Pots and more

The garden at 7 Craig Road (you can just read the number on the front door) always gives me a boost when I walk past. There is a lot going on in here and it is all good.

More grey

Now that more of the covers have come off at 31 Lock Road more of the new grey paint has been exposed and it is as bad as I feared. The false window does not help either.

The work is not yet complete and the ground floor is still a mystery so there is still a slight hope that something there will redeem the project, but it could also be worse.

3 Back Road

Number 3 Back Road is typically of the houses in the area but the house number sign is not.

Missing gate

It is very obvious that there used to be a gate here and that the entrance there was no longer required but I think the wrong solution was chosen. The gate could have been left, locked if need be, with the hedge allowed to grow in front of it. That would have been cheaper and easier than bricking the gap up and would have allowed the change to be reversed at some point too. As it is, the different bricks are very conspicuous and draw unnecessary attention to the missing gate. 

Odd one out

I am surprised that the general planning rules and the specific Neighbourhood Plan allow things like this to happen, and that an owner would want to do this in the first place. This neat row of four townhouses in Back Road has been permanently scarred. 

Autumn cut

I walk across various parts of Ham Lands as often as I can, with the route from Teddington Lock to Croft Road being my most used route. On this walk I was there soon after the mower that was applying the Autumn cut across the open grass areas of Ham Lands.

Normally when I post a picture of Ham Lands I deliberately avoid including any buildings to show how rural a lot of it is but this time I allowed a glimpse of Croft Road to put the view in context.

Small shed

This small shed is neatly hidden in a corner of the front garden, which is my excuse for not noticing it before.

New door, no porch

10 Mead Road replaced its front door some time ago (it looks like this on Google Maps). A porch has been removed but, so far, no attempt has been made to hide the fact.

The porch was not an original feature and with it gone this house is back to looking the same as its neighbours.

In Lawrence Road

Perhaps one day I will get tired of taking photographs of scaffolding but that has not happened yet so here is another one, this time from Lawrence Road. It is the sheer business of the scene that I like, including the skip, portaloo and telegraph pole.

Yellow bricks

The work in Maguire Drive, opposite the closed path to Dukes Avenue, is bigger than I first thought as it covers both of the semi-detached houses there.

So far the choice of brick is the most interesting part of the development. The yellow bricks are a lot lighter than those in the rest of the street, which may be the point. 

Demolished porch

Back in March I posted a "before" photo of 2 Sandy Lane and now the work has started on creating the "after". So far the only obvious change is the removal of the porch.

Misplaced trough

I queried the placement of this plant trough on Ham Parade when it was first put there as it meant that you could not get close to the noticeboard behind it and now that the plants have grown they obscure it almost completely.

It is a lovely plant trough, it is just in the wrong place.

Refurbishment

Martingales Close remains the best place to monitor the work at Orford Place.

This is part of the original house that was there before the redevelopment started and it is being substantially refurbished. There are new windows and the brickwork has been repointed which is making it look more like the brand new block that has been built next to it.  

Small progress

There have been a few changes since I took an almost identical picture a month ago. The main difference is that the black sheeting has gone from the fence so curious people like me can see more of the site.

In the last month the upstairs windows have been added as has the last bit of cladding on that level.

Back gate at Ham House

My last picture from this visit to Ham House is of the back gate, taken simply because it looked lovely in the late afternoon sunlight.

Beyond the gate is Melancholy Walk, the first part of the journey to Richmond Park via Ham Common.

Silent Space

Some sections of The Wilderness at Ham House are planted and several have been left wild. The planted sections are more interesting and now the wild sections have been branded as Silent Spaces to encourage people into them.

Encouraging people to stay a little longer are a few deckchairs; there are two side-by-side at the back of this section.

Parakeet

Parakeets are a common sight across Ham and on this day they were loving the sunflowers in the Kitchen Garden at Ham House.

The Kitchen Garden

The Kitchen Garden at Ham House is always attractive and on this day it was stunning.

