Unexpected trees

Having cleared the vegetarian away from the bench in Ham Gate Avenue, close to Ham Gate, two news trees were planted which seems strange, particularly as the far one is under another tree.

The posts may be necessary but they draw too much attention to themselves at the moment.

Large trim for Ham Common Woods

One of the main things that I try to do here is record changes and this is one change that was a big surprise to me. 

I walked along Ham Gate Avenue late one afternoon when everything looked normal (I even moved a Lime bike to the edge of the path) and less that 24 hours later I walked down there again and it the Woods had been trimmed back massively from the path on the north side.

This photo shows the depth of the trim, far more that the one meter or so that I am used to (this is what it looked like in 2014), and you can just about tell that the trimming goes all the way along Ham Gate Avenue.

I presume that some vegetation will grow back quite quickly but I suspect that it will take some years to look as good as it did in 2023.

Isolated bench

For reasons that are not all obvious to me, all of the vegetation close to this bench (next to Ham Gate) has been cleared away leaving the bench isolated and not at all welcoming.

Water works

The works I mentioned a few days ago at the junction of Ham Gate Avenue and Petersham Road continue all the way up to and in to Church Road and there are several open sections that give more of a clue as to the nature of the work.

I've called this post "water works" on the assumption that this is a pipe rather than a cable, though there is a Danger Electricity sign in the centre of the access cover. Whatever it is, it looks industrial and that is good enough for me.

Ham Gate Avenue works

Some work is going on in Ham Gate Avenue next to the junction with Petersham Road and while there is not much activity there is evidence in the form of disturbed ground and barriers.

Dead trees

A few dead trees along Ham Gate Avenue have been marked for removal.  Situated next to the path and road it clearly makes sense to get rid of them. 

I am curious however, to see to what extent they are actually removed as looking at dead trees that have already been worked on there is a mix of short stumps and branchless trunks of around 3m. The debris is also a mix of left on the ground in once piece, left in chopped up sections and removed completely.

Something is happening at Sudbrook Cottage

The impressive collection of machinery is a convincing sign that something significant s happening at Sudbrook Cottage in Ham Gate Avenue. And while it happens the dollops of red enliven the scene wonderfully.

No enforcement

The painting of double yellow lines near Ham Gate was always going to be pointless due to the lack of enforcement and on a day when the parking was pretty solid along Ham Gate Avenue I took this specific photo to make that general point.

Ham Gate Avenue relaxes

Shorn of almost all of its motorised traffic Ham Gate Avenue is a real pleasure to walk down and it does not take many steps away from Petersham Road for the stillness to assert itself. 

Sadly the road will be opened to cars again one day and then it will be nice to have this memory of what the road was like and could be like again if the people running Richmond Park came to their senses and closed Ham Gate to cars as they have Sheen Gate (except for access to the car park there).

Ham Gate gone

The news of the demolition of Ham Gate by an incompetent motorist spread quickly and I saw, and responded to, many comments about it on X (Twitter). Most of these were dismayed at the loss of the dratic gates but welcomed the prospect of having that entrance to Richmond Park closed to motorists for months to come, and that is a view that I share. Already walking around the area is much nicer.

Ham Gate Avenue closed

There are lots of very good reasons to be angry with Thames Water at the moment so it is good to see them do something useful. Ham Gate is closed to cars, but not bikes or pedestrians, because Thames Water have dug up the road at the start of the slope just inside the park.

Walking through the park is decidedly more pleasant with no traffic on that section of road. Sadly it is expected to open again soon.

Shade on Ham Gate Avenue

Ham Gate Avenue is the most direct route to Richmond Park and has the advantage of having a good pedestrian path, unlike the lamentable Church Road, but this directness can also be a little boring with nothing to vary up the view after Ormeley Lodge. Not so on days like today when the trees fight off the sun to create interesting patches of shade on the path.

Sudbrook Cottage and Sudbrooke Cottages

This sign, while distinctly charming, is not the sign that I was looking for, though it does tell half the story.

I had always assumed that the terrance of cottages close to Ormeley Lodge on Ham Gate Avenue were called Sudbrook Cottages and the end one (made famous by Beverly Nichols) was, as the sign proclaims, Sudbrook Cottage but the Royal Mail Postcode Finder tells another story. That tells me that the other cotttages are called Sudbrooke Cottages, with an "e". The Royal Mail is the one source of truth on addresses so this must be true.

White Picket Fence

I liked the low brick wall when it was constructed in 2021 but I am less keen on the white picket fence that has been added to it. This may have ebb under pressure from Richmond Council who wanted an unbroken fence across all the cottages even though there was not one there before, there is still a large gap at one end and the new section of fence looks quite different to the older fences either side. 

Shrunken Brook

The casualties of the long hot dry summer are all around us, particularly in the crisp yellow grass, and Latchmere Brook is one of these, so much so that it is hardly visible in this picture having shrunk massively.

Clearing the area around Latchmere Brook

Earlier this year the area around Latchmere Brook had become so overgrown it was hard to tell that the brook was there and so a lot of clearance work was necessary.

I can see the point in exposing the brook to people walking along Ham Gate Avenue but am not convinced about the need to open the area up to the right of it so I am pleased to see that the path that was there, as in this photo from 2014, has not been reinstated.

Gate moved

One of the things that I try to do in this blog is capture changes in the area, especially those that can easily go unnoticed, and this is a good example of that. Only a month ago I heralded the arrival of a new gate in Ham Gate Avenue and it has now been moved!

On the brick pillar behind the gate to the left you can see the mark of where the frame used to be before the gate was moved to be alongside the pavement. That seems a more logical place for it but the interesting boundary to Ham Common may have dictated its earlier positioning and may force it to go back there.

Low wall

What was a line of rubble sacks a month ago has been transformed into a dainty low wall.

I was going to compare it with what was there before, as I often do, and went to Google Street View, as I often do, to find a before picture only to find that the stretch of Ham Gate Avenue around Ormeley Lodge has been removed.

Work at Sudbrook Cottages

Something is happening at Sudbrook Cottages in Ham Gate Avenue and, as always, I was pleased to seem the jumble of the work in progress and excited by the expectation of the finished result.

Pointless path reclaimed

A path was created here, alongside Latchmere Brook, in 2014 and I described it at the time as "pointless". The proof of that is there to see as the complete lack of use of the pointless path has let the vegetation reclaim it completely, so much so that you cannot tell that there used to be a path there at all.

The view of the pond has also changed, for the better, with the substantial growth around it.