The new Russell School

It is hard to see much of the new Russell School because of its position in the large site so it is lucky that it is still Winter and the vegetation does not yet hide the view from Petersham Avenue. From the outside it looks good, I just hope that it works well for the staff and students.

Daffodils in The Wilderness

An impressive display of daffodils in The Wilderness at Ham House and a curved path to enjoy them from.

New gate at 36 Ham Street

I have been watching this new wall being built in Ham Street for a few weeks and have been liking what I see. I like the final touch too. Solid wooden gates like that are all the fashion these days, take a look at Gordon House nearby for another example, and it is easy to see why when they can look as good as this.

New windows

When I saw the scaffolding go up on this house at the tail-end of Ham Farm Road I thought that it might be for a new roof but it was gone too quickly for that and all that seems to have been done is put in new windows. And very nice new windows they are too.

Skull and Crossbones

I have several walking routes to walk and the prettiest one is all along the towpath where I was surprised to see this Skull and Crossbones high up in a tree.

Zooming out a little and you get a better idea of the scale.

And zooming even further out you can see the location too.

Starting work at 59 Ham Street

Work has started in earnest on the plot that was 59 Ham Street and which is becoming two houses. The good news is that means that the large gates are usually open and I can see the progress being made as I walk to work (it is bit of a detour but worth it).

On this day the site has been cleared and the area where the houses has been built was ready for the foundations to be dug.

A few days and the foundations were dug and filled with concrete.

And a few days after that there was a delivery of breeze blocks so I presume that walls will start to appear.

Protecting the toads

Every year part of Church Road is closed to allow the migration of toads from Ham Common Woods to Richmond Park. This year the barriers seem to be more substantial than they have been previously and they are tied together to make them harder to move. Sadly this is necessary as some selfish motorists move them to save themselves just a couple of minutes on their way to Richmond Park.

Before, during and after

Friends of Ham Lands (FoHL) are busy improving butterfly habitats in Ham Lands which includes clearing and connecting some of the grasslands. This is the path that they tackled in March.

Here you can see the work in progress. The brambles have been cut right back on the left and the saplings cleared on the right.

Some of the team can be seen working just as the path completely disappears. There were some brave souls working in the brambles beyond them and more behind me working on the more substantial saplings.

This is taken from about half way along the path looking back to where we started. The important thing is not just that the path is much wider than it was but also that it is fully connected to the large patch of grassland in the distance.

Snow around Ham Common Woods

I hope that these will be the last snow photographs of 2018 and that by the time that these photos get posted online that all the snow will already have gone.

This is the fragment of Ham Common Woods that sits South of Church Road between it and Latchmere House. There are no paths through there, and no reason to make one, so the snow remains as it fell untroubled by passing people.

Th path along Ham Gate Avenue always looks impressive because of the trees that hang over it and the long branches look even more glorious when topped with snow. 

Snow on Ham Common

Lots of people take pictures of snow on Ham Common, and I take quite a few too, but I justified including this one as it was taken from an uncommon position. I had just got on to the footpath that starts near the junction with Martingales Close and was looking right across the Common towards the Hand and Flower.

This is about the longest view that you get across the Common and that is why I took the photo.

Daffodils on Ham Common

The daffodils on Ham Common waited for the Beast from the East to leave before making their appearance and for a while they had Spring warmth and some sunshine before the snow made a sudden return.

The white of the snow does them a favour, even if the cold does not, as it emphasises the colour of the leaves which usually gets lost when surrounded by grass.

Fake gate

The wall in front of Montrose House is not that new now and I must have walked past it a few dozen times but it still managed to surprise me on a recent walk. I first noticed the arch and then the suggestion of two pillars as if there used to be a gate there.

Obviously the door is fake as the wall was completely rebuilt. I cannot recall there being any sort of gate in the old wall but then I did not notice this one for quite a while.

White and cream

The cream house had a brick finish until recently then it had a block extension added at the front and the cream finish was added in a simple attempt to blend the two parts together. That, of course, is why the house next to it is white.

As the plague of extension claims most of Burnell Avenue the characteristic brick is being lost and the houses are loosing their shared style. Individual houses might look fine, and some do, but the road looks bit of a mess.

More works in Parkleys

Maintenance of Parkleys seems to be like painting the Forth Bridge, a never-ending task. There always seems to be at least one block covered in scaffolding as major works are done.

Shelley Court was worked on recently and now they are back to do some more.

Across the road, Milton Court is also getting the treatment.

Ripe for redevelopment

Several properties in Sandy Lane have been refurbished, or even rebuilt, in recent years and it cannot be too long before that happens to this one.

A point of this blog is to record things as they change and too often I do not know what is going to change until it is too late so it is nice to be able to get in early with this one.

Works in Petersham Road

I suspect that this will be another example of the building looking more impressive while it is being worked on rather than afterwards, thanks to the impressive amount of scaffolding and screening that is required.

New fence in Ham Farm Road

Work has been going on at the new Huf Haus in Ham Farm Road for about a year and the hoardings that were put up in March 2017 to protect the site are now being placed by a fence. It only covers the south end of the site so far and there is a gap for a future gate but it is much better than the hoardings.

The fence is not without controversy though. None of the other properties in the area has a fence so this one looks a little out of place. Of course that also applied to the fence that was there before.

Weathered cat

This weathered cat lives in Buckingham Road. As far as I can tell it is a close relative to the one living in Craig Road and the one that used to live in New Road.

Work starts on new houses in Ham Street

Having spent many months watching and recording the building of a Huf Haus in Ham Street I am about to go through that process with the plot next door. The new, and ridiculously sized, gates are a sign that the work is about to start and you can just seen the top of a construction vehicle too.

24 Sandy Lane revisited

A comment on my post 24 Sandy Lane is being renovated reminded me that I had not been back to see the finished results, so I did just that. It is hard to compare the two as the old photo, from December 2015, only showed one corner of the house but it looks as though they have extended to the side, added the front door pillars and rendered the house.

The comment asked for my opinion, so here goes. I like the windows, the door and the white finish, I don't like the pillars or the boxy look of the extension. Overall the impact is neutral, if it has been obviously bad or pretty then it would have caught my attention earlier.

Extension in the Wates Estate

Current Building Regulations mean that even modest roof works require a lot of scaffolding and protective sheeting which makes the projects look dramatic while in progress. I found this one somewhere in the Wates Estate.

295 Petersham Road

295 Petersham Road, Dove Cottage, has been done up for sale and looks very neat and tidy because of it. There always seem to be several cottages in Petersham Road that are being done up and while the end result generally look good I would hate to live on that road.