Lighting

It was the proposal to place concrete lampposts to replace cast iron gas lights round Richmond Green that caused the civic movement leading to the formation of the Richmond Society.

The erection of a blue disc traffic sign on a lamp post by the Old Palace Gatehouse recently drew our attention to a number of replacements of our simple designed posts, known as Revos. Further investigation has shown a plethora of differing designs, known as Oxfords, Cambridges and even New Designs.  This has disrupted the homogeneity of lighting around The Green.

We have now visited The Green with professional officers with a view to formulating a policy of replacing obsolete posts with a single design, whilst incorporating the English Heritage policy of ‘Save our Streets’ in ridding the area of superfluous signage clutter.

St Helena Terrace boat houses

Application for change of use of one of the boat houses along St Helena Terrace resulted in our sounding out as wide a section of the membership as we could prior to making our representations to the council. This is potentially an important step in the development of an historic area of listed buildings.  It could lead to their being converted to uses that would banalise an historic corner which so far has managed to retain its own very special character.

Star & Garter

The full application is now in and a decision is expected in September 2014.

Ancaster House

Phase II of the same project is the development of the old Commandant’s lodgings at Ancaster House, opposite the home. It is proposed to retain the division of the existing building into three discrete houses, build a fourth in the gardens beside the Park, and add an additional three Town Houses along the Queen’s Road wall.

We are awaiting formal submission of the application before lodging our comments although we have had discussions on certain aspects of the subject with the developers.