Petersham Open Gardens 2016

Every year several local gardens open for charity and this alternates between Ham (odd years) and Petersham (even years). By this rule it was Petersham's turn again in 2016.

Petersham is quite a small area but within that area there is a large number of lodges and manors because of the proximity of the (former) hunting grounds of Richmond Park and grand houses tend to have grand gardens.

The organisation of Petersham Open Gardens was good and they allowed six hours (11am to 5pm) for people to look around the twelve gardens. I did not expect to take all of that as I had seen most of the gardens before, often several times, so I started my tour at 1pm and just managed to see all twelve  before they closed.

I've chosen just a few of my favourite photos I took that day to give a flavour of what was on offer and to explain why it took four hours to see everything.

Petersham Lodge is one of the grandest of the grand houses that opened their gardens. Normally I would show a picture of the large pond as that is the main feature of the garden so this time I have chosen to highlight another part of the large and varied garden.

This is a little enclave close to the house. It had been full of hedges and gravel on my previous visits and this time both had been refreshed. This mean that the garden was closed to visitors and we had to be happy with peeking into it. An advantage of that was that there were no other visitors in it to spoil the view.

Montrose House is another one of the grandest houses with a large and eclectic garden which included a pink and a blue elephant and other assorted animal sculptures. Again I, and others, have shown them many times so I have gone for a more traditional scheme.

There is a sheltered spot in the garden in a corner created by the house and a large garden room and this is where the large water feature resides. The water flows gently from the top level and then away from the plinth in a couple of narrow channels next to the flower beds. A lovely place to sit.

What I liked most about the garden in Harrington Lodge was the large brick patio running along the back of the house. Here it is enhanced by an old pot and some colourful flowers.

On a similar theme, bricks and flowers, I liked this low wall in Downlands. The rusted metal globe helped too.

Next to Downlands, but confusingly accessed via a different road, was Arreton Cottage which easily had the most interesting things in it of all the gardens. This selection is just an example of the varied things on display. The picture also shows the care with which the objects were arranged.

Elm Lodge was another large garden with several different areas, including pigs and chickens, and it was the water feature at the side of the house that I found the most attractive. This had three pools at three different levels and it is the top level that is featured here with its wonderful heron.

I love the stone ball too. This marks the gateway between the top two levels with the water slowly flowing up and left as we look at it. The other water was flowing lightly from the sky and was rippling the pools with raindrops.

The rain was not much of a deterrent and I carried on exploring Elm Lodge until the bewitching hour of 5pm when, after four hours of walking around gardens, I treated myself to a bus home. It had been a fantastic afternoon and a testament to the power of gardens and gardeners.

Gardens at Petersham House and Stokes House

The garden at Petersham House is not my favourite locally and I had been to Stokes House several times before but it was a nice day, it was for charity and I had nothing better to do so I went to see them both again. If nothing else it was a good excuse for a walk.

My favourite part of the garden at Petersham House is the border on the far side of the large lawn that faces back towards the house. This is divided by hedges in to  small sections that are all thickly planted. It the the variety and randomness of the planting that I like the most though having an old brick wall as the background helps too.

The kissing bench on the lawn is another favourite. There were other old, and nearly as quint, benches and seats around the edge of the lawn where I could sit and appreciate other perspectives of the garden,

Sadly those perspectives included the bushes dotted across the lawn and they were looking a little the worse of wear, as if they were all recovering from a night out on the town. A trim was needed and without it the garden looked a little unkempt and unloved.

Off to the side of the main garden was the vegetable garden, this was also were the gate to Petersham Nurseries that we used to get in and out was. I often find industrial gardens, and industrial buildings, more interesting than their residential counterparts and so it was here.

The pretty brick wall continued from the main garden and this time it was neatly decorated by a ladder. Here the plants were grown for purpose rather than for shape or colour which made those shapes and colours more natural and more interesting.

The garden at Stokes House was different in scale and approach with smaller plants and more flowers. A low border surrounded the house with a profusion of colours.

The delicate plants were found in all sorts of homes and I found this small bunch snuggling up to the house delightful.

Another border had some bigger and bolder plants, and I was always a sucker for floppy flowers. Behind them was a seat which proved to be an ideal place to sit and enjoy the garden and also a cup of tea and a slice of cake, all in the name of charity.

Neither of these gardens would make my "best of" list but between them they made for a lovely afternoon of beauty, walking and cake. I like days like that.

Petersham Open Gardens 2014

There is some dispute locally as to what the boundaries of Ham and Petersham actually are and a lot of the time people play safe and call the place "Ham and Petersham".

