Thames Landscape Strategy - Hampton to Kew -

Arcadian Diary August 2004

The weather has been very much in the news over the last couple of weeks and in particular the destruction caused by the heavy rainfall across the UK. Even in our own area, last weeks storm has had a devastating effect on the fish population in the Thames. The sight of literally thousands of dead fish floating down the river was heartbreaking and by all accounts will take years to reverse the effects. The staggering statistic of 600,000 tonnes of raw sewage being flushed into the river in just one hour is almost beyond belief. Add to this the variety of things that people flush down their toilets (cotton wool buds, nappies and condoms being just a few) and the river really did take a hammering. The event co-incided with a high spring tide that washed a lot of this debris onto the riverbank so do spare a thought to the street cleaners who did such a marvellous job clearing away most of the mess so quickly – it cannot have pleasant.

Riverside management of a different sort has also been occupying our time recently, namely the felling of several large ash trees along the Marble Hill footpath and tree work within the Orleans House Gardens. Whilst this work was not carried out by the London’s Arcadia team and the loss of three magnificent trees is terrible it does demonstrate an important point. Having spoken to Richmond Council, who ordered the work to be carried out, it seems that the trees were very decayed and could have caused considerable harm if they had fallen onto the footpath beneath. Several huge branches were quite literally held in place by lengths of rope.

There are so many different pressures and points of view as to how the riverside should be managed but almost without exception though it is the desire to safeguard the timeless rural character of the river that is forefront in people’s minds. The most difficult thing about trying to achieve this though is how to manage a dynamic landscape that is constantly changing, growing and dying taking into account the needs of wildlife, heritage, funding and health and safety. It is often a difficult concept to understand that in order to maintain almost all environments, so that they remain more or less unchanged for any period of time actually involves quite a lot of work. The worst thing that can be done is actually doing nothing.

Over the summer we have been asking local people to give us their comments regarding the proposals contained within the Heritage Lottery Bid. It has been a long process and the designs have changed many times following these comments taking into account the views expressed to us. The culmination of this stage is the submission to the Heritage Lottery Fund of detailed architect drawings showing all the projects to be carried out and their costs. This is known as the ‘Stage Two Application’. Whilst these plans are to a high degree of detail so that the Heritage Lottery Fund can be confident that we can start the work, it does not mean that subtle changes cannot take place before works are began on the ground in January.

As we already have one of the finest pieces of riverside anywhere in the UK, a theme running through the design process has been simplicity. A careful balance has had to be reached between the need to change as little as possible whilst at the same time seizing the opportunity to restore a landscape that is in some places quite literally falling to pieces around us. This does not mean that Arcadia is about recreating a sylvan C18th past nor is it about opening every lost avenue, sightline and vista between Kew and Hampton Court. Arcadia is about finding ways to maintain the very things that the vast majority of public love about their river, to the best possible standards that are possible.

As an example one can look at the scheme at the heart of the Arcadia project – the enhancements to the View from Richmond Hill. Nobody who walks along the Terrace cannot be moved by The View, but look again closely and it quickly becomes evident that so much work is urgently needed. The railings are broken, the steps descending into Terrace Field are now so wonky that they are impassable to many less agile walkers and many of the tress that once crowned the hilltop have died or blown over. Arcadia will address these types of problems but what it will not do is to put everything back exactly the way that it is now.

For example, the Heritage Lottery funds will provide us with the chance to make certain additional changes in addition to the restoration already mentioned. Just below the Terrace, running alongside the Terrace Field footpath is a chain link fence, more akin to an industrial estate than to Richmond Hill, a blot on the landscape blighting the immediate view to the river. If you have not seen this, I would urge you to visit the Hill to see for yourself just how badly the fence sits within the landscape. Under Arcadia, it is proposed that this fence will be removed and a new barrier will be erected further into the gardens at the point where the ground naturally starts to slope away into the more formal gardens. In front of this new fence a natural green barrier of native plants will be planted to screen the boundary and provide a habitat for nesting birds and other wildlife. Although a small portion of the more formal gardens will become grassland, set within the Terrace Field and a number of trees and shrubs will need to be removed most of the trees will remain to form an additional buffer between meadow and formal garden. A new footpath will be encouraged through this area (replacing the much decayed and almost impassable existing path) and the new entrances to the Terrace Gardens improved.

Significantly, the proposal has already had an important knock-on effect. When the proposal to set back the fence was first muted four years ago it became obvious that a small pocket of land set within the grounds of Langholm Lodge, at the bottom of the Hill, would need to be transferred to the Terrace Field if the project was to be successful. At the time, this piece of land was included in the sale of the Richmond Council owned Langholm Lodge property. In a brave and forward looking move, the Council took the property off the market and redrew the boundaries for sale in order to take this piece of land out of the area to be developed. Without the Arcadia project and without the proposals to set back the inappropriate boundary this piece of land, at the heart of the View from Richmond Hill would have been sold to developers.

Arcadia is not just about carrying out improvements on the ground, it is about changing attitudes to the way we care and appreciate about all the things that make up the riverside landscape. Without this more of our green spaces will be lost under development, habitats will continue to be eroided and historic features decayed. Please get in touch with us at The Thames Landscape Strategy at Holly Lodge, Richmond Park if you would like to know more or talk about any river elated issue.

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