| Ham | |
|---|---|
 | |
.jpg) Housing by Ham Parade | |
  Ham Location withinGreater London | |
| Area | 9.26 km2 (3.58 sq mi) |
| Population | 10,317 (Ham Petersham and Richmond Riverside wards 2011)[1] |
| • Density | 1,114/km2 (2,890/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | TQ1813673150 |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | RICHMOND |
| Postcode district | TW10 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| UK Parliament | |
| London Assembly | |
| 51°26′06″N0°18′36″W / 51.435°N 0.310°W /51.435; -0.310 | |
Ham is a suburban[2] district inRichmond, south-westLondon. It has meadows adjoining theRiver Thames where theThames Path National Trail also runs. Most of Ham is in theLondon Borough of Richmond upon Thames and, chiefly, within theward of Ham, Petersham and Richmond Riverside; the rest is in theRoyal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. The district has modest convenience shops and amenities, including apetrol station and severalpubs, but its commerce is subsidiary to the nearby regional-level economic centre ofKingston upon Thames.
Ham is centred 9.25 miles (14.89 km) south-west of thecentre of London. Together withPetersham, Ham lies east of the bend in the river almost surrounding it on three sides, 1 mile (1.6 km) south ofRichmond and 2 miles (3.2 km) north ofKingston upon Thames. Its elevation mostly ranges between 6m and 12mOD but reaches 20m in the foothill side-streets leading toRichmond Park. It has theThames Path National Trail and is connected toTeddington bya large Lock Footbridge atTeddington Lock. During the summer months a pedestrian ferry,Hammerton's Ferry, links it toMarble Hill House,Twickenham.
The neighbouring land is semi-rural Petersham, Richmond Park, and the town of Kingston. On the opposite side of the river isTeddington andTwickenham (includingStrawberry Hill).[3]
Ham is bounded on the west, along the bank of the River Thames, by ancientcommunal river meadows forming aLocal Nature Reserve calledHam Lands.[4] Part of this former pasture land was used forgravel extraction. The last remnant of these gravel pits now forms an artificial lake, connected to the river by alock. In this area is theThames Young Mariners 10 acres (0.04 km2) site, operated as a water activity centre bySurrey County Council.[5] The area along the riverside is preserved as a public amenity and nature reserve.
Mostly on low-lyingriver terrace, Ham today is bounded to the east byRichmond Park, where the land rises at theescarpment of the Richmond and Kingstonhills. Small streams that drain this higher ground flow into a watercourse that flows south–north along the foot of the hill, known as Latchmere Stream[6] to the south andSudbrook to the north. Now subterranean for most of its course, it emerges inHam Common, near Ham Gate and flows briefly through Richmond Park and exits intoSudbrook Park Golf Course, returning underground before discharging into the Thames at Petersham.[7]
Ham lies within theLondon Basin and itsLondon claybedrock. The low-lying flood plains to the west consist of fluvialgravels,sands andclay. To the east, within Richmond Park, a more erosion-resistantfluvio-glacial deposit of gravels laid down in theinterglacial period between 240,000 and 400,000 years ago forms the escarpment ridge that runs north–south between the Richmond and Kingston hills.[8][9]
The name derives from theOld English wordHamme meaning "place in the bend of a river".[10]
The Thames Valley has been inhabited since thePalaeolithic period and finds of Palaeolithic flints nearWhite Lodge, Richmond Park show that Ham was part of early human territory. Later,Mesolithic, flints found at Ham dip, Dann's Pond and Pen Ponds within the park are also evidence of early habitation as areNeolithicbarrows on the ridge of the hill overlooking Petersham, Ham and Kingston. These have not been excavated, so it is impossible to date them precisely, but barrows are known to span the period from 3500BC to 900BC.[11] Several surface finds offlint tools, axes, adzes, scrapers, awls chisels and knives as well as arrowheads, hammer stones and flint shards were made during gravel workings in Ham Fields at Coldharbour, near the present dayThames Young Mariners site (51°26′19″N0°19′32″W / 51.438655°N 0.325586°W /51.438655; -0.325586) and further east in maize fields now covered by housing.[9] These finds are made from high-quality flint from theNorth Downs rather than local river-borne flints from the Thames Valley, implying human transportation and a settled rather than nomadic lifestyle in the area. Many of theseartifacts are part of the Edwards Collection and housed in theMuseum of Richmond.[12] Other finds from Ham are held at theMuseum of London including an earlyBronze Age collared urn, also from the Edwards Collection.[13][14]