One thing that is agreed is the Ham is centred around Ham Common and Petersham around the tight bend in the road to Richmond about a mile north of that. With two distinct centres Ham and Petersham are able to organise separate Open Garden days and they do this on alternate years.

In 2014 it was Petersham's turn.

There were fourteen gardens on show and I started off at 11am to give me as much time as possible to see them all. I knew from previous experience that several of them were quite large and also interesting and that they would take a long time to walk around. I also had to allow time for tea and cake breaks.

The first place I went to was Montrose House, once the home of Tommy Steele and more recently noticed making guest appearances in shows like New Tricks and Spooks. Last time I was there I shared a picture of the pink elephant to the blue one gets its chance this time.

The Glasshouse is one of my favourite buildings and gardens locally and despite visiting it several times it still excites me when I go there. It was also one of the more popular gardens and so it was impossible to take any pictures without other people in them. At least I managed to take this one with only a few in and they are all subtly dressed.

Petersham Lodge, also in River Lane, which I also go to regularly, was as grand as ever. The lake is large but still does not dominate the garden, indeed it is almost hidden from the house. This is the view looking across the bottom of it.

The fourteen gardens were all very different and while the largest and grandest got the most attention there were lots of things to appreciate in all the other gardens too.

I could have selected at least one decent (my view) picture from each one but that would have made this post too long and I imposed a limit of just ten photos on myself.

This lion, one of several on show, lived in Rosebank which has the additional pleasure of not being on a road, instead it is approached by a narrow footpath that runs from River Lane past the nurseries and on to Richmond.

The path also leads to the church which I enjoyed looking around for the first time in eighteen years of living here. But the church is not a garden and this post is about gardens.

The nurseries was not really part of the Open Gardens but I had to go through it to get to one that was and I took this photo as I went through.

The door from the nurseries took me to Petersham House. I always feel that this garden needs to do a little more with the lawn area but from the right location and the right angle the borders, wall, hedges and trees combine attractively.

There was also a large vegetable garden with a large hen-house. Again it is the combination that I like, this time of the grey roof and red flowers.

Twyntre is another regular and another favourite. It helps that it is a Huf Haus.

The garden matched the sleek modern style of the house as the pond next to the entrance show. I also loved the statue next to the wall.

The mix of gardens was the main attraction and I liked it that there were a couple of modern gardens belonging to modern houses as well as the traditional gardens belonging to the traditional houses.

This part of Petersham is a Conservation Area so there are a lot of traditional houses, many of them having started life as grand hunting lodges for Richmond Park. One of these was next door to Twyntre.

Even the name Cecil House tells you that this is a place that is comfortable with tradition. The garden boasted a little woodland area with a secret path through it. One end of the path was by the main gate and the other by this pond that neatly bridged the gap between the lawn and the woods.

It was time for another tea then and something of a rest after some three hours of garden exploration and with a couple more to come.

There was another clutch of gardens to see around Sudbrook Lane. These tended to be more modest and because of their age, shape and location, more similar. And that is my excuse for not being sure which garden this one is.

It was sometime after 4pm, five hours after I started, that I finally finished the fourteenth garden and made my weary way home. It had been a great day.

Open House London: The Glasshouse in Petersham

I have enjoyed the garden at The Greenhouse many times and because the house as an awful lot of glass facing the garden I have seen some of the inside too. The Open House London allowed me to go inside and that was an opportunity not to be missed.

I got there a comfortable while before the official opening time of 10:00 on Sunday morning and was not first in the queue. There were about a dozen of us when the door opened and we were let in.

The approach to the house is probably its least interesting feature. It looks very private and there are no windows, not even a little glass in the door, on the side of the house facing the drive.

The basic shape and design can be determined from the outside. The house is clearly not that wide and there is a lot of glass on the left-hand side next to the garden.

It has rained every so slightly and ever so briefly that morning and we intruders were asked to remove our shoes on entry. That act reinforced the cleanliness and tidiness of the house and even though we were allowed to roam unguided through most of it I did so with a sense of trepidation in case I made a mark or inappropriate noise.

One long room faces the garden. This is split in two by the entrance arch (there are no doors downstairs) from the hall/corridor. On the left is the dining area.

On the right is the slightly less formal kitchen area. This also has a long table and shows more signs of use, a mug.

The house is L-shaped and this is the hall/corridor along the base of the L. The kitchen and dining areas are just to the right on the upright of the L. The entrance hall/corridor is beyond that.

Actually it is not quite L-shaped but that is the closest letter in the alphabet. There is a room on the ground floor that protrudes below the base of the L, that is the study that is through the door in the centre. This is used for work, by a doctor judging by the books glimpsed through the door, and was closed to visitors.

