Front wall at Langham House

I walked past Langham House, on the south side of Ham Common, while two workmen were busy on the front wall and I made a note to go back a couple of days later to see the end result. They did a great job!

The wall is now a delicious mix of old bricks and new mortar. It has also kept its slight bulge at the far end caused by the tree's attempt, over many years, to escape its confines.

Stretton Road

I think that it is a shame that this sign is partially obscured by vegetation as I find it rather interesting. 

It is fixed to a brick wall, which is always a good sign, and it is unusual in that it is a bold typeface with slight serifs. I have mentioned a few street signs with bold typefaces and others with slight serifs but I think this is the first one with both.

The serious work begins

Construction machinery is always going to catch my attention so when a digger appeared in the front garden of Jude Gate I was pleased to be there to record it. After a slow start to the project this was a sign that the serious work was about to begin.
 

There was another sign a couple of days later when the view of the house was completely blocked by hoardings, the bane of the curious walker!

Yet another extension in Burnell Avenue

It is hard to find a house in Burnell Avenue that has not been extended sideways and/or upwardards and this is one of the very last to fall to this temptation.

Please keep the driveway entrance clear

Not an exceptional sign perhaps, though certainly one worth remarking on. 

The background colour is good choice for drawing attention, the text is clear and polite, and the font avoids distracting serifs.

It is probably a sign of its age that the top four lines have not been kerned to make them the same length and I am sure that I would have spent some time doing just that if I was writing this sign now.

Temporary fence

The sage of the fences around Parkleys Sewage Pumping Station on the edge of Ham Common Woods continues!

This year the situation has been no fence, permanent fence, no fence and now temporary fence. I presume that Thames Water expect to conclude the saga with a permanent fence and are now going through the correct procedures to erect one, having ignored this procedure previously.

It does not bode well for their plans to do extensive works for the new river abstraction at Teddington.

Two street signs

If anyone ever writes a piece on the history of street signs in Richmond with the variations in fonts and information provided then I would love to read it but, until then, I will content myself with taking photographs of the ones that I find interesting.

This sign at the Sudbrook Lane end of Hazel Lane is oddly low, aimed at dogs perhaps, and is notable for the clear sans serif font and the lack of other information. This is all that a sign needs to be.

 

This Mead Row sign is a distorted mirror view of the first. It is unusually high and while it is equally simple the font is slightly less easy to read because it is less thick. It has serifs but these are quite small and do not detract from the legibility.

Obviously the rust is an issue but if Mead Road gets a new sign then I hope that this one is left behind as a small piece of local history.

Frontage to The Cottage

The Cottage in Sudbrook Lane with its neat side extension has not got a neat frontage too.

The frontage is significantly grander that the house behind it, despite the extension, and reinforces my previous opinion that the house is poor use of the space available and the location. 

New grass

The busy path from Riverside Drive to the Teddington Lock Footbridges does not need much maintenance and I think that it is only recently that I have noticed any being done when the cutting back of the verges on both sides of the path. Large turfs have been placed loosely on this recently cleared area in the hope and expectation that they will take root there and keep the brambles at bay.

It is too early (for me) to tell what grasses they have used but I hope that it is a wild mix that grows to look as though it belongs in the countryside rather than a back garden.

Large garage

After faltering progress over many months the extended garage at the far end of Northweald Lane looks to be drawing to completion.

The unusual steepness of the roof, for a garage, makes it look unnaturally bulky and suggests that it may be used for more than just storing cars.

Three lines

I love the rear terrace at Ham House and have posted a few pcitures of it over the years. The excuse for posting this one is the arrangement of pots and planters in to three neat lines.

297 Petersham Road

I am not normally as well prepared as this but when I saw a planning application submitted to remove the front wall at 297 Petersham Road I thought that I would take a photo of it before it went.

It is not a special wall and the neighbours' lost their's ages ago so I guess there is no reason to keep it. I will miss it though both for its own charm, which good planting would quickly emphasise, and because it risks making that whole section a car park with the increased difficulties for pedestrians that will bring.

New rooms at Malden Oaks

I saw the large crane in action on Dukes Avenue by the junction with Craig Road but when I went out later to take a photo it had gone with only the mats used to protect the grass left as evidence of the use of heavy machinery.

 

The reason for using the crane could be seen over the fence to Malden Oaks where new portakabins had been placed. 

Ham Gate Avenue relaxes

Shorn of almost all of its motorised traffic Ham Gate Avenue is a real pleasure to walk down and it does not take many steps away from Petersham Road for the stillness to assert itself. 

Sadly the road will be opened to cars again one day and then it will be nice to have this memory of what the road was like and could be like again if the people running Richmond Park came to their senses and closed Ham Gate to cars as they have Sheen Gate (except for access to the car park there).

New porch

Work to extend and refurbish what used to be a shabby house in Clifford Road is well underway and the most obvious sign of that work is the addition of a new porch.

