Southend and Richmond – 23rd January

The Hot rod’s first trip of the year has been quite an event. Four days before it was due to go to Coventry, Dave discovered the leaking radiator was in fact unfixable so a quick jaunt down to Southend to Jon Golding’s in the Astra to fetch a new one was in order. A cold and blustery day didn’t stop us walking along the sea front, (technically it's an estuary but lets not split hairs) hunkering down for a hot chocolate at Ocean Beach which overlooks the beach and sea. It’s an upmarket café tastefully converted from an old public lavatory! Then it was back along Marine Parade for fish and chips at Ye Olde Chippy. These were excellent and made our top three (along with Clacton Majestic and Pete’s at Margate). We were looking forward to a stroll along the Grade 2 listed 1.34 mile long pier (the world's longest pleasure pier). Unfortunately we were thwarted by the elf and safety mob who said it was too icy.

Southend Pier

 

Unfortunately the radiator didn’t fit. Our car’s radiator was obviously custom made and with no time left Dave took the chance on putting in radiator sealant and that seemed to do the trick for now. Tuesday 18^th arrived and so did an amazing state of the art, articulated lorry to collect and take the car to Coventry Transport Museum for a display which was opening on 28^th January.

 

Richmond Saturday 21^st January – 23^rd January

Not that we’d have taken the Hot Rod to Richmond with the sub-zero temperature, we took the Astra on the 60 mile+ journey down the M1 and around the North and South Circular to arrive at our fantastic Hotel, The Richmond Hill Hotel, booked the previous day through Secret Escapes for £343 for two nights including breakfast and evening meal to belatedly celebrate our 27^th Wedding Anniversary. It was ideally positioned for all that Richmond has to offer, a lovely suite, nice staff and excellent food (if somewhat pricey alcoholic drinks).

 

“The Thames from Richmond Hill” by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Lesley Brown's version

We dumped our stuff and went straight down the hill, first stopping along the Terrace Walk across the road to admire the spectacular view (so stunning it is protected by an Act of Parliament), made famous by JD Turner and Reynolds – looking down to the Thames meadowlands. We continued into the town centre passing lots of independently owned shops, some exclusive, on the way. There were the usual chain stores right in the middle but generally it had a village feel about it and with all the surrounding green space, Richmond definitely has the best of both worlds of town and country. This may well be the reason for it being one of the most expensive places in the country to live, with apartments selling from a minimum of £1 million and houses renting for £5000 per month. Having explored the town area, stopping for a sandwich at Paul’s and wandering through the Lanes and past Richmond Green we ended up by the Thames at Richmond Bridge. It being a gloriously sunny day, the whole area was teeming with people all enjoying the winter sun. We walked along the Thames Path noticing the Old Deer Park on our right - not too exciting, until we reached Richmond Lock which also has a gorgeous Victorian pedestrian bridge spanning the river. It is the furthest downstream of all the Thames locks and is owned and operated by the LPA (London Port Authority). Its purpose is to maintain the water level between Richmond and Teddington to at least 1.72 metres. The sluice extends over the whole width of the river and is only raised for two hours either side of high tide to allow traffic through. At other times the vessels must use the toll lock.

Deciding this was as far away from our hotel as we needed to be we turned around and followed the path back to Richmond Bridge, climbed the steps to have a quick look around the very small foodies market at Heron Square and then followed the river round as far as River Lane and then crossed Petersham Meadows before making the very steep climb back up the hill to the right of the imposing Petersham Hotel to complete our 4 mile round trip.

We then spent a pleasant half hour reading the paper in the comfortable lobby before heading upstairs for a rest before dinner. Our walking activity has been somewhat lax for some time now and suddenly we go out for a 3 hour route march and wonder why we were knackered. The room was quiet and the bed comfy so before we knew it we’d lost 2 hours of our lives!

Dinner in the hotel’s restaurant was very nice. It was lucky we’d booked as it was really busy. (We’ve noticed this year that the usual January lull hasn’t happened anywhere). We had to order off the table d’hote and my meal was a delicious leek and potato soup with focaccia and Dave had a dish with chorizo which he enjoyed too. My sea bass was lush but Dave wasn’t so enthused with his pork belly, not being a lover of fat but it was the only meat dish available. It was all nicely washed down with a celebratory bottle of Tattinger champagne so all was well with the world. We were a little concerned about the noisy disco (my sleeping foibles being legendary) but it finished at twelve so all was fine.

