River Thames
Petersham Village is situated adjacent to the River Thames between Richmond and
Ham and forms part of the remarkable view from Richmond Hill towards Windsor.
View from Richmond Hill towards Petersham
So iconic is the view that it was the first landscape in England to have a
parliamentary preservation order applied to it, the Richmond Ham and Petersham
Open Spaces Act 1902. Preservation work continues under the auspices of the
Arcadia in the City scheme.
Sir Joshua Reynolds painted the scene in about 1780. William Wordsworth heard
choirs of nightingales here, recording them in a sonnet of 1820, and a century
later, the Austrian Expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka produced one of the
more striking contemporary depictions of the view.
The Thames Landscape Strategy Hampton to Kew was launched in 1994 as a new
way of understanding, planning and managing the river corridor. Ten years on the
Strategy won a £2.3m Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) bid - 'London's Arcadia' to
restore the view from Richmond Hill and work has already started.
The goal of the project is restore this extraordinary stretch of countryside
in the city that was the cradle of the English Landscape Movement in the
eighteenth century. It combines bustling urban waterfronts, grazed water meadows
and Capability Brown parkland to create an Arcadian landscape that welcomes both
people and wildlife.
The first phase of the project is now largely completed with the restoration of
Bridge House Gardens, Cholmondeley Walk, Richmond Riverfront, Richmond Terrace
and Terrace Field - the wildflower meadow leading down to the river from the
hill. Next year, Arcadia will move on to replant the avenues to the south of Ham
House and landscape the riverside car park at Ham. Native hedges will be planted
and the towpath re-surfaced. In addition, Arcadia will continue to manage the
riverside so that it is kept as litter free as possible full of wild flowers.
There is still a long way to go and Arcadia needs your help. If you would like
to find out more please contact the Thames Landscape Strategy Co-ordinator -
Jason Debney at Holly Lodge, Richmond Park Richmond.
See
www.londons-arcadia.org.uk for more information.
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