Turning around from where the previous picture was taken reveals the square sitting room with the main part of the garden to the left. There is a smaller garden to the right with a soothing water feature.

This is a room that I could spend many comfortable hours in.

At the top of the stairs rising from the sitting room is a study area on the landing. The base of the L is shorter upstairs but the impromptu study is still much bigger than most people are used too.

Most of the bedrooms were off-limits, indicated by no more than a closed door, but we were allowed in to the master bedroom at the top of the L above the entrance. Again the size is impressive and it takes the reflection in the mirror to show that there is a large bed in the room too.

The garden can be seen through the windows on the left though the upstairs protrudes a little forward (see top picture) so it is only the far window that has this view.

I love the carpet.

Actually, I love almost everything about the house except for its a little bit out of the way location, it is good to have shops in easy walking distance and the nearest shops from here must be a mile away.

It would look a lot different if I lived there too as I am not always quite as neat and tidy as this.

Back to The Old Vicarage in Petersham

My first Open Garden in 2013 was back to The Old Vicarage just up the road in Petersham, and what a difference a year makes.

Last year the garden was open a week or so later and this week Spring has been slow in coming. This unkind combination meant that the tulips that surrounded the house last year were nowhere to be seen this.

The garden was still certainly worth seeing, it was just that my attention was more on the physical aspects of the garden, especially the pots, rather than the soft ones.

There were two clusters of large pots next to the house and both were worth of several photographs. I did, of course take several at interesting jaunty angles and I was somewhat surprised and disappointed that the horizontal ones looked the best.

Another feature of the garden is the wild hill in one corner.

Cultured grass and bulbs lead the way there before giving in to what looked like random weeds, though I suspect that some planning was involved.

This area is also where the children's play house and other apparatus is kept. This, and the tennis court below, show that this is a garden for action as well as peaceful contemplation.

The hill is also where the garden's most distinctive feature can be found - the three green deer. And, finally, a chance for an angled shot.

They are so clearly fake on two counts, they are not real deer and they are not trimmed hedges either,  yet their charm is undeniable.

Venturing to the furthest corner of the wild hill to look back towards the house shows just how wild the wild hill is and also how large the garden is.

Despite its natural beauty the wild hill does look like a work in progress or even just laziness, and it lacks something like a bench or a pond to give it focus.

That said, the path around the wild hill is a break from the intense formality of the borders around the house which could be considered to be over manicured in the same way that the wild hill is under cultivated.

Of course all this is my view of the garden but I am not the person who lives there. I was just a visitor and I enjoyed my second visit enough to contemplate a third later in the year when the flowers should be out.

Exploring the history of Richmond Borough

A clever bit of planning brought an interesting afternoon of history and exploration around Twickenham Riverside.

The starting point was the Orleans House Gallery which meant a couple of buses and a short pleasant walk alongside Marble Hill House to the river.

This took me along the hideously grand Montpelier Road where Tennyson used to live and Pete Townsend now does.

Orleans House Gallery is an interesting building with a decorative octagonal room in one corner. I am not sure what this room is used for, if anything, but being pretty is purpose enough.

The main part of the building is a thin gallery space with a thinner gallery space on the mezzanine floor above. It is not a desperately convenient space but it has walls and that is all a gallery needs.

The exhibition that I went to see was called The Building of a Borough.

This looked at how the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames developed from a collection of towns and villages as the spaces between them were filled with new buildings.

The exhibition was structured around these towns, e.g. Whitton, Teddington and Barnes, and explained how they grew and changed through planning and building records submitted to the local authorities.

The plans on display were mostly for buildings of some note, such as a gorgeous art deco cinema, the grand house built for Dr John Langdon Down and the first (1948) Span Estate in Constance Road, Whitton.

Sadly the collection for Ham and Petersham was the smallest on display. There was a scrolling computer screen (briefly) showing other items in the collection, including some from Ham, and these can be searched online on the Richmond upon Thames Local Studies website.

I was interested in these plans of Reston Lodge, one of the many former hunting lodges in the area as I know the outside of the current house well, I've walked and bussed past it hundreds of times.

One of the things that I liked about the old plans was the sorts of rooms that these buildings had, such as a Billiards Room and, my favourite, an Ice Rink!

I also noted the use of "class room" as two words.

Behind the main gallery is a smaller one, The Stables, which had an exhibition of photographs of Richmond people. Most of the expected local celebs were there, such as Bamber Gasgoigne and David Attenborough, but the more interesting pictures were of ordinary people, such as Malcolm from my local hardware shop.

