Full refurbishment at Mervyn Smith

It was last autumn that the roof gave way at Mervyn Smith forcing them to move quickly into an empty unit two doors away. Refurbishment on the original site while slow to start has picked up in recent weeks and it looks as though it will soon be ready for occupation.

Smaller window

I have been watching progress at 33 Ham Farm Road for months and while most of it has been hidden behind plastic sheeting some of it is visible, such as this section of the front of the house. This part is one of the few that has been retained from the original house and even this is changing as the window becomes smaller. 

It is still a little to early to tell but I think the new brick to glass ratio is wrong and the wall looks a bit forbidding.

New gate in Hazel Lane

I walk along Hazel Lane regularly, mostly to avoid traffic-heavy Petersham Road, and while it changes little it does change from time to time and this neat gate is one of those changes.

Clarendon SEND School

I was quite happy to wait for the new building/s on the former Strathmore site on Meadlands Drive to be build before discovering what they were only to have that surprise taken away from an information board on the site hoardings.

The diagram in the middle of the top row gives the new site layout and it seems it will be much like the previous school in form and function (though, of course, different specialist schools serve children with different needs and ages).

Wood over steel

I am intrigued by the construction of the new Little Cottage (on the south-east corner of Sudbrook Lane and Bute Avenue) and have been since it started with a bright yellow metal frame. The wooden roof is another surprise to me. Of course that is not the end of the story and I look forward to seeing what is placed over the wood.

Sudbrook House outbuildings

While Sudbrook House is the main building of the estate there are other interesting buildings worth noting and I like the look of these, made even lovelier by their setting.

Cube Room at Sudbrook House

The Cube Room at Sudbrook House is as grand as the main room in a Palladian should be. Sadly it has lost most of its original colour but the plasterwork is too delicate to even determine what those colours were.

Another angle shows more of the detail in this remarkable room. And what I also find remarkable is that the room is in regular use, it is the club's dining room.

The front of Sudbrook House

It is a shame that the front of the house, facing in to Richmond Park, is partially obscured by a marquee (the gold club is a business after all) but there is more than enough showing to be impressive.

The middle section in white is original, unlike at the back of the house, and is one of the walls to the Cube Room, the literal centrepiece of the house.

Sudbrook House

I have wanted to post pictures of Sudbrook House for years but despite it being semi-public I have not had a good excuse to visit it before so I am very grateful to Ham United Group for organising an architecture tour there. 

Sudbrook House, home of The Richmond Golf Club, is one of the areas more fabulous buildings (in a tough competition) built in the early 1700s with later additions. This is the view of the back of the house, as approached from Sudbrook Lane, and the colonnaded section in the middle is one of those extensions, as is the rather out of keeping block on the left.

Substantial porch

This new porch in Dysart Avenue is substantial in size and in materials used, it may even be more solid that the house it is attached to as well as being wider that the extension.

There is some work to do to integrate the new build with the brick and pebbledash of the old and I will be interested to see what they do.

It looks as though the semi-detached neighbour is having the same porch built at the same time (matching porches will be good) but they had a car plarked in front of it so no photo this time.

New planting

It is only a short while since this area alongside Albany Court in Ashburnham Road looked harsh with the removal of a hedge and already there is cause for optimism with new planting.

Pet Hydration Station

The hoardings around the former Strathmore site on Meadlands Drive are the unexpected home of a Pet Hydration Station.

Standing out

This refurbishment in Martingales Road is all but finished and to me it looks like one of those Spot 5 Things Wrong With This Picture puzzles. 

The removal of the hoardings has exposed the most obvious of the wrong things, the weatherboarding is brown when it should be white in the character of the street.

Wall down

50 Sandy Lane used to have a front wall and something of an arch over the driveway and all that remains is two rows of bricks alongside the pavement. 

I actually quite like the idea of a hedge rather than a wall but I suspect that there will be a new wall instead.

