Water works

The works I mentioned a few days ago at the junction of Ham Gate Avenue and Petersham Road continue all the way up to and in to Church Road and there are several open sections that give more of a clue as to the nature of the work.

I've called this post "water works" on the assumption that this is a pipe rather than a cable, though there is a Danger Electricity sign in the centre of the access cover. Whatever it is, it looks industrial and that is good enough for me.

Blue wall

It is impossible not to notice this blue end-wall when walking along Broughton Avenue from Simpson Road to Lock Road. It is a little daring and I like it for that.

New section of wall

The rear wall to Beaufort House, which faces on to Wiggins Lane, has featured here a couple of times before which is fitting for a wall of this stature and prominence. It gets mentioned this time because a section of it has been replaced.

Asymmetric garage

The new garage on the junction of Northweald Lane and Biggin Hill Close looks all but complete now that the door has been added and the approach has been paved. It also looks a little wonky.

I have spent more time than is healthy counting bricks to try and understand the wonkiness better and while the door looks to be placed in the centre the RSJ above it is not and the roof extends further on the left than on the right.

Black fence

This seems to be the season for fences and none of the other changes are as dramatic as this one on the corner of Ham Common and Lock Road that has gone from a safe brown to a striking black. The contrast with the white wall makes it even more dramatic and interesting.

Concrete slab

My plan not to take too many photographs of the redevelopment of Ham Close hit an early problem and I had to take this picture of the concrete slab at the Woodville Road end of the site.

Ham Gate Avenue works

Some work is going on in Ham Gate Avenue next to the junction with Petersham Road and while there is not much activity there is evidence in the form of disturbed ground and barriers.

Winter wreath

On my most recent visit to Ham House there was nothing new or different in the gardens that I found worth taking a photograph of so I was pleased to discover this winter wreath on the rear gates as I made my way home.

Avenue Lodge fence

The east boundary of Great South Avenue is being changed dramatically by both the new metal fence around Bull Meadow at the north end and the repair of the long wooden fence at Avenue Lodge at the south end.

A new fence

And this is what all the work at Bull Meadow is for, a neat and functional fence.

The usual Nimbys made a fuss when the planning application for this new fence was submitted but, as is usually the case, they have been proved wrong and the new fence is a marked improvement on the old one.

Preparing for a new fence

There is a lot of activity along the edges of Bull Meadow as a new fence is installed. This view is looking parallel to Great South Avenue where the old fence has been removed and space has been made for the new one.

Bird box

Bird boxes are a good idea and even more so when they are as cute as this one. I am sure that the decorations mean nothing to the birds that I hope are using it but they brighten up a walk along Sudbrook Lane.

Raft

There is clearly a story behind this raft moored by Teddington Lock which looks as though it was constructed on Scrapheap Challenge to do something like transport a horse across the river.

Green and red

I took this photograph not particularly to mark the progress on the new roof, it was more because I liked the contrasting colours of the green fabric and the red battens.

New roofs and solar panels

A lot of work is being done to the roofs of several properties in Meadlands Drive, including these three in the little square opposite Buckingham Road. These three have all got new tiles and also solar panels (though not the house in the corner).

I could not tell from the current state of the work whether all the houses were getting solar panels but as most of Meadlands Drive faces north any panels will be hidden at the backs of the houses.

Protecting badgers

The fence around Bull Meadow (the playing fields for Grey Court) is being replaced, and it needs to be, but first some work is being done to protect the badgers in the area; as explained on the information board.

Christmas pole

When I posted a picture of this post earlier in the year it was delightfully decorated with My Little Ponies and Batmen, and now it has adopted a seasonal look with twigs from a fir tree stuffed with model deer.

Work in progress

I am trying not to take too many photographs of the redevelopment of Ham Close, despite my love for all things industrial, as I do not want to post dozens of very similar pictures over the many years of construction but this is the first phase so it deserves a little more attention.

The trench and the piles of earth dug out to create it are the main feature at the moment.

84

84 Buckingham Road has gone for a decidedly traditional sign for its house number which is ridiculously easy to read, as it should be.

Barrier

I am a not sure why a barrier has been constructed here as all that lies behind it is part of Ham Common Woods and there are plenty of other places where you can squeeze past the bushes if you are desperate to get in.

At least it is something to look out for in the next series of Ludwig where that section of the woods is often shown.

LG60 HGP

Behind 29 Ham Street Ham

This is the back of 29 Ham Street Ham, as seen from Back Lane, and the building works have continued since my last update in September. The garden room, at the back of the garden, has been completed, as has the rear wall and gate. I thought that was going to be the end of the building works and was surprised to see a shed appear in the middle of the garden.

Emerging roof

This rebuilding in the grounds of Manor House in Ham Street is largely hidden behind a sumptuous brick wall and only the emerging roof is visible.

Little Orchard has gone

Just over a year ago I posted a picture of Little Orchard, on the south-east corner of Sudbrook Lane and Bute Avenue, because there was a planning application to have it demolished and that prophecy has come true.

Tree spot

This post is in the Wates Estate section of Ashburnham Road, opposite Ferrymoor, and heralds the arrival of a tree.

A very long arm

I was seriously impressed by the machine used to pur concrete into the foundations of the new Ham Close development and I had to take the photo at this angle to get all of the arm in the picture. 

Anyone who understand basic physics will know that at that length the arm will have a very large Moment (turning effect) on the several pivots and it takes good engineering to keep the arm straight and in the air.

Dormer windows and more

The dormer windows are the main treat here but the whole picture is an architectural delight from the tops of the chimneys down to the brick decorations in the walls.

These delights can be found at the entrance to the lane leading to Petersham Nurseries.

