Bland

I am not sure what this house in Sudbrook Gardens looked like before its refurbishment, as only a small part of it was visible though the arched entrance, but I am sure that it is bland now with nothing to break up the painted walls and nothing interesting in the placement or appearance of the windows.

There is a hint that a porch may be added and this could improve things significantly, as it has with a few other local houses such as the former Ham Institute in New Road.

Planting off Back Road

There are several alleyways in the area bounded by Lock Road, Ham Street and Ashburnham Road and while some lead somewhere this one, off Back Road and running behind Lock Road, leads nowhere and looked rather tatty as a result. The addition of two semi-circular plant borders has cheered it up considerably.

Hidden

St Richards needs a lot of work doing to it and is still raising the money to get it done but an initial grant has paid for an external scaffolding canopy to protect the building and internal props to ensure the roof is in no danger of collapse. While that is good news for the building's future it also means that any work is currently hidden from external view.

Bright border

Walking along Maguire Drive it is impossible to miss this wonderful bright border.

Ham Close impresses

The view from Ashburnham Road of the first phase of the Ham Close regeneration scheme is impressive. Despite the higher density the buildings are far from overwhelming and the artful design breaks the blocks into smaller visual units.

Side view of Cedarwood

The side view of Cedarwood, seen from The Shires, was hidden for many years by a leylandii hedge which was removed during the refurbishment of the property and I am pleased that with the new fence in place there is a good view of the sumptuous house.

Clarendon SEND School from behind

The back of Clarendon SEND School is the easiest part to get close to which is why I have taken several pictures from here and with all the work completed it looks rather good. While the front is austere, in part thanks to the long driveway up to it, the back is enhanced by the planting along the green mesh fence.

Messy garden

I love this garden in Fanshawe Road because of its messiness. It looks natural with a pleasing mix of plants but it took careful planting to achieve.

Anatolian Kebab

Work has been going on for several months at the unit formerly occupied by Rowleys with little evidence of progress until the Anatolian Kebab sign appeared.

Another year of Teddington Launch Lock Refurbishment

This set of major work to the Launch Lock started almost a year ago, in October 25, and this useful information board says that it will continue next until winter 26/27.

Footpath closed

The ongoing works at Teddington Lock have consumed a significant amount of space in the area for equipment and storage etc. and this includes the section of the towpath between the two paths connecting to the main path to Riverside Drive and beyond.

On this occasion all the space seemed to be used for was parking one machine.

The Hand & Flower signs

The new Hand & Flower is covered with signs, such as those above the front windows, and the last to be added was the painted sign on the side wall facing south towards Ham Parade.

Wilmer House rebuild

It is not often that I find the gates to the former Wilmer House in Church Road open so I was glad of this opportunity to check on progress on the rebuild. The netting obscures the new house but what can be seen shows the scale and colour of the house as well the number and positioning of the windows.

BT LOC

It is not unusual to see brightly coloured "LOC" signs to guide people working on film sets and, to avoid any confusion between different film sets in the same area, the first letters indicate what the production is . However, "BT" managed to confuse me. These signs are to the Ludwig film set in Ham Farm Road and last time the prefix was the understandable "LUD" so I am not sure why they went with "BT" this time.

Cedarwood changes

Cedarwood in Church Road has had a major refurbishment recently which has pleasingly left the house looking much the same though there are changes to the landscaping if you compare it closely to what it looked like ten years ago.

The Hand & Flower is open

The Hand & Flower (the ampersand is back) looks rather good after its substantial refurbishment and is now open for business.

Tree in the river

A large tree that used to be on the edge of the river has fallen in to it. This is just on the Kingston side of the border, alongside Royal Park Gate.

Tree cutting

Clearly the trees in Parkleys need cutting back from time to time but it is not good that they completely block the pavement when doing so. It would be better if they used some car parking spaces.

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.

EA67 ZPW

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 "&".