A few finds ofRomano-British pottery from the lateIron Age, mid 1st and early 2nd centuries AD show that the area remained inhabited to some extent, though the closest indications of modest Roman settlements are further south in theCanbury area of North Kingston.[13]
The first earlySaxon settlement found in the Greater London area was apit-house, orGrubenhaus, excavated at Ham in the early 1950s. Along with pottery finds dated to the 5th century AD, this suggests the area was amongst the first colonised by Saxon settlers.[13][15]
Ham does not appear inDomesday Book of 1086, the nearest entries beingPetersham to the north andCoombe to the south-east, all, including the area of Ham, within thehundred of the town of Kingston to the south.[16]
Historically, Ham covered a larger area. The boundaries shown in thetithe map of 1843 are believed to have changed little, if at all, for centuries. The southern boundary between Ham and Kingston spanned the width of the hundred, from near present-dayCanbury Gardens on the Thames, about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) eastwards crossing Richmond Park toBeverley Brook. The northern boundary returned through Richmond Park from Beverley Brook, south ofWhite Lodge through the northern Pen Pond, acrossSudbrook Park westwards towards Ham Street then veering north back to the Thames.[17]
The earliest known written record of Ham as a separate village dates from the 12th century whenHamma was included in the royaldemesne as a member of Kingston, contributing 43s. 4d. in 1168 towards the marriage ofMatilda, the eldest daughter ofHenry II.[note 1][20] Ham was the site of a mediaeval Manor House and tithe barn, later known as Secrett's farm, near the present Ham Library; it was demolished in 1958.[21]
Between the royal courts atRichmond andHampton Court, Ham's predominantly agricultural area developed from the beginning of the 17th century, with the construction ofHam House in 1610, the best-preserved survivor of the period. The related history of theEarls of Dysart dominated the development of Ham andPetersham for the following four centuries.
When the park was enclosed byCharles I in 1637, Hamparish lost the use of most of the affected land, over 800 acres (3.2 km2) stretching towards Robin Hood Gate and Kingston Hill, almost half of which wascommon land. In return for this, a deed was struck which has effectively protected most of the remaining common land, Ham Common, to the present day. The enclosed land, whilst lost to agriculture, remained within Ham's administrative boundaries.
The whole area was referred to asHam cum Hatch, orHam with Hatch, until late Victorian times.[22] The enclosure of Richmond Park disrupted the former common land link between the settlements near the presentUpper Ham Road and an ancient small settlement near the park's Robin Hood Gate andA3, London road. Local historian, Evelyn Pritchard, assumed that the Robin Hood lands settlement was the location of Hatch, but more detailed examination of Petersham, Ham andCanbury manorial land records byJohn Cloake provides evidence that Hatch was a hamlet centred around the north-east area of Ham Common, whilst Ham itself lay to the west and north-west of the present common, on the Ham Street approach to the Thames.[23]
Between 1838 and 1848, Ham Common was the site of aUtopian spiritual community and free school calledAlcott House (or the "Ham Common Concordium"), founded by educational reformer and "sacred socialist"James Pierrepont Greaves and his followers.Hesba Stretton (real name Sarah Smith), the evangelical children's writer, retired to Ivycroft, Ham Common in 1892 and died there in 1912.[24]
There is a memorial bench outside theSainsbury's store (formerlyBarclays Bank) at Ham Parade to commemorateAngela Woolliscroft, who was murdered in 1976 during a bank robbery. There is also a memorial bench (installed 2024) for Malcolm Singleton (died 2022) who ran M&J Hardware since 1988 and had worked for the previous owner, Dorling’s, starting at age 16.[25][26][27]
Since 1965 Ham has been mostly in theLondon Borough of Richmond upon Thames.[28] The rest is inLondon Borough of Kingston upon Thames. The boundaries between these two boroughs have changed slightly since they were first established.