Beating the badgers

The access road to Ham Polo and Deutsche Schule London had been made unsafe by badgers burrowing under it and was closed while repairs were done. These have been finished and the road is open again with a section of new surface to show for it.

The wooded area on the far side of the road has been cut right back and I hope that this is just a coincidence rather than an attempt to force the badgers, a protected species, away from that area.

Kitchen Garden at Ham House

I have often said that the Kitchen Garden at Ham House is always worth a visit, because it is, and on this occasion I think it looked even better than ever. It is a real gem and there is a cafe there to enjoy it from too.

Completing the line

Way back in April I noted that the redrawing of the white line dividing the footpath through Royal Park Gate had finished unexpectedly at the junction with Horsley Drive and now, four months later, it has been completed.
 

There are new bike symbols too, though these will be ignored by pedestrians and cyclists alike. Sharing the path works fine but the segregation does not.

More damage

While the demolition of Ham Gate is the most spectacular (in a bad way) current example of damage caused by motorists it is not the only one. 

Obviously it took some force to knock out this post which strongly suggests that the motorist responsible was not paying any attention to the 20mph signs, or to the keep left sign on the island either.

We should not have to put up with this regular damage caused by irresponsible motorists or to the danger they present to other people.

Summerhouses at Ham House

One of the delights of exploring The Wilderness at the far end of the garden at Ham House is coming across the two small round summerhouses in the 17th-century style lurking in two separate sections of the multi-faceted garden.

 

The Ham House website says that they are the "perfect place to put your feet up or shelter from showers while you enjoy the season’s changing views" but their main purpose seems to be as hiding places for small children, and a mighty fine purpose that is too.

Ham Library Community Space

I posted a picture of the extension at Ham Library which holds the Community Space soon after it was constructed in 2014 and some time in the intervening nine years it has gained the "Ham Library Community Space" sign.

The sign has probably been there for a long time but I only noticed that it had been added when I was looking for a photograph of the Community Centre for an event being held there recently.

Ham Gate gone

The news of the demolition of Ham Gate by an incompetent motorist spread quickly and I saw, and responded to, many comments about it on X (Twitter). Most of these were dismayed at the loss of the dratic gates but welcomed the prospect of having that entrance to Richmond Park closed to motorists for months to come, and that is a view that I share. Already walking around the area is much nicer.

Meadow on Ashburnham Road

This has been a good year for wildflower meadows, like this one on the bend of Ashburnham Road by St Richard's Church.

Even the messiness of the construction works or the ugliness of the cars can hide the sheer beauty of the flowers and grasses.

Update on 29 Ham Farm Road

It has been a few months since I have given an update on 29 Ham Farm Road largely because there has been little visible progress but an open gate, one of my favourite things, is a good excuse to give one now.

I like the construction clutter but am not yet impressed by the garage that, from this angle at least, looks like an unwanted box attached to the main house.

Studio 432 has closed

Studio 432 has closed very suddenly and unexpectedly, as this notice in the shop window explains. There has been a pottery painting play place there since Wendy's Workshop opened in 2009, with Studio 432 superseding it in 2019, and it will be much missed. 

This comes at a time when Ham Parade already has three charity shops and two empty units.

Another view of Ham House

I visit Ham House several times a year, and not just for the cafe, and each visit includes a walk through the rear garden to enjoy the house from its best angle. 

I have posted several photos of Ham House from there and have tried to justofy this by picking a slightly different view each time. Here my excuse is the meadow that has grown gloriously in The Plats.

Fences removed

One of the aims of this blog is to capture Ham as it changes and this is one of those cases where those changes have come quickly.

Parkleys Sewage Pumping Station, on the edge of Ham Common Woods just off Ham Gate Avenue, has looked much like this for decades (though the addition of the word "sewage" to the sign might be new) until July when it was suddenly enclosed in a tall green fence. This has gone just as quickly as it came but I have the photo to prove that it was there.

 

Similarly these two covers nearby were recently protected by a substantial barrier. 

There is no obvious reason for this but, given that this is a conservation area, planning rules are  possibility.

Growing in all directions

This house in Chivenor Grove, Royal Park Gate is being extended in all directions as the differently coloured brick shows. I guess this is an example of the Location, Location, Location rule (which the programme of the same name completely ignores) in that you can change the wrong house in the right location but you cannot change the right house in the wrong location.

Insulating St Andrew's

It was bit of a challenge clambering around the graveyard (respectfully) trying to get a decent angle for this photograph but it was worth it for the sheer industry. This is a place of peace transformed externally into a place of work.

The piles of insulating materials outside the church explain one purpose of the scaffolding and sheeting but there may be other things going on too.

Latchmere House from Latchmere Lane

When I took a similar picture of Latchmere House in 2020 it was to highlight the uniterupted view of the house and this time I have zoomed out a little to show the context. And here I was wrong. 

In 2021 I called the patch of open ground between Latchmere Lane and Richmond Chase "abandoned and unloved" but this year it is a lovely meadow.