Gallerying over, I walked along the river towards the gardens at York House to see the Naked Ladies playing in the large grotto.

This is one of those ladies trying her best not to fall into the water. There are eight of the overall, and a couple of horses. They are slightly larger than life-size so the effect is quite dramatic. It's just a shame that they are so well hidden, you can walk past on the road and not know that they are there.

Next to these gardens is Eel Pie island that is only connected to the mainland by a pedestrian bridge that rises high to let boats pass underneath.

I associate Eel Pie with music for all sorts of reasons, not least the Eel Pie Club and Eel Pie studios, but that is just branding and neither are actually on the island.

What is there is boat houses and a jumble of working boats moored alongside. This is a working island and looks all the better for it.

The two exhibitions, the walk along the river and the York House Gardens made for a fulfilling couple of hours that even the constant threat of rain could dispel. From there it was a gentle walk away from the river through Olde Twickenhame to the modern monstrosity that is the high street where the buses homeward can be found.

Petersham Open Gardens 2012

Every two years a few of the gardens in Petersham open themselves for a day to raise money for charity.

That appeals to me greatly as I like giving money to charity, I enjoy walking around gardens and it gives me a chance to spy on some of the local houses.

As with the whole of the month of April, rain was forecast and arrived but this did little to dampen my enthusiasm until five hours in to the expedition the rain got heavier and the rising tiredness convinced me to call it a day.

By then I had seen almost all of the gardens and those I missed I had seen before and presume that I will have the chance to see again.

The technology was an important part of the planning and I ended taking three cameras with me.

Most of the pictures were taken with my still new Canon Powershot SX230 HS and these are on Facebook and are also gradually finding their way on to my Ham Photos Blog.

I still carry my Canon Ixus 80 IS as a safety net in case something goes wrong with the other one. Which nearly happened as all my happy snapping did serious damage to the camera's battery. I need to buy a spare.

The final part of the triage was my iPhone4 which I took for its internet connectivity and the Instagram app with its funky filters.

The original photos are in their proper homes, Facebook and my other blog, so I've chosen some of the Instagram ones to use here.

This approach also meant using the cameras quite differently.

With the Canons I took over 150 photos which works out around 20 photos per garden.

The first round of weeding reduced the number posted to Facebook to 112 and I will probably post between 20 and 30 to Ham Photos, which is still three or four for each garden.

With the iPhone and Instagram I tried to take just one iconic picture from each garden, though I did weaken a couple of times and couple of those here both come from Petersham Lodge.

Therefore this collection reflects both the gardens and what I like about gardens, so a garden with ancient wisteria gets represented here by a gaudy elephant.

There are lots of pictures of plant pots simply because everybody loves plant pots.

One of the tea breaks was held in Petersham Nurseries (which has morphed in to a large tea room with a few flowers thrown in) when the adulation of flowers continued.

Almost as common as plant pots were unusual statues and water features, often in combination as here.

The house with the gaudy elephants (there was a blue one too) also had a heron by a pond and a family of ducks by a little watercourse.

By the way, this is Rosebank which is behind a tall wall next to the nurseries.

This is one of the smaller gardens on the tour but is none the less interesting because of its size.

Gardens are all about creating different spaces with different colours, shapes, moods and uses and size is no barrier to this.

Even a (relatively) modest house can find space for a water feature and a couple of birds to protect the fish in it.

Of course bigger gardens can have bigger water features and the long pond at Petersham Lodge is always one of the highlights of the day.

There is a lot more to these gardens than just the pond; nestled next to the house are pots, flower beds and a geometrically patterned box hedge.

Beyond that lies the lawn and beyond that a wild garden dense with trees, wild grasses and Bluebells.

In one corner lies the working part of the garden with vegetable plots and a nursery preparing flowers for the house.

It may be a working garden but it is also a pretty garden and the vegetables and flowers are well presented for visitors.

Here a redundant barrow has become a proud home for Pansies and so gains a worthy purpose in its retirement.

Petersham Lodge gardens are nicely laid out with some of the sections hidden from each other so it takes a while to explore. That's time very well spent.

The Glasshouse just down the road could hardly be more different.

It is viciously modern and meticulously sculptured. Apart from a couple of seats it give no evidence of being "lived in" and its real purpose is to provide a pleasing view to the glass walled rooms that surround it.

That is a reasonable purpose for a garden and this one does it exceptionally well, especially in this weather when actually being out in a garden implies getting wet.

There were several other gardens to see but not all had something sufficiently impressive or distinctive to warrant Instagraming.

One that certainly did was otherwise fairly simple. Pretending to hide behind a tree was this very jolly frog delighted to be discovered.