A loop through Bushy Park

I do far too many medium distance walks to document them all (though I can find them all on MapMyWalk) but I liked this one enough to say something about it.

The reason I liked this walk is that it covered a reasonable distance (20km) mostly along a river or through a park and did so without ever getting that far away from home.

The heart of the route was a simple loop starting at Teddington Lock and following The Thames upstream all the way to Hampton Court, then through the old part of Hampton to enter Bushy Park by a side pedestrian gate, through a couple of woodland areas to a cafe for lunch and then back through Teddington.

The weather was ridiculously good for the middle of November with plenty of low sun and enough warmth to make walking comfortable. The light enjoyed dancing on the water and weaving through the trees which made the whole walk delightful. And all this is on my doorstep.

A regular walk through Teddington and Twickenham

One of the features of the Thames locally (and elsewhere in London) is the lack of bridges which, for me, means there are only two crossing places that I can easily walk to; and they are, going north to south, Richmond Bridge, Teddington Lock Footbridge and Kingston Bridge. Several of my regular walks take in two of these, i.e. Teddington Lock and either Richmond Bridge or Kingston Bridge.

That gives me two basic routes and as I can do them in either direction that makes four. Then I can vary each of them as I go to add more variety and interest.

This is an example of using Teddington Look Footbridge and Richmond Bridge travelling clockwise.

There are various ways that I can get to Teddington Lock and the prettiest is to head straight for the river.

On the other side of the bridge there is no path along the river and the main road that parallels it is busy and boring so I usually head into Teddington. Where and how far I do this depends on my mood. This time I went quite a way away from the river before heading past St Mary's University and rejoining the river at Radnor Gardens.

The river disappeared again until I got to Twickenham Riverside, by Eel Pie Island, which is one of the prettiest parts of the route. It is all nice from there until the other side of Marble Hill Park. I could have stayed by the river then but it is a longer route and I was getting late for my afternoon tea (no cafe stops any more)!

Once over Richmond Bridge it is back home along the river and the only question is when to breakaway from the towpath and head home. The quickest route is to do that early, as the river bends at Petersham and the longest is to follow the river all the way back to Teddington Lock. This time I took the medium option and followed the river to Ham House then walked straight up Ham Street and past Ham Common. Ham Street is full of old buildings and is (mostly) quiet.

This variation of the route was 12.5 km and took a leisurely 2 and a half hours.

Weekly walks: Local parks

A lot has happened in the two weeks since my last long walk, all of it related to coronavirus.

Ten days ago I got flu-like symptoms (it was probably flu!) and I started following the then guidance of having seven days self isolation. I was a bad boy and, with some care, went to the theatre on the fourth day and while I felt well enough at the time I had something of a relapse and another four days in bed.

During that time the coronavirus reaction ignited in the UK and we went from just wash your hands to never see anyone else ever again, or something like that. I was not sure about whether to resume our long walks as the Social Distancing guidance said nothing on this but as we would be outside all the time and could avoid busy places we decided to go ahead as usual.

The first concession that we made was to avoid public transport and to walk locally instead and we agreed to start at Teddington Lock.

From there we took the vary familiar path along the river to Kingston Bridge before crossing it to take the less familiar but still well known route along the river on the Middlesex bank to Hampton Court.

We walked through the gardens there before crossing the road into Bushy Park where we headed for The Pheasantry cafe. Like everyone else we took a table outside some distance from anyone else. We were helped in this by the cafe which had put more seats outside and had spread them out too.

We then took the pretty route through the Woodland Gardens, this is the sharp turn west on the map.

From there it felt like we were home though we still had some way to go. I used to work in Teddington so was able to lead us on a quiet route through some back streets before we hit Twickenham.

There we were able to find the river again and head back to Richmond where Colin left me, on the reasonable grounds that we were walking by his house. That was also fair as he had walked further to the start of the joint walk than I had.

We skipped the usual congratulatory beers at the end because of our Social Distancing.

I carried on to Richmond Bridge  and crossed back to the Surrey side and the much walked route home. Time pressure persuaded me to catch a bus the final leg.