The Garden Room

I did not know that Ham House had a Garden Room and I am still not sure what or where it is despite this attractive sign at the front of the house pointing the way to it. 

Loft extension

As loft extensions go, this one in Clifford Road looks good as the existing roof line is being preserved. But that is not why I took the picture, what I really liked was the scaffolding.

Friendly Parks For All

The branding "Friendly Parks For All" meant nothing to me and so, in the absence of any other branding, I Googled it and discovered that it is a new scheme in LB Richmond that is starting in just three of their parks, of which Ham Village Green is one.

The scheme seems to be about accessibility and facilities which Ham Village Green is already pretty good at so I am not sure that this is the herald of anything new.

New paving stones

I do not know what is to become of the Hand and Flower but I do know that it involves a lot of paving stones. A lot of the rear garden is already paved so I suspect that these paving stones are to replace the fake grass at the front.

That fake grass was part of the pub's confusing branding with some of it being cheap and tacky looking (like the fake grass) and some of it being upmarket (like the restaurant).

Richmond Park Closed

Richmond Park was closed today, I believe for some event, and that was indicated by signs at the entrances to Ham Gate Avenue and Church Street. I wish that the park was closed to traffic more often, despite the impact this has on local roads.

The traffic problems caused by the park's closure were exasperated by road works with traffic lights in Upper Ham Road and drivers' being stupid. This section of the road was blocked by north-bound traffic going passed the lights even though their exit was not clear so the south-bound traffic could not move when their lights changed to green.

Some drivers thought that the easy way around this was to drive on the pavement (as I was walking along it) but you do not fix one wrong by making another.

New trees!

Over the years I have been remarking on, and moaning about, the disappearance of trees across Ham so I am delighted to see that a few new trees have started to appear. These two new arrivals are on Dukes Avenue by the junction with Dysart Avenue and there are other new trees further down the road by Broughton Avenue.

Resurfacing Ashburnham Road

Ashburnham Road is being resurfaced. At the Ham Street end the most obvious sign of this is the repainted white lines, at least that is what I noticed first when walking down Back Lane.

Further down the road the work was still in progress, though not actually in progress at the moment this was taken.

Grey fence

Back Road has gained a new grey fence and it a smart addition to a road that looks a little scrappy in places.

A different kind of fence

The entrance to Kestrel Close, off Dukes Avenue, has got a new boundary fence which, for some unaccountable reason, is different to the other fencing in the development. The original fencing most of which remains and some of which can be seen here in the middle-ground, has square fence rails set to make a diamond shape.

Between Dukes Avenue and Maguire Drive

The small plot between Dukes Avenue and Maguire Drive is an unusual shape, it was never intended to be a building plot, and it is possible to view progress from both ends. The only problem is that the building site was the route between the two roads and it is bit of trek now to get from one end to the other.

Above is the view from Dukes Avenue with houses in Dysart Avenue looking on to the site.

The Maguire Drive end has a little dog-leg so I could not get as close to the new buildings from there but this view helps to show how tight the site is with little space between the houses and no gardens behind them. 

New entrance

Orford Place is getting a new entrance onto Ham Common. With many more people living there soon I think that it makes sense. I hear that there are plans to add further entrances onto Martingales Close for the new townhouses on that side of the development, which I think also makes sense.

Removing render

This house sits in a very prominent position on the corner of Craig Road and Dukes Avenue so the changes being made to it are rather obvious, particularly as they are quite dramatic.

The house was rendered many years ago by a previous occupant who did all the work himself; the render was prepared in pits in the back garden (using materials from the gravel pits in Ham Lands) and was applied using a tool he designed and built for that purpose.

The current owners think brick is better, a sentiment I strongly agree with.

The work is very much in progress, it has moved on since this photo was taken, and so far it seems to be going well. The bricks look to be in good condition (at this distance) and while they are not the deep red of the neighbouring house that is still a lot better look than the render was.