BG04 XUY parks in Ham Lands

There is a tarmac road off Riverside Drive to Teddington Lock for obvious reasons but those reasons do not include letting people in to park in Ham Lands. 

Rebuilding South Corner

I have another new construction project to follow. The work at South Corner in Upper Ham Road has been some time coming and it is a full two years since the trees were cleared from the long drive to allow the many construction vehicles to get through to the site. 

Another major crash in Ham Street

Not long after one car ploughed a large hole in the wall outside of the Tollemache Almshouses by the junction of Ham Street and Ashburnham Road another car made another large hole a little way up the road in what was the Royal Oak by the junction with Sandy Lane.

I suspect that part of the problem is that the main traffic flow is Sandy Lane to Ham Street to Ashburnham Lane which has two give ways in it which some drivers are tempted to ignore. Another part of the problem is some drivers.

An extension in Beaufort Road

The house on the corner of Beaufort Road and Lammas Road is on a large plot so it is understandable that it is being extended. The new brick is a close match to the old though it is too early to say whether it is close enough. It is also far to early to say what the overall impact of the extension will be once it has been completed. It is a prominent site so I wish it well and will be watching.

Handsome knocker

This door knocker may be small but it gets noticed because it is so attractive; somebody else remarked how pretty it was as I paused to take this photograph.

Little things like this can do so much to brighten the area up and they take relatively little effort, the hardest part is finding the appropriate object. I am shamed into thinking how little contribution to the decoration of the area I make, despite some grandiose plans.

Traffic lights in Petersham Road

I am no longer surprised at the excuses they find to close Petersham Road and to create traffic chaos in the area. This time it is electricity.

Outside seating at Petersham Nurseries

I preferred Petersham Nurseries when it sold plants rather than teas but it has retained enough interesting things to pull me back there from time to time.

I was lucky on a recent visit that it was a damp and miserable day which kept a lot of the tea drinkers away and those that did come sought shelter in one of the greenhouses. That left the outside seats empty and so I was able to take this picture of the quirky table and chairs with no people spoiling the view.

Checking up on Cedar Heights

There seems to be a lot of building going on at the moment and I am struggling a little to do enough walking to keep up with it all. The new house going up in Cedar Heights is the furthest from where I live and so I have to make a special effort to get there regularly to check on progress.

I am still far from convinced that the house will be a good addition to the road and the arrival of the glass to fill the front windows does little to convince me otherwise. It just looks boring at the moment.

Beware of Dog

The wall on the corner of Upper Ham Road and Sudbrook Gardens hides a sunken house and also sports this attractive, if unfriendly, sign. It is not a big sign and it is some distance from the entrance so I doubt if it has much impact but I like the colour and the typeface.

However, I also think that "Beware of the dog" is a better phrased message and the addition of the word "the"would have improved the spacing of the bottom line.

Creeping towards the Petersham Road

There is a neat line of cottages along Petersham Road and then a more modern house much closer to the road. The end cottage is breaking ranks with its neighbours to the left by taking advantage of its neighbour to the right to grow a front extension.

I like the row of cottages so am slightly suspicious of the extension but I am prepared to suspend judgement until the building works are complete.

Reeds on Ham Pond

I would prefer there to be more vegetation around Ham Pond to provide more shelter and cover for the wildlife but from the right angle the pond can put up an impressive front.

Unusual tiles in Sandy Lane

These unusual parallelogram shaped tiles decorate the front of a house on the north side of Sandy Lane. The delicate blue weathering suggests that they are made of an unusual material too. 

Paths through Wates Estate

One of the reasons that I like the Wates Estate is that it is riddled with paths and recently I have been pounding them to update OpenStreetMap. Some are wide and obvious like this one but others, particularly those that run behind houses are much narrower and harder to find; luckily I am a determined explorer.

Removing trees at Cassel Hospital

I happened to catch some tree surgeons at work at Cassel Hospital on one of my many walks around Ham Common. This was early afternoon on Wednesday 25 January and one tree had been severely cut back and two others cut back to their stumps.

I went past the hospital again a couple of days later to take another look and was surprised, and upset, to see that the trimmed tree had also been cut back and all three stumps removed. Only the fresh wood chippings gave any sign that there used to be trees there.

Models at Ham House

The little garden behind the Orangery cafe has quietly been gaining some interesting features. The first arrival was a sailing boat and I posted a picture of that earlier. Now it has been joined by a model of Elizabeth Tower home to Big Ben.

Another model in the garden is of Ham House itself. At least that is what I assume it is, despite only having two rows of windows.