Works completed at Ham House

The current stage of the major works to Ham House have completed and the scaffolding has gone to reveal the house in its familiar beauty.  I like scaffolding (I really like scaffolding!) but I like this view of Ham House even home and it is good to see it return in time for the warmer, brighter and longer days.

A closer look at the side of the house tells us that the maintenance work included some fresh paint, another welcome improvement.

Missing bench

This is the Ham Farm Road end of Parkleys and the paving marks the spot where a south-facing bench used to be enjoyed by the residents. I have to assume that it will be replaced soon because it was popular, and understandably so.

White paint

I posted a picture of this fencing above a wall in Woodville Road when it was added in 2019 and then it was left as plain wood. Five years later it has all been painted white and draws attention to the property. I am not convinced that it works but that just may be its newness and the initial surprise in seeing it.

New surface

While the work done on Teddington Lock Footbridge has brighted it up and, presumably, improved its structure it has not has much impact on me as someone who walks across it regularly. That started to change when the section on the slope up from the Ham side got a new surface, replacing the one which was quite uneven, especially along the joins between the sections. This is a noticeably nicer walk.

The two questions I have are how quickly will it be before this new section deteriorates like the old one and is anything being done to improve the surface of the central section?

25 Ham Farm Road demolished

The demolition of 25 Ham Farm Road is happening at pace and there is little of the house remaining, other than as rubble.

I took this photos a few days later after watching a skip lorry struggle through Parkleys bringing an empty skip and collecting one full of rubble; the filming further along Ham Farm Road had blocked access that way.

Tree erased

I was surprised to see the tree at the entrance to Martingaes Close being removed and even more surprised to find that this was not to replace it with some better planting but with cold grey stone. The tree was not very special but at least it was a tree and that is so much better than not having anything there at all.

And they have not even remodelled the island to make it easier to cross the stupidly wide entrance to a small unimportant road.

I also note that some of the powers behind the (awful name) Ham and Petersham Association and Amenities Group live in Martingales Close and their inability to stop this destruction on their doorstep does not say much for their ability to "preserve and secure our environment".

A tree's last day

While I do a lot of walking at night I do not take many photos then, for obvious reasons, and I only took this one to remind me to go back to the entrance of Martingales Close (on Ham Common) the next day to capture the works in daylight but when I went back workmen were busy there and the tree had been dug up.

This new work surprised me because some work was done on this little traffic island only a year ago and after that I remarked that it looked neater and safer.

Daffodils at Ham House

Being a member of National Trust means that I can pop-in to Ham House for a quick look around the fardens whenever I am walking in that area and I do so many times a year because there is always something interesting to see. On this visit I was charmed by the daffodils.

The main display is in the beds in the Kitchen Garden (top picture) and there are others around the gardens, like this one along a border.

Working on Langham House

I have been running this blog for so long that some patterns are starting to emerge and one of these is the maintenance of Langham House on the south-west side of Ham Common. I noted maintenance work in 2008 and in 2016, and it is happening again in 2024. You do not have to be a competitor on Only Connect to work out that is every eight years.