Mallard expands

Mallard is a semi-detached house made prominent by its location on the corner of Sandy Lane and Arlington Road and it is along Arlington Road that it is expanding into two blocks that bear little relationship to the original house.

b.t.w. this is one of several houses that I have been in that have been updated in the last couple of years. When your kids go to local schools you get to visit lots of houses which is great for the architecturally curious!

Steps

There is so much to enjoy at Ham House and these steps are one of those things.

A line of barriers

Somebody is doing something in Riverside Drive, at the Ham Street end, and there is a line of red barriers showing where it is being done.

New Owner New Wines

Taylor's Wines has been in its current location since 2018 and I have bought a few wines (and champagnes) from there over the years. Now the white writing in the window announces that it has a New Owner and that means New Wines. 

Stokes House scaffolding

I took a similar picture of Stokes House (Ham Street) back in May when the scaffolding was going up and, for the same reason, I like scaffolding and I like it even more when it is as exposed against the sky as this.

The now revealed house has a new roof and the walls have new render.

Coloured panels

The hedge in the foreground, on Croft Way, has had a severe cutting back exposing some colourful panels at Meadowview Nursery.

Three chimneys

There is nothing particularly special or unusual about these chimneys at the entrance to Cedar Heights  (as far as I can tell), they just look good, and that is enough to get them noticed.

Repaving Riverside Drive

I did not think that there was anything wrong with the paving on the north side of Riverside Drive as it approaches Hardwicke Road but LBRuT had different ideas and have repaved it all.

Pile driver

Work is continuing at both ends of Ham Close with new flats at the western end and a community centre in the south-east corner where a pile driver was in action.

EB 1835

Newark Lodge, on the junction of Petersham Road and Sudbrook Lane, has a lion plaque giving its name and date of birth and this engraved stone confirms that date and suggests that someone with the initials EB was involved in the birth.

Looking closely at the font I admire the thin strokes of the "E", "3" and "5" and that the main difference between those two numbers is the size of the top strokes.  

Happy faces

One of me golden rules for collecting these photographs is to regularly walk every road in Ham, including all the no-trough-roads like Randle Road which wanders a short distance off Craig Road. Even quiet places like this have interesting things to see and changes to note.

These three happy faces above one of the doors was well worth the walk into then out of the road.

Two Mervyn Smiths

I am impressed. After an incident at their main office, the nearest one on the right, Mervyn Smith quickly fitted out the shop vacated by he Ballet Boutique so that they could work from there and have added all their branding to make it a proper Mervyn Smith office.

There is a helpful notice on the original office door, just in case you did not notice the new office two doors down. This also says that the new office is temporary.

Re-refreshing Avenue Lodge

After being comprehensively refreshed in 2023, Avenue Lodge is being worked on again.

The scope of the work is much smaller this time and from Great South Avenue you can see the scaffolding and sheeting covering the north face of the lodge.

Old Strathmore site

All that is left of the old Strathmore School is a large concrete slab.

I have posted pictures of this site before but not previously from this angle where the foundations are more prominent. This is the view from the lane to the German School and Ham Polo.

Broken finial

The side gate to Ham House garden is majestic but slightly damaged.

One of the finials has obvious cracks in it and so the area around it, on both sides of the wall, has been roped of to keep people away.

Scaffolding and more

The maintenance works on Teddington Bridge have entered their final stages.

The works being done now are "replacing the bearings on lockcut bridge" and while the works themselves are not visible an impressive amount of stuff is required to do it.

One minor point, the text quoted above refers to "lockcut bridge" whereas previously it was called "Lock Cut Bridge". This supports my suspicion that the name has been made up for the repairs.

Repainted lines

I was wondering what was going to happen in Locksmeade Road.

I was walking down Dukes Avenue late one night when I saw No Parking cones in Locksmeade Road and Thamesgate Close so I speculated why they might be there. I thought that they might be going to resurface the roads, despite them being in reasonable condition and also being quite roads, so seeing fresh yellow lines was something of a relief.

Another new porch

There seems to have been a flurry of new porches in the Buckingham Road area.

I am something of a fan of the simple original porches but I can see why they are being replaced (they offer very little protection from the weather) and I like that there is a consistency, in this area at least, in what they are being replaced with. The design is simple and is spot-on, brick built with a pitched roof.

Unsafe memorial

Several gravestones in St Andrew's, on Church Road, have been marked as unsafe.

The signs are eye=catching, as they should be, but are not very attractive so I hope that they are just a prelude to some restoration work to make them all safe again.

Pumpkins on display

This impressive display of pumpkins is in the kitchen garden at Ham House.

Second Hand?

I spent too many hours proof reading business documents at work not to spot this.

This should be "secondhand" because it is one word in this context, when written as two words it means part of a clock face. To make matters worse, the very tight kerning of the letters with some even overlapping, e.g. the final "O" and "P", means that the erroneous space between the words is more obvious.

Gunam Cottage

A famous red brick has got some company.

The red brick at 7 Upper Ham Road featured here in 2009 and pops up in local forums from time to time. Following extensive renovations of the property it has been joined by both a house name, Gunam Cottage, and a rather pretty number 7.

Individually all three signs have their merits but I think that they clash more than the compliment each other.

Immaculate fence

This is the second time that I have commented on the fence on the north side of Dukes Avenue by Craig Road.

Way back in 2008 (!) I admired the haphazard nature of the fence that was then made up of uneven lengths of grey wood. It had its charm but its days were always numbered and that day has been reached. The new fence is uniform and pristine, it looks like a photo from a "how to construct a fence" article.

It is very different from the old fence and I like the new one too, just for different reasons.