The Hand & Flower pub sign

The "coming soon" banner for the refurbished Hand and Flower, which appeared in July, included a new logo and that design has been used for the pub sign. It is a very good sign and I hope that the pub lives up to the expectations it creates.

More filming

Filming has started again in Ham Farm Road. Given the location, I presume that this is for more Ludwig which uses a house there as the home for the principal characters while also using multiple other locations in Ham.

Large footprint

I took this photo mostly because I love the frame of scaffolding at the front and the other assorted items associated with the construction of the new 16 Sandy Lane. Looking through the clutter it is just possible to determine the footprint which extends across the whole plot, as they all do these days, and extends back further on the right side.

It is going to be a very big house, even by the standard of its neighbours.

Waiting for white

Amidst Cadent's clutter on Ham Street, one of the cottages is getting a little refresh and is waiting for some white paint to complete the work.

Ham House terrace

Not my first picture of the terrace at the back of Ham House and almost certainly not the last either. It is an inviting place that encourages you to walk to one of the benches at the far end and look back along the full length of the terrace.

Grey Court glimpse

I took the opportunity of the school holiday to take a photograph of the new building on the Ham Street side of Grey Court but while the people were absent the leaves were not so it was only a glimpse.  What can be seen looks good though its the function matters far more than its appearance.

I am hoping to get a fuller picture in autumn or winter.

Tall wall

As part of the refurbishment of 17 Sudbrook Gardens, it has gained a front wall that is both unexpectedly tall and uncharacteristically light in colour. Some of the original wall can be seen on the right, behind the lamp post, and the contrast between the old and the new is vast.

Occupied

Phase 1 of the Ham Close is sufficiently completed for some of the homes to be occupied and while I was watching a family was being shown one of the homes in the block in the middle of the picture.

The playground, walkway and planting are all good signs of a well designed development. And it was good to see the reborn Little House next to the playground.

Seeing more of Gordon House

With all of the plastic sheeting and a lot of the scaffolding gone, most of the refurbished Gordon House is there to be seen.

Battered bollard

Richmond Council's attempt to control bad motorists from abusing the approach to the small parking area on the north side of Ham Common, at the entrance to Great South Avenue, have had another setback when some spectacularly bad driving damaged one of the posts, the same one that was knocked over in March.

Perhaps cars should be banned from this area totally to protect the many walkers and dogs who use this route.

To Richmond Park

This is the view from the terrace behind Ham House looking through the gardens towards Melancholy Walk, visible beyond the gates, with Richmond Park the ultimate destination.

Sudbrook Gate

I presume that the house Sudbrook Gate, in Sudbrook Lane, gets its name from its proximity to the entrance to Sudbrook Park (home to The Richmond Golf Club) but while it references another gate its own gate is rather good.

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Traffic free

It was a real pleasure to discover that Cadent's work there had closed Ham Street to through traffic and being able to walk along the wide flat road rather than the narrow uneven pavement.

Public Bar

The current refurbishment of The Hand and Flower has revealed another little piece of its history, signage for the Public Bar on a door that has not been used for many years.

New garden

The long and extensive work to 31 Ham Farm Road seems to have been completed with the planting of the gardens. Unlike number 29 (top-right corner) they have created a lawn in the strip that is part of Ham Common and only planted shrubs in the private area.

Truncated tree

I do not know what this tree in Broughton Avenue did to deserve this fate but it has been sawn down to about one metre with the tape suggesting that some unexpected incident was involved.

Green and yellow

The Hand and Flower has gone green and yellow which is a very different look from the former grey and white.

There is work ongoing, including to the former door to the public bar and to the illuminated sign, but the basic mood has been set.

Building something

Something substantial is being built in the access lane off Broughton Avenue that runs behind houses in Lock Road. It is hard to tell yet whether it is a garage at the end of the lane or a building at the back of a garden.

Remains of a pond

A few months ago I commented that a pond in Ham Common Woods had almost vanished and, unsurprisingly, it has now gone completely. The greenery suggest that this is a damp place, one of the very few remaining in the Woods, possibly the only one.

Shaped hedges

Wates Estate is delightfully littered with small open spaces, like this one on Broughton Avenue opposite Mariner Gardens, where the shaped hedges are an unusual and attractive feature.

