Pretty porch

"History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes", as someone unknown once said, and this is the case here. In 2017 I said that the remodelled former Ham Institute was bland and then it was rescued with the addition of a porch. A porch also helped another bland house in Cedar Height in 2020. The latest house-saving porch is in Ham Farm Road.

The porch is somewhat hidden by thick vegatation, which is something of a shame as it is the most (only?!) interesting feature of the house.

Leak

There have been a series of leaks around the top end of Ham Parade for as long as I can recall and while Thames Water keep coming back to fix things there is another one flowing gently across the pavement now.

Meadlands joy

Whenever I walk along Meadlands Drive I look forward to seeing this garden, for obvious reasons.

Let it grow

Whether it part of a formal "No Mow May" strategy or not does not really matter, the end result of Richmond Council's reduced mowing scheme is this impressive array of plants growing in the verge on the south side of Ham Common by Cassel Hospital.

20 Years

You may not have seen this sign yet but you will probably recognise both the wall and the style of the writing which are enough to tell you that it is Petersham Nurseries which is celebrating 20 Years.

Pavement blocked

This section of Ham Parade has got increasingly narrow thanks to The Bistro. They always had one A-board next to the tree, which was a little inconvenient, and the recent addition of a second has significantly reduced the space available to the many pedestrians who walk past here.

The situation is made worse by The Bistro, alone among the shops on that side of the Parade, choosing to build out right to the edge of their area significantly reducing the width of the pavement.

Mismatched wall

When I wrote about this extension at the end of last year a praised the choice of bricks for the main building but, sadly, this has not been carried forward to the front wall which matches neither the house or anything else nearby. Most of Maguire Drive has simple and low walls or fences and this is both bigger and inappropriately fancy.

I was also surprised to see that the extension appears to be a separate dwelling, i.e. it has a front door with a letterbox.

Unexpected fence

A defining feature of Wates Estate is that there are no borders (walls or fences) to the front gardens which adds to the lovely open and landscaped feel to the whole area. It is surprising, therefore, both that somebody wanted to spoil this a little by errecting a fence and also that they have been allowed to do so.

Lock maintenence

Given how relatively unimportant waterways are now and how little traffic goes through Teddington Lock, I am surprised at how often major maintenance works has to be done there.

Whatever they are doing here seems to be slightly upstream of the lock gates and is blocking access to the Launch and Skiff Locks.

All but gone

The original Strathmore School has all but gone with only one small section of wall visible from the former entrance on Meadlands Drive.

V111 ETC

Alterations in Martingales Close

Construction sites always interest me because there is so much going on and even with copious sheeting we can see a bright red chute, some blocks, other building supplies and can spy into the house where a banister is exposed.

I have not looked at the plans, preferring to be surprised by the finished product, and I wonder how much difference the alterations will make to the look of the house. Martingales Close does not look like Ham, it's more like Springfield, but there is some consistency of style which is welcome.

Two tones

The hoardings around the Ham Close redevelopment site have been painted dark blue where facing the roads and light green where facing St Richard's School. Here the two tones collide at a corner on Ashburnham Road.

Starbarks is open

Starbarks, the new dog-friendly cafe on Ham Parade, had a soft opening for Ham Market and has since opened fully complete with signage.

Bench upgrade

These two benches have replaced two basic ones that had no backs or sides so thay are a significant and welcome upgrade.

Changing a neat house

It is four years since I wrote about this house on Ham Street and then I approved of it so it will be interesting to see if these works change the character of it at all. I did see a planning application to double the size of the house but this does not look like this is what they are doing now.

Stokes House scaffolding

Like many locals, I have visited Stokes House on Ham Street quite a few times when the gardens there have been open for charity so it is a building that I know fairly well. It changed hands recently and the new owners are having things done, as new owners often do. 

At this stage I am more interested in the scaffolding than the changes to the house, though I will be looking out for those too as the work progresses.

Two greens

I do not know why this box needed to be painted, it could have been something like weathering or graffiti, and I know even less why they decided to paint only half of it.

Wet woods

It's bit of a detour but it is always worth walking through Petersham Lodge Woods, mostly because so few other people do. It is not a large wood and there is only one path through it but it is worth it for the solitude and the wet are along the south edge.

This area has always been damp and is often flooded and on this day I caught it somewhere in the middle, wet and still walkable.

Hansons Auctioneers

After a year or so, the former M&J Hardware shop has come back to life as Hansons Auctioneers. They have several locations and they are billing this as their London one. Hopefully that level of commitment means that we will get a proper shop sign and, maybe, a decent frontage too.

Irrespective of how it looks, an auctioneer and valuer is a niche service and will do little to bring more people to the Parade.

Sandy Lane hotchpotch

I am often critical of Sandy Lane and that is because of houses like this. What was once a fine period house has been ruined by an inappropriate renovation that takes no account of the house's heritage.

The too simple grey windows are the most obvious error and there is also the modern front door in a strange colour, the not very well matched bricks in the crude extension and the over paving on the front garden.

Different greens

When walking along the north side of Ham Common in March I noticed this door being prepared for painting so I took a "before" photo intending to take an "after" photo a day or so later. I was thwarted in this by a car on the drive the next few times that I walked past and I was not able to take the comparrison photo until the end of April. I think it was worth the wait.

I like the new green, it is very contemporary (not always a bad thing!) and it makes a more positive statement than the old lighter green. I also like that they have painted the letterbox the same colour.

Ground floor

All I know about construction I got from Grand Designs and watching it being done so I may be completely wrong here but it looks to me as though the ground floor of the new 25 Ham Farm Road is constructed from pre-cast concrete brought on to the site in slabs rather than being poured as a liquid and then felt to set.

Mervyn Smith joins the blue trend

The first photo I took of Mervyn Smith was in early 2007 when the shop frontage was white then, later that year, it added splashes of green, and now it has gone blue in a big way.

The branding has changed with the times too and I like the latest look for its clarity and simplicity.

Newark Lodge lion

Newark Lodge, squeezed into the corner between Petersham Road and Sudbrook Lane, is cute in many ways and so has featured here a few times over the years, but I have been remise in not highlighting the lion at the top of the building before.

Blue boards

The enclosure of part of Ham Close in preparation for complete redevelopment is all but complete and the recently installed boards are being painted a fetching dark blue.

Steps

I had started to visit The Shires, off Church Road, more often to check on progress at Cedarwood and finding this pyramid of scaffolding was an unexpected bonus. All scaffolding is good and this is better than usual thanks to the steps up at the front.

Wates gardens

The best thing about Wates Estate is its layout and part of this is the way that the open aspects to the properties make the front gardens part of the communal experience which encourages owners to make the most of those spaces. And the owners of these two properties have certainly done that. It is a delight to walk past their gardens.

Stick

I am somewhat underwhelmed by the bew tree at the entrance to Martingales Close on thr north side of Ham Common. A large bushy tree has been replaced by a stick that is so small it is all but invisible. The two posts holding it up are far more obvious and will be for quite some time.

The base is not much better. Having been first paved in error it has been necesary to cut a space for the tree and that has left a messy edge.