot of the former Local Authority housing locally and that helps it fit in with its neighbours. There is a lot of brick in Ham and I like that.

I also like the sign at Argyll House. The red is bold and proud while the font is of its time in a good way.

Bill and Ben in Lovell Road

Lovell Road is one of the short roads off Back Lane that do not go anywhere (apparently) so there is no encouragement to go down them. Unless, like me, you have the explorers' bug and like to venture where there is no reason to. It was through exploring the roads off Back Lane that I found all the little lanes that connect them to each other and also run through to Mowbray Road and Ashburnham Road.

That is also how I found Bill and Ben above a front door in Lovell Road and I am very glad that I did.