Lower Richmond Road, Mortlake multi-way temporary traffic signals from outside no.67 to junction of Sheen Lane for Cadent Gas utility works commencing on 10/08/2026 to 04/09/2026. Contact: Cadent Gas 08000 159 057.
Three weeks! Recalling the problems on this road last time they did a stretch, this is clearly an area to avoid if you can.
Let’s just hope they don’t decide to work on Clifford Avenue at the same time.
Dave Emms who has owned Chubbs the Butcher for 20 years and been associated for 30 years before that has announced that he is closing down on Saturday 15th August.
He still has some excellent sausages for sale, prepared this morning, if you want to slip in.
He still has some excellent sausages for sale, prepared this morning, if you want to slip in.
Happy retirement to Dave. He has earnt it.
PS His mum babysat for us in the 1980s.
Dave Emms who has owned Chubbs the Butcher for 20 years and been associated for 30 years before that has announced that he is closing down on Saturday 15th August.
He still has some excellent sausages for sale, prepared this morning, if you want to slip in.
He still has some excellent sausages for sale, prepared this morning, if you want to slip in.
Happy retirement to Dave. He has earnt it.
PS His mum babysat for us in the 1980s.
No not that third runway. We’re back through the sound barrier.
It’s the late flight to keep you awake at night and then the early morning flights to wake you up.
Large, low flying, noisy planes, with lazy pilots, who put their wheels down too soon (which creates even more noise).
Deputy Mayor Matthew Wherry speaks about the history and development of Mortlake Station.
“One hundred and eighty years ago today, the first scheduled public passenger trains ran on this line. On Monday 27 July 1846 Mortlake station opened, together with Richmond, the terminus of a brand-new railway from Nine Elms.
This was not a great railway company extending its empire. The line was promoted by local residents, and their independent venture, the Richmond Railway Company, was authorised by its own Act of Parliament in 1845 and opened the line a year later.
Today we sit on the Waterloo to Reading line – though in 1846 there was no Waterloo, no Clapham Junction, and certainly no trains to Reading.
In 1846 you could send a letter anywhere in Britain for a penny, and the electric telegraph and photography were dazzling new technologies. But there was no telephone, no electric light, no motor car and no London Underground. The first transatlantic telegraph cable was still more than a decade away.
By the summer of 1847, more than one hundred thousand journeys between Richmond and London were being made in a few weeks, with thousands more beginning or ending here at Mortlake. The railway transformed these communities from villages of market gardens and meadows into the places we know today. Last year, Mortlake served well over a million passengers, and Richmond handled over nine million National Rail journeys. These stations now welcome more travellers in a matter of days than lived in both parishes combined when the line first opened.
Some of those passengers waited in rather more style than others — this very building began life as a royal waiting room, built for Queen Victoria’s visits to White Lodge in Richmond Park. Prince Albert used it too, as, in later years, did Edward VII when Prince of Wales.
But we are not only here for the history – we are also here to celebrate the newly installed artwork on the pedestrian bridge. The mural began when pupils at Thomson House School were invited to draw the high street they know so well – the street that crosses this railway line, with the station, the shops and the buildings they pass every day walking between their school buildings. Students and tutors at the Art Department at Richmond and Hillcroft Adult Community College, were also involved in enhancing them.
The children’s drawings are stunning and delightful – full of joy, and full of belonging. The project itself embodies what community rail is all about: it has linked child artists and adult artists across two of our borough’s learning settings, and delivered by the Hounslow and Richmond Community Rail Partnership, in collaboration with South Western Railway.
One hundred and eighty years ago, local people built this railway. Today, local schoolchildren, students, volunteers and rail partners are still shaping it. That is worth celebrating.
Today we mark not simply two stations, but everything they made possible: connection, growth, opportunity – and one hundred and eighty years of grumbling about the fares!”
Deputy Mayor Matthew Wherry delivers his speech.
Tim Catchpole, Chairman of the Mortlake with East Sheen Society, congratulates Daniel Opoku on his long service as stationmaster.
Woodman, spare that tree!
Touch not a single bough!
In youth it sheltered me,
And I’ll protect it now.
‘Twas my forefather’s hand
That placed it near his cot;
There, woodman, let it stand,
Thy axe shall harm it not.
That old familiar tree,
Whose glory and renown
Are spread o’er land and sea—
And wouldst thou hew it down?
Woodman, forebear thy stroke!
Cut not its earth–bound ties;
Oh, spare that aged oak,
Now towering to the skies!
When but an idle boy,
I sought its grateful shade;
In all their gushing joy
Here, too, my sisters played.
My mother kissed me here;
My father pressed my hand–
Forgive this foolish tear,
But let that old oak stand.
My heart-strings round thee cling,
Close as thy bark, old friend!
Here shall the wild–bird sing,
And still thy branches bend.
Old tree! the storm still brave!
And, woodman, leave the spot;
While I’ve a hand to save,
thy axe shall harm it not.
See the previous posts on this matter, https://childlawobserver10.com/2026/07/30/vine-road-development-2/
This is beginning to look like the ‘hard to follow’ Council planning application with changing dates rather than the open CommunnityBluescapes Consultation.
The proposals for this development were highlighted on EastSheenMatters on 23 June 2026.
Local concern has now been expressed about the planned removal of the paddling pool. The pool has been part of Vine Road Recreation Ground for around 90 years. It is well used by local residents during the summer.
One of the aspects that has prompted debate locally is the reasoning behind the decision. Residents have been told that there isn’t funding to address the paddling pool’s drainage issues, while at the same time the wider scheme includes significant investment in new facilities, including a skate park, pavilion and other improvements. Whether that represents the right set of priorities is, of course, a matter for public discussion.
It has been said that the existing pool is “considered unsafe.” But no evidence has been made public for that assertion. And the Council budget appears to show that annual repairs are provided for until 2030.
A new planning application will be necessary. The plans would replace it with a different water feature. On the face of it that is strange because the Council Management Plan specifically comments on the popularity of the paddling pool.
For further information see Vine Road Rec Management Plan 2026-30
The blessing of the River Thames on Sunday 16th August at 11.00am – gather at Jubilee
Gardens for an outdoor service, to include blessing of the river, singing and fellowship.
Light refreshments afterwards – bring & share finger food.
There will be no 10.00am service that day – Holy Communion will be at 8.00am at St Mary’s.