Scaffolding returns

The extensive work on the house on the corner of Lock Road and Back Lane finished last autumn so I was surprised to see scaffolding return so quickly.

Crossing Ham Village Green

The hoardings around the emerging community centre on Ham Village Green have been blocking one of the two paths crossing the Green for several months and while this has not been that much of a problem thanks to the almost complete lack of rain, it is good to see a new path connecting to Ashburnham Road.

Rowleys Bakery is now closed

I have literally bought thousands of loaves of bread from Rowleys on Ham Parade over the years, plus lots of mince pies and hot cross buns, so it has come as something as a shock to read this notice to say that they have closed suddenly.

With hindsight there have been signs with recent short-term closures for things like no flour, but it is still a shock.

Of course this may prove to be another temporary closure or somebody else might move in and make use of the ovens. I can but hope.

Copse boundary

I am still unsure what is happening to the former Strathmore site on Meadlands Drive (but I am not interested enough to find out) and while what is going on in the site is a mystery the new boundary fence is not.

It is a nice fence too and well suited to the location. At the moment it is slightly obscured by the temporary barriers and there is little vegetation in front of it so it will look even better soon.

Lovely lavender

The lavender in Cherry Garden at Ham House goes through a cycle over several years as it grows, gets cut back and grows again and it looks its best when its growth is at, or near, its peak.

More wall repairs

Possibly inspired by the impressive wall works at its neighbour, Stokes House in Ham Street, Bench House is undertaking some wall repairs of its own.

Hedge removed

The area alongside Albany Court in Ashburnham Road is looking very stark, harsh even, with the removal of the hedge that used to be there.

Major project

These works in Sudbrook Gardens look more substantial than they did when I first posted a picture of them in March and there is further evidence of the increased scale with the removal of the lintel above the gate.

LG69 SYJ

Woodville Road closed

Woodville Road is closed for a couple of days to accommodate a very large crane that is lifting stuff  into the Ham Close redevelopment.

Wall work completed

Now that it is finished, I will almost miss checking up on progress on the wall to Stokes House in Ham Street as it has been a pleasure watching the painstaking work being done well. The compensation is that the completed wall is a delight.

I also like that it does not look brand new, even though it is.

TPOs

Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) have been requested for all of the mature trees in the section of Wates Estate along Riverside Drive indicated in the map. 

I guess it is in response to the recent sale of several such plots of land across Wates Estate though it does also pose the question as to why TPOs were not requested earlier. 

Incidentaly, I had a less that helpful discussion with Richmond Council Tree Section on the subkect of TPOs a few years ago when I was looking to see if there was suffiecient protection for trees in Ham and I was told "here is not a list of TPO’s available that is accessible to the public". I noted at the time that Kingston Council has an online Map of Tree Preservation Orders.

Raised panels

Generally I like to see solar panels on roofs though I was a little surprised these in Buckingham Road raised above the roofline so that they are very visible from the road. They could also prove to be an attractive place for pigeons, as mine were when I first installed them!

Two signs

The signs at the entrance to this footpath off River Lane have changed and been added to over recent years and, somehow, I had missed posting the one to Rosebank before.

Flowery shed

This flowery shed brightens up every walk I take along Ashburnham Road.

Bridge repaired

I posted a picture of this bridge connecting Douglas Footpath to the towpath when it was closed for repairs and those repairs have now been done leaving only a change in colour as evidence.

Two times 16

Sixteen Sandy Lane wants you to be sure that this is number sisxteen so it has the house number on both gate posts.

Roof timbers

It is hard to monitor progress on Little Cottage, on the south-east corner of Sudbrook Lane and Bute Avenue, because there are no gaps in the hoardings and I have not been lucky in catching the gate open so the only visible area is the roof so I was plad to catch some action in that area with roof timbers being added to the metal frame.

Butterflies

I really like the way that the decorations on this post are refreshed periodically, this time with butterflies.