The statistics of the walk were just oner 19km walked in something shy of four hours. Our pace was slightly slower at almost 12 minutes a kilometer probably because I enforced a few pauses to play Pokemon Go! I do not usually play while on our walks but we were close to home this time and there were some gyms that needed taking out.

If the coronavirus remains much the same this week then we plan to do the same next week, i.e. stay local and only go to a cafe and/or pub if we can sit outside in space. But a week is a long time at the moment. 

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.

The Character of Ham and Petersham

The Ham and Petersham Neighbourhood Forum (H+PNF) is a neighbourhood forum (as defined in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990) and so will have a big impact on the area that I live and so I am very interested in what it is doing.

What it is doing now is holding a number of consultation workshops with residents on various aspects of the neighbourhood plan that the Forum will produce and then oversee its implementation. I have been to all of the sessions so far and have submitted several comments at each of them.

The next consultation is on the Character and Heritage and heritage of the area. I was asked to produce a poster showing what I liked about the area to prompt some ideas. They asked me because of my Ham Photos blog in which I have been documenting the area for the last nine years through a collection of photographs that now numbers over 2,000.

It took a little while to come up with a format that I liked but once that was done it was a simple matter to find the 16 photos required to tell my story. I am quite pleased with the final result.

It occurred to me once I had done this poster that it very much focused on open spaces and said little about the buildings, so I did another poster of just that and they are going to use that one too as a reminder to people of the variety that there is locally.

This one was very quick to do as I could reuse the format from the first poster and the only challenge was deciding which 20 buildings to choose.

The top row are some of the many grand lodges and manors in the area, dating back to when kings hunted in Richmond Park. The second row shows some of the estate-like development in the area, including the standard 3-bed brick built social housing, the iconic Parkley's development and the Wates Estate. The third row shows some of the more exotic new buildings and the final row shows some of the old cottages that are littered across the area.

Even with 20 pictures there was much that I had to leave out but I think I met my personal objectives of showing the variety that exists and of covering the whole area. I hope that the people at the consultation workshop like it too. I will find out on Wednesday 13 April!

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.

Richmond Hill Open Gardens 2015

I need little invitation to go to Open Gardens in the National Gardens Scheme and when those gardens are on swanky Richmond Hill then I just had to go as it would give me the chance to see some of the houses as well as their gardens.

The gardens were scattered a little over the hill in an area around The Marlborough. This was a pub I was familiar with which meant that I also knew the main road that it sat on but I knew nothing of the many roads that ran off it so there was a nice element of exploring to do too.

The houses all cost in the order of £5 million, some a lot more, so I expected gardens to match and was not disappointed. The one above looked like a Chelsea show garden with its mix of architectural features and neat planting. It was incredibly formal and it almost felt like an intrusion to walk through it.

Water features and fancy pots were common and I chose this combination for its Zen feel with its simple pots, still water, small bridge and water bubbling out of a stone ball.

I took many pictures of garden ornaments and this happy chappy was my favourite.

Of course there were plenty of flowers too and these little splashes of different colours were lovely.

While several of the gardens were violently modern quite a few were cosily traditional and few things are more tradittional in an English Country Garden than a collection of plant pots.

The final garden that I went to was the largest. What was one the garden of a large house once, or maybe even two large houses, was now the garden to a moderate sized block of expensive flats and some care had been taken to make the garden live up to the expectations of the tenants.

This was another one of those Open Garden days that required some rushing around to see things and I was left short of time to see everything which is better that running out of gardens to see in the time available. None of the gardens were super sensational, and I expected that to be the case, though several were not that far off and the houses they belonged to were pretty good too.

A fascinating talk on The History of Ham Riverside Lands

Ham Amenities Group (HAG) organised some talks about the area by locals for locals which I found appealing, and so did many others.

The talk on The History of Ham Riverside Lands was given by Sir David Williams, former leader of Richmond Council and a long-time local councillor. It soon became apparent in the talk that he was involved in many of the effort to protect Ham Lands and so was well placed to talk about it.

He started with a brief history of the area that had had various names, including Ham Fields and Ham Pits, before becoming Ham Lands. This started a short discussion among the audience several of whom remembered when it was market gardens or gravel pits.

