Gruffalo Event: Axel Scheffler

Mayor Cllr Jane Boulton looks on as Axel Scheffler signs Amber Willcox’s copy of “The Gruffalo”

On Saturday 13^th September, over four hundred parents and children turned up to a Richmond Society meeting to hear and watch local resident Axel Scheffler, the illustrator of The Gruffalo, read and draw from the story.

“We were delighted how popular the meeting was,” said Prof Ian Bruce, Chair of Richmond Society, “and very grateful to Axel for not only entertaining a rapt audience, but also for spending two and half hours signing the children’s books and including an original drawing in each child’s copy.”

Richmond’s Mayor Cllr Jane Boulton attended and interested the audience with a description of her full Mayoral regalia which she wore especially for the children.

Axel also read and drew from the recently published The Scarecrows’ Wedding and finished the afternoon with the The Highway Rat.

Axel Scheffler draws characters from his latest book “The Scarecrows’ Wedding”

Annual Awards 2014

On Thursday 25th September we were pleased to present our 2014 Annual Awards to the people behind the best developments in Richmond over the past year. After a tribute from our patron Bamber Gascoigne to his fellow patron the late Richard Attenborough, Charles Pineles reviewed many of the changes that have taken place in Richmond over the last year.

Awards were presented by Bamber Gascoigne and the Mayor, Councillor Jane Boulton, who are pictured here with our chairman Ian Bruce and the winners of this year’s brass plaque award: Sam Hanna with representatives from 3W Architecture and Affleck Property Services. The winning development was the three new houses in Water Lane, Richmond.

Brass Plaque Award

Richmond Society Award Plaque
The winning development was three cottages in a difficult infill site on Water Lane.
The design takes careful architectural clues from neighbouring late nineteenth century commercial building resulting in a sensitive scheme which sits well in the townscape. It provides three residences of an affordable nature, thereby uniting the best of design, build quality and amenity.

Commendations

1-5 Lower George St
(Whole Foods Building)
Replacement of 1960s System build, concrete, Woolworths building with high grade brick and reconstructed stone four storey building comprising shops with offices over.

Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene
Cleaning down to bare metal of 19th century wrought iron metal window frames and replacement of opaque glass with clear but multi faceted glass yielding a particular warm and dappled effect to the interior with much improved illumination of the church in general.

St Matthias Church
Reinstatement of West porch details worn away over past 100 years, in Bath stone. Addition of two highly decorative and contemporary sculptures and restoration of much worn out stonework.

7 Old Palace Lane
Cleaning white paint from front façade, re-pointing brickwork, reduction in hard-standing of front parking area to open basement to light and ventilation and installation of wrought iron railings at rear thus returning the entire terrace, of which the house made a significant, part to its homogeneity.

4 Spring Terrace
Modern infill, set back to side of 1830s front façade. Design and build quality being of the highest order. Sensitive use of material and bonding matching proportions of original building.

Previous years’ winners can be seen on our Awards page.

Heritage Walks Summer 2014

by Paul Velluet – Walks Organiser and Leader

The seven walks this year attracted significantly increasing numbers through May, June and July, and raised generous contributions towards the Society’s Landscaping Fund. In accordance with long-established tradition, each walk ended with convivial drinks and conversation at a local pub.

The series started in May with the customary introductory walk around the historic core of the town, followed, appropriately in this centenary year, by a walk focusing on sites, local people and military and charitable organisations associated with the Great War.

The visit to Richmond Parish Church led by Valerie Boyes and her well- researched talk on the extraordinary collection of 18th and 19th century memorials in the building attracted a good turn-out despite the appalling weather; as too, the fascinating walk she led to look at the delightful, carved cherubs’ heads on the elegant door-cases of diverse, 18th century houses around the town.

The walk focusing on post-War and modern architecture provided a useful opportunity to remind members of the real design quality of some of the town’s recent development; much of it recognised under the Society’s Awards scheme.

The two walks led by Phillippa Heath were very well attended. One was to sites associated with royal and other mistresses in Twickenham and St Margaret’s.

The other on the nurseries, market-gardens and allotments of Richmond (see photo); this included a particularly interesting visit to the Old Palace Lane allotments running along the side of the railway embankment behind The White Swan which was facilitated by Hilary Dennes, Secretary of the Allotments Society.

Thanks go to all those who contributed to the success of the series – our guides, Phillippa Heath of Reading University’s Museum of Rural Life, Valerie Boyes, local historian and immediate past-Chairman of the Museum of Richmond; those who opened-up various buildings, and to Adam Harrison who assisted in the organisation of the series.

Once again, members are invited to contribute ideas for themes for the next series of walks, and/or to lead walks themselves.

Oak Processionary Moth

Oak Processionary Moth was first identified in this country on imported trees planted at a housing development in Kew in 2006, after residents reported unexplained rashes and breathing problems.

Since then extensive measures have been taken to try to restrict their spread – see the Forestry Commission’s website.

Left uncontrolled, the species could spread across much of Britain, weakening oak trees by repeated defoliation, and presenting a risk to human and animal health. The caterpillars have tiny hairs which can cause the skin rashes, eye and throat irritations and breathing difficulties seen in Kew during the initial outbreak.

Do not attempt to deal with nests yourself. If you see nests or caterpillars in public parks, open spaces, communal gardens, or on golf courses, please report them:

Richmond Council:
Phone 020 8891 1411 or email trees@richmond.gov.uk

The Forestry Commission:
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/treealert

Planning Matters May 2014

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 May 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.