Work in progress

I am trying not to take too many photographs of the redevelopment of Ham Close, despite my love for all things industrial, as I do not want to post dozens of very similar pictures over the many years of construction but this is the first phase so it deserves a little more attention.

The trench and the piles of earth dug out to create it are the main feature at the moment.

84

84 Buckingham Road has gone for a decidedly traditional sign for its house number which is ridiculously easy to read, as it should be.

Barrier

I am a not sure why a barrier has been constructed here as all that lies behind it is part of Ham Common Woods and there are plenty of other places where you can squeeze past the bushes if you are desperate to get in.

At least it is something to look out for in the next series of Ludwig where that section of the woods is often shown.

LG60 HGP

Behind 29 Ham Street Ham

This is the back of 29 Ham Street Ham, as seen from Back Lane, and the building works have continued since my last update in September. The garden room, at the back of the garden, has been completed, as has the rear wall and gate. I thought that was going to be the end of the building works and was surprised to see a shed appear in the middle of the garden.

Emerging roof

This rebuilding in the grounds of Manor House in Ham Street is largely hidden behind a sumptuous brick wall and only the emerging roof is visible.

Little Orchard has gone

Just over a year ago I posted a picture of Little Orchard, on the south-east corner of Sudbrook Lane and Bute Avenue, because there was a planning application to have it demolished and that prophecy has come true.

Tree spot

This post is in the Wates Estate section of Ashburnham Road, opposite Ferrymoor, and heralds the arrival of a tree.

A very long arm

I was seriously impressed by the machine used to pur concrete into the foundations of the new Ham Close development and I had to take the photo at this angle to get all of the arm in the picture. 

Anyone who understand basic physics will know that at that length the arm will have a very large Moment (turning effect) on the several pivots and it takes good engineering to keep the arm straight and in the air.

Dormer windows and more

The dormer windows are the main treat here but the whole picture is an architectural delight from the tops of the chimneys down to the brick decorations in the walls.

These delights can be found at the entrance to the lane leading to Petersham Nurseries.

Mallard expands

Mallard is a semi-detached house made prominent by its location on the corner of Sandy Lane and Arlington Road and it is along Arlington Road that it is expanding into two blocks that bear little relationship to the original house.

b.t.w. this is one of several houses that I have been in that have been updated in the last couple of years. When your kids go to local schools you get to visit lots of houses which is great for the architecturally curious!

Steps

There is so much to enjoy at Ham House and these steps are one of those things.

A line of barriers

Somebody is doing something in Riverside Drive, at the Ham Street end, and there is a line of red barriers showing where it is being done.

New Owner New Wines

Taylor's Wines has been in its current location since 2018 and I have bought a few wines (and champagnes) from there over the years. Now the white writing in the window announces that it has a New Owner and that means New Wines. 

Stokes House scaffolding

I took a similar picture of Stokes House (Ham Street) back in May when the scaffolding was going up and, for the same reason, I like scaffolding and I like it even more when it is as exposed against the sky as this.

The now revealed house has a new roof and the walls have new render.

Coloured panels

The hedge in the foreground, on Croft Way, has had a severe cutting back exposing some colourful panels at Meadowview Nursery.

Three chimneys

There is nothing particularly special or unusual about these chimneys at the entrance to Cedar Heights  (as far as I can tell), they just look good, and that is enough to get them noticed.

Repaving Riverside Drive

I did not think that there was anything wrong with the paving on the north side of Riverside Drive as it approaches Hardwicke Road but LBRuT had different ideas and have repaved it all.

Pile driver

Work is continuing at both ends of Ham Close with new flats at the western end and a community centre in the south-east corner where a pile driver was in action.

EB 1835

Newark Lodge, on the junction of Petersham Road and Sudbrook Lane, has a lion plaque giving its name and date of birth and this engraved stone confirms that date and suggests that someone with the initials EB was involved in the birth.

Looking closely at the font I admire the thin strokes of the "E", "3" and "5" and that the main difference between those two numbers is the size of the top strokes.  

Happy faces

One of me golden rules for collecting these photographs is to regularly walk every road in Ham, including all the no-trough-roads like Randle Road which wanders a short distance off Craig Road. Even quiet places like this have interesting things to see and changes to note.

These three happy faces above one of the doors was well worth the walk into then out of the road.

Two Mervyn Smiths

I am impressed. After an incident at their main office, the nearest one on the right, Mervyn Smith quickly fitted out the shop vacated by he Ballet Boutique so that they could work from there and have added all their branding to make it a proper Mervyn Smith office.

There is a helpful notice on the original office door, just in case you did not notice the new office two doors down. This also says that the new office is temporary.

Re-refreshing Avenue Lodge

After being comprehensively refreshed in 2023, Avenue Lodge is being worked on again.

The scope of the work is much smaller this time and from Great South Avenue you can see the scaffolding and sheeting covering the north face of the lodge.

Old Strathmore site

All that is left of the old Strathmore School is a large concrete slab.

I have posted pictures of this site before but not previously from this angle where the foundations are more prominent. This is the view from the lane to the German School and Ham Polo.

Broken finial

The side gate to Ham House garden is majestic but slightly damaged.

One of the finials has obvious cracks in it and so the area around it, on both sides of the wall, has been roped of to keep people away.

Scaffolding and more

The maintenance works on Teddington Bridge have entered their final stages.

The works being done now are "replacing the bearings on lockcut bridge" and while the works themselves are not visible an impressive amount of stuff is required to do it.

One minor point, the text quoted above refers to "lockcut bridge" whereas previously it was called "Lock Cut Bridge". This supports my suspicion that the name has been made up for the repairs.

Repainted lines

I was wondering what was going to happen in Locksmeade Road.

I was walking down Dukes Avenue late one night when I saw No Parking cones in Locksmeade Road and Thamesgate Close so I speculated why they might be there. I thought that they might be going to resurface the roads, despite them being in reasonable condition and also being quite roads, so seeing fresh yellow lines was something of a relief.