As the system of hundreds andmanors declined, Ham from 1786 was administered by a local "vestry", but as Ham lacked a church of its own until 1832 (and a true vestry until it was enlarged in 1890), it met in the New Inn.[29]
ThePoor Law Amendment Act 1834 established a Board of Guardians, comprising 21 elected guardians for Kingston and its surrounding parishes. Ham always had one or two representatives, but sent very few of its poor to the workhouse, mainly assisting them locally inalmshouses.[30]Ham Common Local Government District was formed under theLocal Government Act 1858 and was governed by alocal board of eight members.[31] However, the vestry system continued in practice until the formation of a local government board in 1871.[32] TheLocal Government Act 1894 reconstituted the area asHam Urban District, with an elected urban district council of ten members replacing the local board. It consisted of thecivil parish of Ham with Hatch, which was renamed "Ham" in 1897.[33]
The urban district was abolished in 1933, when acounty review order included it in an enlargedMunicipal Borough of Richmond.[34] The main impact on Ham was that the northern area was linked with Petersham to create a Sudbrook ward, whilst the boundary with Kingston was moved further north to more or less its present limit with Ham "losing" the factories and surrounding land and housing. This substantial boundary change makes meaningful demographic analysis very difficult. The ward itself is nowHam, Petersham and Richmond Riverside. This contains the largest proportion ofRichmond Park and of all six main wards which adjoin it.[35]
Ham was an agricultural community for centuries, with meadow and pasture land mostly along the river, and common grazing. The tithe map of 1842 showed a total area of 1,920 acres (780 ha), but when adjusted for the land in Richmond Park, 449 acres (182 ha) werearable, 290 acres (120 ha) meadow or pasture, 216 acres (87 ha) was common land, and only 1 acre (0.40 ha) woodland. The crops were mainly wheat, barley and oats. with someflax, potatoes, turnips andmangel wurzels. Livestock included cows, sheep, pigs, goats, ducks and chickens as well as horses and donkeys – many of which grazed the common land.[36] Ham had three farms at the time, all on land owned by the Earl of Dysart. Unusually, these remained very littleenclosed and theopen field system survived in use until the late 19th century.[37] Improvement in transport and the growth of London led to a shift from general mixed agriculture to market gardening by the early 20th century.[38] Ultimately, the same growth fuelled demand for housing land, and this factor along with the greater profitability of gravel extraction on land that could not be used for housing, meant that agriculture in Ham had ceased by the mid-1950s.[39]
In 1904William Tollemache, 9th Earl of Dysart leased part of the farmland to the Ham River Grit Company Ltd to extract sand andballast. A dock was constructed in 1913 and a lock in 1921, parts of which remain as theThames Young Mariners water activity centre.[40] Anarrow-gauge railway linked the site to the main road.[41] During theSecond World War the flooded pits were reputed to have been used to store sections of theMulberry harbour. After the war, most of the pits were filled with bomb-damage rubble from London. The pits operated until 1952, after which some of the land was used for subsequent housing development, theWates estate.[42] Local resistance to further development led to the area being designatedMetropolitan Open Land, preserving Ham Riverside Lands as a nature reserve. It has notably unusual vegetation due to the underlying alkaline rubble instead of the more acidic fluvial deposits.[43][44]
Towards the end ofWorld War I, Lord Dysart sold some land south of Ham Common to theMinistry of Munitions for the construction of an aircraft factory on land adjoining what was then still called Upper Ham Road.National Aircraft Factory No. 2 was built in 26 weeks during the winter of 1917. The factory was leased to theSopwith Aviation Company, based a mile to the south in Canbury Park Road, Kingston, and the company were able to increase greatly its production ofSnipe,Dolphin andSalamander fighter planes as a result. At the end of the war, demand ceased. Sopwith tried to buy the factory outright but the government refused. Sopwith Aviation went into voluntary liquidation and reformed in 1920 as H. G. Hawker Engineering at their original Kingston base.[45]
The remaining Ham Factory lease was sold toLeyland Motors, which initially used it to recondition ex-War Department lorries for civilian use. It was then used to produce under licence theTrojan Utility Car between 1922 and 1928.[46] During the 1930s, the factory producedLeyland Cub trucks. World War II shifted production to military vehicles, fire engines, other equipment and munitions. After the war the site produced the chassis for Leyland'strolleybus.[47]
In 1948 the site was sold back toHawker Aircraft Ltd and it became the main base for Kingston's aviation industry. TheHawker Hunter was produced there in large numbers, driven byCold War demand. The profits allowed the site to be redeveloped as Hawker's UK headquarters and the factory gained an imposing frontage by 1958 in a building that closely linked design and production.[45] The Ham factory played an integral part in the development of theHawker Kestrel andHawker Harrier planes. Following the nationalisation of the aircraft industry in 1977.British Aerospace continued to build Harriers and missile kits at the site. Following privatisation in 1985, the site's closure was announced in 1991. It was demolished in 1993 and replaced by further housing development.[47]
In 1929 the site on the opposite side of the road to the Leyland factory was developed for the Cellon Doping Company, originally producingCellonaircraft dope, a synthetic varnish used to waterproof aircraft fabric.[48] The company became part ofPinchin Johnson and was acquired byCourtaulds in 1960, continuing under theInternational Paint group banner from 1968.[49][50] The factory closed in the 1980s[when?] and the site was redeveloped as a small industrial estate.
