Beyond, to the west of Back Lane – a continuous lane then – was all pre-fab housing (that stands for pre-fabricated) so in between Woodville Road and Ashburnham Road there were, as I now know, 113 single storey pre-fabs. I remember the end of those pre-fabs which were eventually pulled down and that is where the Ham Close Estate is today. Also, when I lived there – in Murray Road […]
Category: Housing
Housing history in Ham and Petersham
Moving from Richmond to Ham – by KM
We moved into Ham from Richmond when I was about 6 years of age so these are quite early memories and a little bit shaky memories. When I moved into Murray Road the most notable thing for us – for the whole family – is we moved to a four-bedroomed house when we had been in a two-bedroomed cottage in Richmond and that was a two-bedroom that we called a […]
Nothing between their house and the lock – by DM
My mother was born in Rose Cottage then they came, then she moved to Lock Road she lived in a house called Hermiston which is now demolished which became the doctor’s surgery, Dr Gardiner, and then it was demolished and the surgery was put to the back of a row of houses, it was moved round there and they bought the house in Lock Road, number 72 which was the […]
Perfect place to live for riding – by JM
We used to like riding, so we came to Ham because we used to ride with Billy Walsh who had these wonderful polo stables on the Common which are now part of the estate of, I can’t remember his name even, an Arab prince, right by Ham Gate. This was the stable and we used to drive down from London, we lived right at Marble Arch in a lovely flat […]
Life in Mead Road – by CL
I don’t know what year they moved in [to Mead Road] but I was born in it in 1934 so they must have been in the house then. They were second in the house I don’t know who was there before. Yes it was all families, and it was a narrow road and we used to see the old milkman come down with his old horse and cart and the […]
My house was built by my husband – by ML
This house was built by my husband, and the architect was Stefan Buzas who lived near the Library in Ham and who was a good friend. He came originally from Hungary and he studied in this country and in America and he learnt that the Americans were building open plan houses, and therefore this house is also an open plan house. My husband was working in the City of London […]
House on Tudor Drive – by SJ
Yes, just, yes, was it 237 Tudor Drive? Could have been. Oh God, I can remember how much we sold it for … I can remember how much it cost. It cost £4,250 on a mortgage and we lived there for four years I think, maybe more. We were married in ’69 and we bought it the early part of ’69 as it needed quite a bit of work done […]
Growth of Ham from prefabs to proper housing – by SJ
I do remember the prefabs. I had friends who lived in the prefabs and I can remember coming home one day and saying to my mum why don’t we have a house like that because it had built in kitchen and goodness knows what else and seemed to have all the mod cons and on one floor. It was a very well organised little estate, well not so little. Everybody […]
£675 for a house Lawrence Rd in 1939 – by SJ
My mother and father moved in to Lawrence Rd, 22 Lawrence Rd in early 1939 after their marriage. They saw it from the ground up. Do you know how much it cost them back in 1939? Yes, I do, £675 (laughter). Mummy didn’t know anyone but, and the road wasn’t made up and they had no specific police coverage, and they often didn’t see, other than the people that lived […]
Splitting up of the Dysart Estate – by LGT
Those huge houses in that part of Petersham had all been part of the Dysart estate and it was split up, I think at the end of the 1950s. They were all Dysart estate anyway and the Manor House… they were let off I think, because we were the first freehold owners of it. All those houses had been part of the Dysart estate, well finally it was broken up […]