The exploitation and the protection of the area has been the subject of many laws and the first one that David mentioned was the 1902 act which protected the view from Richmond Park but at the loss of some of the people's rights over the land.

The extraction of gravel started soon after and was the main use of the land for the next fifty years or so.

The last gravel pit closed in 1962. What is left is now is the little lake used by Thames Young Mariners.

As the gravel pits were closed the concrete barges that were used there were abandoned and covered up. These solid lumps of concrete now have a noticeable impact on the way that water moves through the area.

A border was established with Riverside Drive and the Wates Estate was built to the east of this. Being built on recently reclaimed land the estate has continued to suffer from subsidence problems.

The drawing above is from the promotional literature for the Wates Estate and is looking up Croft Way toward the church. The garage was still there when I moved to Ham twenty years ago but has since closed. The clean lines of the estate and the unusual shape of the church and, thankfully, unchanged.

Wates wanted to build to the west of the road too and this was the scene of the last great battle over Ham Lands. They wanted to build in three sections, shown on the map. The locals agreed to building of social housing on the first plot of 5 acres but the Council changed their mind and went for private housing instead in what is now the Locksmeade estate.

In 1979 a strong local campaign started to stop any further building. They were helped by the presence of rare orchids and birds (stone chats) on Ham Lands and eventually the campaign was successful and that section of Ham Lands has been protected.

The land to the south-east of there has housing much closer to the river as the precedence for this had been set by the Sopwith Factory.

I am not by nature a historian but I do care about Ham and this was a fascinating and very informative talk on how Ham Lands came to be and came to be protected.

The next HAG talk on Friday 20 February is Hidden Ham by Ham Photos Blogger Matthew Rees!

I managed to escape the home office to take a walk across Ham Common

This was a sunny Sunday and I was almost house-bound with a work deliverable due by 9am on the Monday morning (I was not impressed with the client for coming up with that idea!) but the lure of the sunshine and the desire for some fresh air and some limb stretching was just too much temptation for me to resist, so I popped out for an hour or so just before the Sun gave up for the day.

Before it went to bed, the Sun produced bright colours and long shadows to give the familiar place a different look.

The avenue of trees here continues for almost a mile until it meets the back gates of Ham House. Along the way it uses some interesting names, including Melancholy Walk which always seems very inappropriate as it is a lovely place.

An architect explains Parkleys

If I had to design my perfect outing it would be something like this.

I am a fringe member of Ham United Group (HUG), which means I go to some of their meetings and at one of those meetings local architect Richard Woolf suggested that HUG got out and about a little to learn more about the area. The upshot of all that was that he ended up giving a talk on local development Parkleys in Parkleys.

A talk on architecture about a development that I like and is just a minute's walk from my house was not something that I was going to miss. Plenty of other people thought so too and a good crowd turned up to listen and learn.

Parkleys was designed by Span the driving force of which was architect Eric Lyons. The name Span was chosen to indicate that the design spanned the whole development, i.e. the spaces between the houses as well as the houses them selves.

It is the combination of the broad design of the site and detailed the detailed design of the features (including paving and lighting) that mean that places like Parkleys are still very attractive and popular today.

Richard had done a fantastic amount of research for his talk and had found some good illustrations to explain his points. This map shows the greenhouses that were on the site before and in red is an early outline of what the site could look like. It is very close to what was actually built.

Richard's talk covered other works by Lyons and he was helped in this by somebody who had worked for Lyons for a while (but whose name I forgot to write down).

It was a brilliant and fascinating talk that continued in the pub afterwards where Richard was able to claim a corner of the garden and display all of his posters so that we could examine them at a more leisurely pace.

This was something of an experiment for HUG and for Richard and given its great success I am hoping that there is more like that to come.

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.

Kew Gardens Autumn colours and pumpkins (October 2013)

A bright sunny morning was all the encouragement that I needed to pay another visit to Kew Gardens. The other reason for going was that a major storm was predicted for the next day and I wanted to see the gardens before the possibility of serious damage.

The main lure this time was the autumnal colours so I went in at the Lion Gate (south-east corner) because there are lots of trees there. The trees did not really do as they were told and many were either still stubbornly green or had capitulated and given all their leaves up already.

