More trees gone

I posted a picture of this small plot of land in Royal Park Gate back in January when some lines of the grass suggested that something was going to happen, and now it has. Unfortunately it is bad news.

The trees shown in my previous photo have gone leaving scars in the grass to show their passing. I have simply no idea why this was done or even who did it. I presume that the land is managed by Kingston Council but that does not mean that they did the damage.

Update: I'll leave the original text above as it stands as a historical record but I now more about this patch of land. Despite being designated as Open Space by Kingston Council It is actually owned by 39 Wittering Close, which is behind the vegetation strewn wall on the left. It changed hands a couple of years ago and since then the new owner has made several land grabs to get this patch included in their garden which, so far, Kingston Council have managed to rebut, and long may they do so. It is the new owner who earlier marked out lines here, for a proposed wall, and who removed the trees.

Crash barriers

The new people barriers at Teddington Lock have been joined by some very obvious yellow crash barriers along the section where the lane to the lock joins the towpath.

Despite their necessary brightness they are not as alarming to this familiar view as I feared that they might be. Overall the new barriers are a job well done.

Odd windows

Once upon a time, behind where the skip is was a garage with a sloped roof above it, the remains of which can just be seen in the bricks. A while ago, as with most of the similar properties in Northweald Lane, an extension was added above the garage leaving a slight kink in the roofline as a reminder.

Now the garage has gone and the space added to the house. Again this is far from unusual but it irks me that the two new windows are nothing like the others, there are no mullions and the transforms are not in the middle.

Managing trees at St Richards

A year ago I posted some photos of St Richard's church and commented on how much the trees had grown around the church since it was first built and now there have been some big changes, the most significant being the removal of two trees whose remains can still be seen.

The remaining trees have been pollarded which I understand is a standard part of tree management but I was a little surprised to see it being done in mid-March when at least some of the trees were starting to bud.

I will watch how they grow this year with interest.

I could not resist this picture of the work in progress because of the solitary splash of colour.

Another extension in Locksmeade

The small Locksmeade estate is experiencing something of a rash of extensions at the moment, including this one at the end of Tideway Close, which is nestled against Ham Lands.

It is hard to see what they are doing from this photo and from the submitted plans but there is work being done on both sides of the house so it is clearly a big job.

It is perhaps understandable that with Ham Lands literally on the doorstep that some owners have decided to sacrifice large parts of their gardens to get more house but the risk is, as with all extensions, that the character of the estate is lost through the addition of new shapes, styles and materials.

New gate in Meadow Close

I has alerted to this new gate in Meadow Close by an article in the Ham and Petersham newsletter, which said: "A wall in Petersham, that was originally the boundary wall to the early 19th century Bute Estate, has had a hole cut into it to allow a house on Cedar Heights access to Meadow Close. We have pursued this with the Council as we feel this has harmed the conservation area.".

Concerned that the conservation area had been harmed, I went and had a look and all I found was this perfectly decent gap in the wall that already looked as though it had been there for ever.

The new gate is just a little distance from this other gate, to Bute Cottage, which has also done nothing to harm the conservation area.

Incidentally, and just for the record, the houses on the other side of this section of the wall are in Ashfield Close, not Cedar Heights as claimed by Ham and Petersham.

Mario

One of the things that I try to do in this blog is to capture changes and so I thought that I had better post this before it goes. And it is likely to go because this is a Conservation Area and Mario is a copyrighted by Nintendo who are likely to take a dim view of their property being used in this way.

Gutted

Sandy Lane is an eclectic mix of houses that seem to be in a constant state of refurbishment and rebuilding and number 27 is the latest to get the treatment. Looking through any of the spaces where the doors and windows used to be shows that the interior has been gutted.

A first close look at 23A/B/C Clifford Road

xxxxxI have been waiting to get close to the new houses in Clifford Road for a long time and, finally, the barriers have come down and I have been able to walk in and get a good look at them. Previously all I could see was the roofs.

The first thing to note is that they are similar but different, which is a good thing. The two outer houses have large windows to their kitchens whereas the middle house has a font door.

 

An even closer look shows off the detail and the styling. They look good.