The next morning, after an excellent and filling full English and continental breakfast, we turned left out of the hotel this time and only 300 yards away was Richmond Park. We visited here over 30 years ago and vaguely remember it but couldn’t pinpoint exactly where were then, hardly surprising given the passage of time and the fact that it is the largest London Royal park covering 3.69 square miles. It was created by Charles 1 in the 17^th century as a deer park. We entered via Richmond Gate turned left and walked along the path but it was so busy with cyclists and runners we soon veered off and walked across the grassland and through Two Storm Wood. (So named because it is a newly planted area to restore over 1000 trees lost in the storms of 1987 and 1990.) This area proved to be the least interesting part of our walk but nonetheless was special to be walking in such a large open space with the metropolis visible in the distance. The weather was kind to us again, being a cold, frosty day but gloriously sunny without a cloud in the sky, adding to the beauty around us. The trees are mostly oak some of which have been there for a very long time and some of the gnarled trunks from fallen trees were particularly attractive with a layer of frost on them and being surrounded by the copper ferns. A road runs through the middle of the park and as if to remind us we are in a city, it was full of slow moving cars, bumper to bumper in search of a parking space with cyclists (mostly MAMILs) weaving in and out of the cars. We crossed this road and were immediately treated to the sight of hundreds of deer of various species just going about their business and generally ignoring the curious humans unless one got too close. After crossing Flying Field we followed an uphill trail into Duchess Wood and got a glimpse of White Lodge which built as a hunting lodge for George 2, has been home to several monarchs and now still looking immaculate is home to the Royal Ballet School. Further up the hill into Queen Mother’s Copse it was clear we were not going to get a view of London, so we walked back down through Spanker’s Hill Copse, tried and failed to find a toilet at the Plantation café and so continued our walk towards and over Pen Ponds.

 The pond had iced over but not everywhere and yet several stupid people were allowing their dogs and children to walk on the ice. Luckily nothing untoward happened. We continued our walk past Leg of Mutton pond until we found ourselves back at Richmond Gate. We sensibly decided to go back to our room to empty our bladders, have a tiny snack and an hour’s rest before walking back into the Park, this time turning right at the Park gates. By now it was peak time for visitors and on this stretch there was much to see from various herds of friendly deer to several majestic looking stags with enormous horns.

We soon came across King Henry’s Mound, the highest point in the park. Looking west we had a hazy view of the Thames valley and looking east through the telescope if we had been lucky we’d have seen St Paul’s Dome ten miles away. This is a protected view from this viewpoint and there are no trees or buildings in the way. Unfortunately due to the distant mist we couldn’t see it but at least we now know where the place is. Continuing our walk we looked at Pembroke Lodge, now a tea room with a spectacular view. It was once lived in by Lord Russell, then prime minister and later his grandson Bertrand Russell. Continuing on we scratched our heads at the sight of people who had presumably queued to get through the park, queued to get a parking space and were now queuing in a very long line at a coffee stall. We continued along the path until we reached Ham Cross, walked a short way towards Ham Gate to check out the view before turning around and returning to our hotel and so complete our 8 mile walk for the day.

 As we left the park we had a good look at the Star and Garter building, an enormous early 20^th century building which we had spotted yesterday when we walked up Petersham hill (actually you couldn’t miss it- it dominated the skyline but in a good way). Apparently it used to be a hotel before the current building was erected as a home for paralysed and permanently disabled veterans. As it no longer met current requirements it was sold in 2013 for £50 million to a housing developer London Square who are currently in the process of converting the building to a number of luxury flats starting price for the smallest at £1.7 million. Well Turner’s view doesn’t come cheap!

This time we had enough energy to take a stroll over to the leisure club which had a small pool, a hydrotherapy pool, steam and sauna rooms- nothing special but good to soak the limbs after the day’s mammoth exercise. After dressing for dinner we firstly took a short stroll (or in my case totter) to the Roebuck, a traditional country pub. Clearly £5 a pint and £15 for a burger meal is the norm in this area as the pub was busy. Back at the hotel for our second dinner we were delighted to find that they only change the table d’hote menu once a week and so if you stay more than one night you get to order off the a la carte menu. I had a delicious dish of scallops while Dave had the soup, followed by an excellent steak for Dave and Thai chicken for me which I shouldn’t have ordered. It was very nice but I eat little meat these days and would have enjoyed the fish more. It was a completely different atmosphere tonight with only a few guests eating. It gave our waiter, Thomas time to chat. He’s from Kenya and lives in Sutton. He likes it here but will eventually return to Kenya.

Our final morning and once again sustained by a more than ample breakfast we went for our final walk along the Thames path this time turning left to Teddington Lock.  Today, it was very foggy and you could only just see the other side of the riverbank with its assortment of boats in varying degrees of good condition and decay and interesting and sometimes stunning houses on the far bank. Probably because there were few people about we saw lots of wildlife:- coal tits, wild parakeets (of which there were many yesterday in the park),  flying swans and geese, a robin, squirrels and great tits to name a few. Halfway there we came across Ham House but as its only partially open this time of year and the gardens wouldn’t be up to much we decided to leave it for another visit. Just before Teddington Lock was a concrete obelisk commemorating the line where the tidal area ends and the LPA’s authority begins. The Lock itself is in fact three locks and are pretty impressive, one of which is a very large barge lock. We couldn’t quite get to the weir itself but got a very good view of it of it when walking over the Victorian Teddington footbridge. We walked past a huge building site trying to get access to the north bank of the river but couldn’t find one. It transpires this site for yet more residential apartments is where the old Thames television studios used to be. After a quick hot chocolate stop at the Anchor it was back to the hotel car park, completing our five mile walk and then started our journey home via the road through Richmond Park. A cracking weekend all round.