There were a few of the hoped for reds and yellows and I walked from one to the other as I vaguely headed towards the lake.

I crossed the Pagoda Vista on the way. There are several such vistas in Kew Gardens and I like to cross them rather than use them. The best bits of Kew are the quieter bits and that means keeping off the main paths when I can.

On the right is the Temperate House which is now closed for several years for refurbishment. It is missed.

The lake was in fine form making the most of the clear Autumn sunshine. I walked across the top of it (i.e. the end by the river) as I usually do as I prefer the planting at that end and it also gives me views like this back down the lake.

Next I crossed Syon Vista, this is the longest vista in the gardens, running from the Palm House to the river. Viewing the picture at 100% zoom reveals the Palm House in the little gap between the trees. It also shows the group of geese on the right feasting on the grass. They are always there.

The Waterlily House was the big surprise.

The waterlilies had gone to be replaced by  pumpkins. Lots of pumpkins. Lots of different kinds of pumpkins. Kinds of pumpkins that I did not know existed.

Kew Gardens is always good at showing the variety that exists in the plant world, that is one of the many things that I like about it, and it was a delight to see so many different pumpkins.

Kew Gardens also teaches and there were explanations of where each type is found and of the characteristics that defined the species.

Kew Gardens also caters for children and with pumpkins that means carving. My favourite was this one with one pumpkin eating another.

I made one final detour before leaving through the Elizabeth Gate and that was to the Joseph Banks Building and the lake that it sits on. These are somewhat hidden from the main path by trees and bushes so they are easily missed. Which is a shame because it is a nice spot.

I have been to Kew Gardens many times and it still manages to delight and surprise  on every visit. That's why I am a member.

A coffee break and a wander at Ham House

Being a member of the National Trust means that I can pop in to Ham House whenever the mood takes me and it took me on this Sunday morning.

I had been looking at the Glasshouse nearby in Petersham and fancied both a coffee and bit of a walk, so Ham House fitted the bill perfectly.

I was not that desperate to get to Ham House but it might have seemed that way as I found myself at the front of the queue to get in when the gates opened at 11am.

The coffee came first and that meant heading round to the right of the house to the kitchen garden. I had some cake too to fortify myself for the wander to come.

The kitchen garden is both practicable, it really is growing vegetables and flowers for use, and pretty. It is also neatly laid out in a grid with wide gravel paths that crunch reassuringly as you walk over them.

The kitchen garden is laid out in a uniform 4 x 4 grid. Some of these are grass, and grass is useful for the various events that are held there each year, but the kitchen garden has made some encouraging expansion in recent years and the number of grass squares has reduced.

This symmetry is the first aspect of the garden's beauty that you notice as it is approached from the elevated side garden.

The garden's other source of beauty comes from its mix of colours of shapes with the flowers and vegetables both playing their part.

The top picture is of one of the long flower beds, and on the right are some pumpkins. I have no idea what the things below are - I love the purple colour though.

There are three routes out of the kitchen garden and on this trip I took the one in the far corner away from the restaurant and that took me almost immediately into the Wilderness.

Here the defining feature is the maze of hedge-lined paths and wandering them is pleasure enough. When feeling a little more adventurous, and when time allows, I pop in to some of the gardens behind the hedges.

Like the kitchen garden, the Wilderness is a bit of work in progress and some of the hidden gardens have little in while others are well stocked with plants and cosy places to sit to enjoy them.

Emerging from the Wilderness, Ham House is revealed in all its glory.

This is, of course, the back of the house and I much prefer it to the font which I find a little fussy. The back is clean and, that word again, symmetric.

Off to the right is another garden hidden behind another, and taller, hedge.

Inside trimmed box and lavender provide further symmetry and further beauty. The lavender was replanted a year or two ago and it was good to see it back to full strength.

As almost always, this was an anti-clockwise tour of the gardens at Ham House and I paid no attention to the house itself, except to look at the outside of it. Even then the garden had me trapped for the best part of an hour before it had had enough of me and me of it.

It is fantastic to have something like Ham House on the doorstep (well, only 1.5km away) and, as with Kew Gardens, I prefer to make regular and frequent visits, which is easy thanks to membership on the National Trust.