Apart from oneplant nursery, local community, retail and small scale offices, Ham today is predominately a commuter residential area dependent on employment outside the immediate area.
The main feature in Ham isHam Common which has a cricket pitch, a pond and a woodland.
A straight tree-lined path leads from Ham Common toHam House, the most significant house in Ham. The path from Ham Common to Ham House is called the Great South Avenue, the path leading to the Thames adjacent to the east wall of Ham House is called Melancholy Walk, whilst the footpath leading to Ham Street adjacent to the south wall of Ham House is called Cut Throat Alley.
Several notable period houses in Ham cluster around the Common including theCassel Hospital,Langham House andOrmeley Lodge, which is currently owned byLady Annabel Goldsmith. Victorian buildings includeLatchmere House.Beaufort House in Ham Street, dating from 18C, is Grade II listed and was the home ofLady Juliana Penn from 1795 to her death in 1801.[51] In the grounds ofGrey Court School is the Georgian, grade II listed Grey Court House, now called Newman House afterCardinal Newman, who lived there as a child in the early 19th century.[52]
In contrast,Langham House Close, to the west of Ham Common, completed in 1958, is an early example ofbrutalist architecture.Parkleys, the first large-scale residential development by the pioneeringSPAN Developments Ltd ofEric Lyons andGeoffrey Townsend, was begun in 1954 and completed in 1956: it lies just to the north of Ham Parade.[53]
There are four churches:Ham Christian Centre,St Andrew's Church,St Thomas Aquinas Church andSt Richard's Church.
Ham is served by three bus routes: the65, 371 andK5. All link the town withKingston upon Thames, with the first two servingRichmond.
TheHam and Petersham Cricket Club was established in 1815 and cricket is still played on Ham Common.
TheHam Polo Club is at the end of a driveway off the Petersham Road. Though the club has been in existence since 1926 it was in 1954 that the old orchard of Ham House was converted into apolo ground for the club.
The Ham and Petersham Lawn Tennis Club has courts on the south avenue to Ham House in conjunction withGrey Court School.[54]
The former meadow land along the Thames near Ham House became the location of aKing George's Field in the 1930s. Covering 10 acres (4.0 ha), it provides cricket, football and tennis facilities. Several sports clubs and activities are based on and nearby.[55][56]
The Ham and Petersham Rifle and Pistol Club, dating from 1907 or perhaps earlier, is near Ham House, with both indoor and outdoor ranges and caters for archery, pistol and rifle shooting.[57]
The Kew and Ham Sports Association provides football and baseball facilities on the playing fields between Ham House andThames Young Mariners.[58]
TheRichmond Baseball and Softball Club plays its home games during the summer season at Connare Field and Flood Field in Ham.
Thames Young Mariners provides sailing, canoeing, open-water swimming and other sport and outdoor activity facilities.[5]
| Ward | Detached | Semi-detached | Terraced | Flats and apartments | Caravans/temporary/mobile homes/houseboats | Shared between households[1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (ward) | 461 | 688 | 1,368 | 1,918 | 0 | 15 |
| Ward | Population | Households | % Owned outright | % Owned with a loan | hectares[1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (ward) | 10,317 | 4,174 | 31 | 29 | 926 |
The 2014 television filmThe Boy in the Dress, based on the novel byDavid Walliams, was largely filmed in Ham.[78] For example, the local newsagent's shop used in the film is oppositeSt Richard's Church, Ham,[citation needed] and other scenes were filmed atGrey Court School.[79]
Scenes from the 2016 filmNow You See Me 2 were also filmed in Ham.[80]
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