Clifford Road trench

I like seeing things as they change, the jumble of construction sites and walking late at night all of which come together in this picture of below ground works in Clifford Road.

Renovation complete

The renovation of the first house in Clifford Road (Sandy Lane end) looks to be complete and from this angle it does not looks quite reasonable, though there are obvious questions to ask about the colour scheme.

I said "from this angle" deliberately as from here the attached house is all but invisible and the renovations fail when compared to the context. The dark red brick of the house and front wall of its co-joined neighbour is a stark reminder of what houses in this area should look like.

White house with grey windows

The last time I took a picture of this renovation in Clifford Road (a couple of months ago) some of the detail was hidden by scaffolding but now the full blandness is revealed. Painting the bricks was wrong, the colour of the door and windows is wrong, and the windowless porch is wrong.

White house

The distinctive feature of the houses in the Buckingham Road area (and elsewhere in Ham) is the red brick finish and so to paint over this is a bold, and unwelcome, statement. It is the only house in this area to make this mistake and I hope no one repeats it.

It is a shame that this refurbishment did not learn the lessons of the house at the other end of Clifford Road, and on the other side, which has been extended exceptionally well.

Yellow door

Another refurbishment, this time in Clifford Road, that has gone for grey windows but this time there is a yellow door to make a bold statement. Next door also has a new porch but has played it safe and gone for a door that is grey, almost black.

New porch

Work to extend and refurbish what used to be a shabby house in Clifford Road is well underway and the most obvious sign of that work is the addition of a new porch.

Clifford Road signs

It is hard to tell but this is the sign for Clifford Road on the east side of its junction with Sandy Lane.  I am surprised that nobody has thought to clear it. I sometimes take secateurs with me when out walking and if I had had them I would have done something.

Just about of it can be seen through the vegetation to show that it is an old sign with a bold sans serif typeface.

 

Originally I was only going to post the obscured sign but as I am now looking at road signs more carefully I took a photo of the one opposite. For some reason this is much newer.

It also claims that Clifford Road is in Petersham but I am not convinced. The only area that I will concede is in Petersham is the conservation area.

Coming back to life

This house at the Sandy Lane end of Clifford Road was looking very neglected a year ago so it is good to see it being brought back to life.

Damp

Clifford Road has sprung a leak. It is not much of a leak but you can tell from the waves at the bottom of the picture that the water is flowing fairly briskly.

You can also just about see (you may need to zoom in) some blue pain on the grass at the far end which I presume is the marking for where work needs to be done.

Bad parking in Clifford Road

I walk up Clifford Road regularly, several times a week, and there is always a problem with cars parked there, The white line shows how far cars are allowed to intrude on to the pavement (any intrusion is too much as far as I am concerned) and everyone exceeds this leaving a slither of pavement for pedestrians.

There is a primary school at the end of the road so the pavement gets used by many children on scooters and parents pushing buggies and that is insufficient space for ordinary pedestrians let alone those with wheels.

Another neat extension

Two houses on the junction of Clifford Road and Meadlands Drive have had substantial extensions built in the last couple of years and both have worked very well. This is the more recent one on the east side of Meadlands Drive, and this is the one on the west side of Clifford Road.

Simple frontage

The new house on the corner of Sandy Lane and Clifford Road is now occupied but some of the hoardings are still there so for the moment I will have to make do with this view.

Three things are apparent; the house is very big, the design is very simple and the front door is far too modest for the scale of the property. What the front door needs is a porch, as houses in Cedar Heights, Church Road have New Road have all shown.

Christmas soldiers

I  was not looking to feature Christmas lights this year but walking down Clifford Road I saw these jolly soldiers and had to take a photo of them.

Stunning snowmen

There was not much snow around to play with this time but someone, or someones, managed to create these excellent examples in Clifford Road.

Zooming out you can see how the creators got around the lack of snow and the diminutive size of the snowmen only makes them more impressive.

Their size and location put them at some risk and I was pleased that I saw them in time to avoid an unfortunate collision.

New roof

I walk along Clifford Road regularly (because the alternative route along Petersham Road is pretty ghastly) and there I have been keeping an eye on this new roof being installed in a quiet corner.

It looks neat and tidy and pleasingly matches the not quite as new roof to the right of it, if not the original roof to the left.

Gateway to Clifford Road

I have spoken of the two houses on Sandy Lane forming a gateway to Clifford Road so I thought that I would do a post showing both of them.

This is the older house on the west/left side of the junction. Already a decent size it has recently grown into the attic. Thankfully, it is no longer pink.

The new house on the east/right side of the junction is similar in style (though the choice of windows may change that) and is somewhat larger, though there is no obvious sign of an attic room from this angle.

Neglected house

If ever a house was caught begging for refurbishment it is this one in Clifford Road.

Occupied

I took a picture of 23A/B/C Clifford Road when they were completed in March and I would like to use their subsequent occupation as an excuse to post another picture of them though the actual reason is that the light was much kinder on this visit.

Two walls

I have been watching these walls grow in Clifford Road for a few weeks just because I love bricks and find the construction of wall interesting, and I caught these at an interesting point.

The outer wall of yellow brick is complete except for the coping stones and this allows us to see that the hidden part of the second wall, an external wall of the house, is built with breeze blocks and the visible part with red brick.

A new wall

The Sandy Lane end of Clifford Road has gained a new wall which, very unusually, is one of the walls to the new house being built there. Obviously this maximises the size of the house though at the cost of additional external noise.