Trees removed in Parkleys

This small patch of land, where Parkleys meets Ham Farm Road, has had some adventures in recent months, including the removal of a line of trees in front of the fence on the right which was then replaced. 

The latest change is the removal of two mature fir trees at the far end of the plot (one of the stumps can be seen in the middle) leaving the area almost empty of vegetation.

Let us hope that there is a more positive story for this plot still to come.

Long grass

I do not understand Richmond Council's approach to verge mowing with areas that were left to grow previously being cut this year, e.g. Broughton Avenue, so I was pleased to see some grass left to grow naturally in Sandy Lane.

GG LOC

It is not that unusual to come across a film crew locally but this is the first time that I have done so in Ashfield Close. 

It was the "GG LOC" sign at the entrance to Ceadar Heights that alerted me to the filming but I was intending to check up on those roads anyway.

The Walled Garden

This is quite a modest sign is terms of size and colour but it is sufficient to its purpose of confirming that the gate next to is indeed that to The Walled Garden at the entrance to Sudbrook Gardens.

Temporary repairs

A few weeks ago I mentioned that several of the posts placed at the entrance to Great South Avenue on the north side of Ham Common had been destroyed by incompetent drivers and since then it looks as though at least two of the posts have been reinstated and at least one of those has been knocked out again.

It all seems rather pointless and I will not mention these posts again unless Richmond Council get serious and use a more serious deterrent for bad driving.

I have only mentioned them at all because they are a visual measure of the threats pedestrians face constantly from bad drivers whether crossing the road or just walking along the pavement.

Red bricks

There are two gates into the Ham Close redevelopment site and this is the view through the one at the Ashburnham Road end of the development. Luckily the gate was open as I walked past this time revealing that red bricks are being used in this block, whereas yellow bricks are being used at the other end of the site. 

This use of mixed colours should break up the development visually making it more interesting and much less oppressive.

Bute Gardens

Bute Gardens comprises the first few houses in Sudbrook Lane, e.g. an example of a formal address here is 1A Bute Gardens, Sudbrook Lane, Richmond TW10 7AZ, and this decidedly less formal sign marks its presence. 

New gate for Old Vicarage

When the entrance to The Old Vicarage in Petersham was rebuilt in 2016 it gained a lovely front gate only for that gate to be hidden by ugly solid black metal sheets in 2024, so the band new gate is an improvement on what was there immediately before it but not on what was there before that.

New gate to Langham House

This new, and decidedly modern, gate is to the side entrance of Langham House. Elsewhere it would look great but, for me, it looks a little out of place in an old wall in front of an old building and it would be better in black which is the dominant colour of gates in that area.

Still, it is a nice gate and I dare say that it will grow on me.

Filling the frame

Now that the concrete frame of The Hive (the new community centre being built on Ham Village Green) has been completed the walls are being filled in with breeze blocks and it is starting to look like a building.

Otter

It is always worth walking down what look like less interesting roads because, sometimes, you find interesting things like this otter.

Stokes House door

The wall work at Stokes House is all but complete, there are a couple of pillars still to do, and the latest change is the arrival of a delightfully traditional new front door.

There is a lot to like about the door and its setting and as a deliverer of the Ham and Petersham Magazine I am particularly pleased to see a good sized letterbox and a decent height.

Freeholds for sale

The "For Sale By Auction" signs are not an immediate worry but the auctioneer website says, "The lots offer a variety of potential different uses/further developments" and "The site has previously had a positive pre app commercial, residential & mixed use development with an additional 2.5 stories."

The threat is not immediate as both tenants have leases running to 2029 but that is only four years away.

A new road

As the blocks in the first stage of the Ham Close development take shape so does the road between them. This is the view looking south from Woodville Road.

Not white

The rule here is clearly that fences must be white so it is a shame that somebody has chosen to break ranks and pick a different colour. The one saving grace is that it matches the front door but that is not a good enough excuse.

Dysart construction

Any construction project locally interests me, even one as small as this one in Dysart Avenue.