Scorched

Ham Common Woods looks a different place after several weeks of extreme heat and no rain. The vegetation has either wilted or turned brown making a walk through it more disturbing than delightful.

More planters for Ham Parade

The recycling bins on Ham Parade have never worried that much as it is a cluttered section anyway with the bush shelter, bench, information board and vehicles coming and going from the parking spaces at the end  but I do appreciate that they are unattractive and so the array of new planters around them is to be welcomed.

Another bollard is demolished

There has been another casualty in the never-ending war between bad motorists and the bollards designed to protect us from them. This bollard fell in the line of duty on the corner of Upper Ham Road and Ham Common, an area very familiar with the antics of bad drivers.

Watering Ham Polo ground

On the Ham United Group (HUG) Annual Architectural Tour 2026 of Ham Polo Club we were told repeatedly of the importance of keeping the horses safe and that includes keeping the ground soft enough which they do using this impressive rain-maker.

The water used for this comes directly from the river, under licence, and we were shown the pump that they use. It was just another example of how well run the whole operation is.

Doing something in Church Road

I was only here for a few minutes and that was not enough to work out what was going on but whatever it is it is restricting a large section of Church Road, you can just about see one of the traffic lights in the middle of the picture and the other set were about the same distance away in the other direction.

There were not many workers there which suggests that they might have been setting up and the only significant machine was a small digger suggesting that the road was were the work is being done.

Stables at Ham Polo

The Ham United Group (HUG) Annual Architectural Tour 2026 of Ham Polo Club was a fabulous event where I learned many unexpected things about a place I have walked past hundreds of times. One of those things was that there are around one hundred horses stabled there and this is just one of the blocks of stables where they are kept.

While we there we saw several horses out doing things and behind the scenes it is a busy place. Looking after all those horses are a dozen or so grooms who live on the site.

Greenery and flowers on Ham Lands

The weather station at Kew Gardens recorded zero rain in July for the first time since it started operating 155 years ago, and this shows in the acres of yellow grass that can be seen everywhere. Luckily we still have greenery and flowers in some places in Ham and especially in Ham Lands.

This view brightens up the main crossing from Teddington Lock to Croft Way.

Arena Polo

Wikipedia tells me, "Outdoor or "field" polo is played on a 300-by-160-yard grass field, while indoor or "arena" polo is played on a smaller 300-by-150-foot dirt arena." and it was on the Ham United Group (HUG) Annual Architectural Tour 2026 that I learned of the existence of Arena Polo and that Ham Polo has this arena in the north-east corner of their grounds.

On the border

Borders are often problematic, and the Richmond/Kingston border in Ham is no different. The last boundary changes improved matters but still left us with Sainsbury on Ham Parade calling itself "Kingston Upper Ham Road Local" because it has a KT2 postcode, and the boundary extending down Duke's Avenue so that is can include Malden Oaks.

The latest issue is caused by Richmond Council's decision to stop allowing Lime bikes into the Borough, leading to collections of bikes on the Kingston side of the border as riders discover that they can go no further. The most obvious places for the bikes to collect are on the towpath and on Richmond Road but the problem stretches to places like Horsley Drive in Royal Park Gate.

Tall fence

The small development of House in Kestrel Close and Dukes Avenue were built around thirty years and for all that time the low timber fences have been a prominent feature so the decision of 27 to build something substantial and solid is bit of a surprise.

The Hand & Flower

Firstly, an explanation. I had to crop this photo because the lower part had a reflection of me in it and I could not take another one as this moment has past.

The reason for my keenness to post this is because it shows part of an older sign, now painted over, where the name includes an ampersand. I do not know when that got replaced with "and" but all the photos here going back to 2007 have "and" rather than "&".

Ham House

The final picture from my most recent visit to Ham House is my favourite, which is the view of the back of the house. Always wonderful, the view this time is enhanced by the planting before and on the terrace.

Extensive work on Hand and Flower

The coming soon poster for The Hand and Flower says "beautiful refurbishment underway" and the initial signs are good. When the pub was last refurbished in 2022 that amounted to little more than a fresh coat of paint and it quickly looked shabby, so it is good to see them doing the job properly and going back to the brick.

