Green shutters

It is eight years since I last posted a picture of these delightful green shutters in Ham Street and in that time the trees in the front garden have grown significantly to add some colour and to better frame the house.

New porch and windows

This house in Buckingham Road seems, from the front at least, to be improving nicely. The lost extension looks neat, the new windows are right and the porch in appropriate.

Walls and scaffolding

I keep walking past the former vicarage in Church Road to check on progress and while there was little new this time I was captivated by the new scaffolding and the way that helped to add more rectangular shapes to the composition.

The most notable progress since I last posted a picture in February is the addition of a new wall. The brick is a lot lighted than that used for the house behind it but I am prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt for the moment, sometimes contrast works better than matching.

8 Sandy Lane has been demolished

There is something of a building contest at the east end of Sandy Lane with major works at numbers 6, 8 and 10. It looks as though the biggest of these projects is at number 8 where the perfectly reasonable house has been demolished to be replaced by a much larger one.

Houses in Clifford Road look on with interest.

May Mow

No Mow May is very much a thing this year with the simple message "Just lock up your lawnmower on May 1st and let the wild flowers in your lawn bloom, providing a feast of nectar for our hungry pollinators." It is a simple idea and a good one.

Sadly someone in Broughton Avenue did not get the message.

Gutted

I have looked in on this major project on Petersham Road several times and during the week it was always busy with workers so I waited for a weekend to capture just the house, or what is left of it.

Waiting for white

I dare say that a lot of work is going on inside this large extension in Upper Ham Road though the outside appearance has changed little in recent months. Originally I was going to wait for this all to be rendered white, as I presume it is going to be, before posting an update but I could wait no longer before posting an update.

Swings

As with the BMX track, Richmond Council turns something of a blind-eye to the swing that has swung unofficially in Ham Lands for many years. It is often a busy and raucous spot because who does not like to swing above a deep dip?

Smaller and more timid children have their own little swing to practice on until they are ready for the real thing.

On the ropes

The redevelopment of Latchmere House as Richmond Chase has left the large area between the development and Latchmere Lane abandoned and unloved.

A few trees have been left, which is good, but apart from that the area has been left to grow unplanted and unmanaged and the ridiculous post and rope barriers are already broken in several places.

The Click Studios has closed

Despite being away from any of the local shopping centres The Click Studios on Petersham Road has survived for many years, until now. I do not know the story behind that decision but I suspect that the covid-19 restrictions have played their part.

The agent's sign says that it has been let so we can expect another business to take its place but with pending changes to the planning laws, that will remove the need for permission to change use from commercial to residential, it is likely that we will lose commercial properties like this.

Gerry's Bench

Gerry's Bench has been installed where one of the main paths across Ham Lands meets the towpath and has been angled to look down the river.

A lot of work on the far side of the towpath has been done to create a view of river that had been obscured by scrub.

The work here had been planned by Friends of Ham Lands for some months and following the unexpected death of Gerry Moult it was quickly agreed that the new bench should be dedicated to him.

Pedestrian gate at Petersham Grange

I had to double-check but it is over six months since I reported the arrival of the large gates and associated brick pillars on Petersham Grange with a picture of the entrance on Sudbrook Gardens. This is the Petersham Road entrance where the vehicle gates have finally been joined by a matching pedestrian gate.

Behind Manor House

This is another view of the extensive, and seemingly always empty, Manor House. The house itself sits on Ham Street and this view if from the east end of Cut Throat Alley, with The Palm Centre immediately behind.

As before my main interest is in the new planting in the foreground though it is good to see the large grounds too. Before too long the former will obscure the later so enjoy this view while you can.

More going on in Sandy Lane

The house on the east corner of Sandy Lane and Clifford Road is being extensively refurbished (or replaced) only a short while after major work finished on the house just to the right of it. 

New gates

xxxxThis house in Riverside Drive has some new distinctive gates. There is a large double gate presumably for vehicles (though there is no crossover there) and a smaller matching gate for pedestrians. Together these three gates make up the whole of the front boundary and do so rather neatly.

They are somewhat different from what anyone else has got but I think their size and style fits well enough with the miss-match of walls and fences along that stretch of road, the time has long gone when all the front gardens looked the same.

Ham Food Centre gets a sign

There is still the little matter of the planning application/s to resolve but work continues at Ham Food Centre on Ham Parade. The latest arrival is the shop sign and peering through the windows shows that good progress has also been made on installing the shelving.

Rope nest

I was very tempted to take a picture of the industrial boat moored on Teddington Lock Island anyway and then I noticed the geese and what they were intelligently using for a next.

Tame heron

It was a bright sunny day and this heron was making the most of it, seemingly oblivious to the many people walking along the towpath and ignoring the ones like us who paused a while to take a close and appreciative look at it.

Marlowe maintenance

There is always some work being done on (at least) one of the blocks in Parkleys, which is usually signalled by a lot of scaffolding. Now Marlowe Court is getting some treatment and the obvious sign is the removal of the cladding above the entrance.

Roof repairs

The iconic roof of St Richards has been patched up over the years and while that is perfectly reasonable and understandable it does mean that it shows some of the scars and is losing some of its original colour.

More trees please

I am continually concerned about the way that we seem to be losing more trees than we gain so I like it when residents take matters in to their own hands and plant some in public spaces. These are on the ribbon of grass on Petersham Road by the golf course which could certainly do with more trees.

New flower bed at Ham Cross

The patch of land at Ham Cross has been looking for a purpose for years and may now be getting one through a flower bed. I hope that it gets a bench or two so that people can sit and enjoy it, the only bench there at the moment faces the traffic for reasons that escape me.

I also timed this photo to capture the arrival of some substantial shelving at Ham Food Shelter that had just arrived on the truck on the far left of the picture.

Growing house

In February I said that this it looked as though something substantial is about to happen to this house in Riverside Drive but I did not expect something this substantial. A couple of months later and the brick walls have spread sideways, forwards and upwards. I am pretty sure that they have gone backwards too but that view is now blocked.

My concern, and it is an obvious one, is that the modified house will not fit in comfortably with its neighbours in a long section of road where the houses used to look all the same.

New hut for Petersham & Ham Sea Scouts

This view of the new hut for Petersham &  Ham Sea Scouts shows the nice way that it is broken up into three different sections, with two different colours, so that it has little visible impact despite its overall size.

VN07 GLY on the pavement AND on double yellows

All the other cars parked in Camel Grove were happy to park on the street, where they belong, but the driver of VN07 GLY decided to obstruct the pavement and to ignore the double-yellow lines.

Building and demolishing

Work is well underway on this house in Petersham Road. A new wall is rising on the right and around the back of the property and the two garages at the front have been demolished leaving V shaped scars.

Gap in the fence

I had last walked behind the German School, it is their fence on the right, a couple of weeks previously and then I had had to clamber over the stile to get to Douglas Footpath. Since then a section of the fence has disappeared removing any barrier between the two paths.

This land belongs to 235

This bleached, and almost unreadable sign, warns that the little triangle of land on Petersham Road just north of Sandy Lane belongs to 235 Petersham Road. I am sure that the sign had some colour once but I think that it looks better without, unless you actually want people to be able to read it.

Red plastic barriers

The gas main around Lammas Road and Burnell Avenue is being upgraded and a lot of bright plastic is being used to do so. 

 

There are so many bright red plastic barriers in the area that it is hard to see anything else.

Watch this space

Something is coming to the Gate House Garden on the corner of Ham Common and Upper Ham Road and a hole has been dug ready to receive it. The big clue is on the stick which has written on it "Village sign here".