Draining the lock

The Launch Lock at Teddington Lock is still in the middle of some serious reconstruction work, as it has been since the end of last year, and there is little sign of the work ending any time soon. I wanted to post an update and with everything looking much the same I used the excuse of the lock being drained through the pipe on the left.

Former cricket pavilion

We learned a lot about the history of Ham Polo Club and of their current site on the Ham United Group (HUG) Annual Architectural Tour 2026, including that the section of the their ground nearest the river, and behind their club house, used to be a cricket ground and this rather charming pavilion dates from those days.

New entrance to Little Orchard

The is the new entrance to the rebuilt Little Cottage from Bute Avenue. While not remarkable in itself it is markedly different from the previous entrance which was a gate with railings set back from the road with hedges on either side.

The new solid gate and the lack of greenery in front of the wall makes this a more austere and less welcoming entrance.

Cherry Garden at Ham House

I have posted quite a few pictures of the Cherry Garden at Ham House over the years but never from this angle before, not that I really need an excuse to post another one.

SOLAR sign

Save Our Lands and River (SOLAR) have been campaigning against Thames Water's TDRA (Teddington Direct River Abstraction) scheme for a couple of years and have organised and participated in many events to spread their message. This sign comes from their latest one.

Polo player

We were given a tour of all of the facilities at Ham Polo Club on the Ham United Group (HUG) Annual Architectural Tour 2026 but we skipped this statue so I have no idea who this is or even if it is somebody specific.

Its placement is rather out of the way and I hope that it about to be moved somewhere more prominent, as it deserves.

Kitchen Garden border

While the main beds in the Kitchen Garden at Ham House deservedly attract the most attention the border along the dividing wall is also well worth paying some attention to.

Ham Polo Club canopy

This is a closer look at the canopy on top of the Ham Polo Club pavilion. I took this picture simply because I like the construction.

[This is one of the pictures that I took on the Ham United Group (HUG) Annual Architectural Tour 2026]

Ham Polo Club pavilion

Visiting Ham Polo Club had been on my to-do list for decades (and it was only £2 to go when I first had the idea) so I was glad when the Ham United Group (HUG) Annual Architectural Tour 2026 gave me the unmissable opportunity to go. I will be posting a few pictures of it over the next couple of weeks or so, starting with the familiar pavilion which I had previously only seen from the distant Ham Avenues.

Teddington Lock garden

Teddington Lock is dominated by the extensive works to the Launch Lock, and has been for several months, so it is good to see that the garden there is still looking good.

Dead trees

A few trees were planted along the edge of The Copse by the boundary to the new Clarendon SEND School but the pleas to "Please Water Me" were ignored and they died. 

To be fair, it was somewhat optimistic to expect them to be watered without organising people to do so, particularly when they are not immediately next to any houses. If only there were a local residents association who could do that sort of thing.

The Hand and Flower is coming back (again)

Having been empty and inactive for several months The Hand and Flower is coming back as an independent pub with Thai dining. Similar approaches have been tried in the past without success and I hope that the new venture has better fortune.

It is encouraging that they are keeping the name and I like the new logo with a pink flower.

It will be interesting to see what the balance between food and drinks is but I hope to be using it both as a pub and as a restaurant.

New benches at Ham House

The wide path that runs along the edge of Plats and Wilderness has gained some new benches where you can sit and enjoy the best view of Ham House.

BenForrest in lights

I thought that I had finished covering the extensive refurbishment of BenForrest on Ham Parade and then I got off a 65 late at night and saw this.

Spare bricks

Work has all but finished on Little Orchard (on the south-east corner of Sudbrook Lane and Bute Avenue) and they seem to have quite a few bricks left over, which have been neatly stacked along the Bute Avenue boundary.

Kitchen Garden at Ham House

On this visit to Ham House I was informed that the house was closed for filming and I accepted the new graciously because I knew that already and I had not gone to visit the house, as usual I had gone to visit the gardens.

Despite there having been no rain for what seems like a very long time, the Kitchen Garden looked magnificent. No wonder that there were many people sitting in the outside area of the cafe, I was only upset that I did not have the time to join them.