Day 20 - Hampton Court Palace to Richmond

 30 April 2024

Yay!  Finally we found a day of promised sunshine and an unflooded section of Thames Path, can't believe it's almost May and we've just done our first walk of 2024!

Today our walk was from Hampton Court Palace to Richmond about 8 miles along The Thames Path.

We drove to Richmond and parked on a driveway with the Just Park app, which cost £14 for the day, and from there caught an Uber (£20) to Hampton Court Palace which took just over 30 minutes.

(Note: toilets and cafe are at the station just over the bridge - useful tip!)

The Thames Path starts here on the 5km long Barge Walk, named after all the barges that used to park along here. Until the 18th century all arrivals to the Palace arrived in state barges, and when Queen Victoria opened it to the public many came on pleasure boats.

There are so many amazing trees along this stretch, it felt very green, banks of cow parsley and some last flurries of blossom.

We arrived at Kingston, here you cross over the bridge to the south side of the river to continue the walk. (ignoring the urge to enter the huge John Lewis!)

There has been a bridge here across the Thames since at least the 12th century, and it was the only fixed crossing between London Bridge and Staines Bridge a further 14 miles upriver, until Putney Bridge was built in 1729.

The bridge shown here was completed in 1828, built in Portland Stone, with five elliptical arches, it now carries the A308 across the river.

Another beautiful stretch of the path under the trees on the south side.

Just here you can catch a boat to Hampton Court Palace or Richmond from Turks Pier.

Dreamy House - we spotted plenty of wisteria clad houses 💜

Through Canbury Gardens and on towards Teddington.

Teddington has the largest lock complex on the River Thames, with three separate locks.  And this is where fresh water changes to salt water. The first lock here was built in 1810. 

The stretch of river between here and Kew is known as The Arcadian Thames, which forms a unique collection of views, ornamented buildings, and designed parkland, places that have inspired architects and artists for over 500 years.

We were ready for lunch and crossed the bridge to The Anglers pub for some food.  We sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine.  We had walked almost 5 miles, our strolling along had taken 2 hours.

After lunch it was a short walk to spot the stone pillar that marks the 'Thames Conservancy Lower Limit 1909'  this marks the boundary line between the Environment Agency's jurisdiction over the river and that of the Port of London Authority.

On the other side of the river is Twickenham, but we couldn't see it due to Eel Pie Island.

Named after a dish served on the island from the 16th century, sampled by Henry VIII.  (eels baked in a pie with a squeeze of lemon, mixed herbs, fish stock and pepper).  The island is 2 acres, one of the largest on the Thames and featured in Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby, where he writes of a 'cold collation, bottled beer, shrub and shrimp and to dance in the open air to the music of the locomotive band'.

In the 1950s and 1960s the hotel was popular for it's concerts featuring the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Who and Eric Clapton and other rock, pop and jazz groups. George Melly worked at the hotel, as did Mick Jagger!

It became quite a loud and noisy island, with the sound carrying across to Twickenham, so in the end it lost it's drinks licence, and eventually the hotel was closed and demolished.

Today 300 people live on the island with a rich artist community.

It is only open to visitors a couple of weekends a year, usually July and December through the Open Studios scheme.

If you have a cool £2million you could buy this house

Next we were in the Ham Lands Nature Reserve, where we kept spotting and hearing the shrieking green parakeets.

Soon after here we came upon Ham House, a beautiful National Trust property, built in 1610.  We had our membership cards and thought it would be a great place to stop for tea and cake!

The Cafe was round the back, with the wall clad in gorgeous wisteria that smelt so sweet and lovely, we were sat in a walled garden with produce starting to grow for the season.  Afterwards we walked around the lawns and back of the house, such a perfect and peaceful spot.

Back on the path, we could see a huge building, called The Star & Garter on Richmond Hill, across from Petersham Meadows.  It was built in the early 1920s to provide accommodation and nursing facilities for over 180 seriously injured servicemen. Formally opened by George V and and Queen Mary in 1924.

It was sold in 2013 for £50million to be turned into apartments. 

Through Buccleuch Gardens and we found ourselves at Richmond Bridge, by several cafes and boats for hire - we had finished our Thames Path walk for the day.

(Just a short walk through the town centre back to find our car).

Day 19 - Walton on Thames to Hampton Court Palace

 Friday 29 September

A great and sunny start to our walk today, starting back at the riverside cafe "Wilde Brunch Cafe" by the bridge at 10:30am.

Realised very early on, it was very hard to drink and carry hot chocolate whilst wanting to take photographs every few seconds!  It was such a lovely morning on the river with boats, ducks, canoes and geese.

This bridge is the 6th on the site, it carries the A244 road between Shepperton and Walton on Thames.

This section passes by Wheatley's Ait, this used to be the exclusive preserve of a commune of Victorian bachelors who would come for weekends and holidays, until they got bored and allowed women to join them - on the provision they went home before midnight!

It's a 20 acre island with homes on now, where you have to park your car on the mainland and walk over a bridge to get to your house.

Also along this stretch is The Swan where in 1920 Jerome Kern (1885-1945) the up and coming American songwriter who wrote Old Man River, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, and the Broadway hit Showboat, met his wife Eva, who was the landlord's daughter.

We arrived at Sunbury Lock, a little bit beforehand was the handsome Lock House, which was built on the old lock site in 1812, the lock was built by the Corporation of London.  Every July this is where the 'Royal Swans Upping' starts.

We then arrived at Hurst Park, this spot has some sporting history to it, but now is a large housing estate and some green grass alongside the river.

The first game of cricket took place here in 1731, the first game of golf in England in 1758, one of the earliest balloon ascents in 1758 and the first horse race in 1790.

It started as Hurst Park Race Course,  first laid out in 1890, which then closed in 1960.

The racecourse was the scene of an arson attack by Clara Elizabeth Giveen and Kitty Marion, the two suffragettes created a revenge attack following the death of Emily Davison at the Derby in 1913.

During the 2018 summer heatwave, the ground was so dry you could just make out the course's pre parade ring.

On the opposite side of the river is a beautiful boat called Astoria.  

It was built in 1911 and in the 1980s became a recording studio by it's new owner Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.

He bought it after seeing it advertised in Country Life whilst waiting for his dentist's appointment!

I found this short video on youtube which is worth a watch.

Along from here is Garricks Temple, an 18th century Folly dedicated to Shakespeare, built in 1755 for actor David Garrick, who lived in the house behind, to celebrate the successes of Shakespeare.  It's a white octagonal temple, with Ionic portico.  It has been restored and is now open to the public between 2pm and 5pm on Sundays between April to September.

We passed some lovely looking boathouses moored on Ash Island and Tagg's Island, before arriving at Molseley Lock, there is a lovely 4 minute video of Tagg's Island on youtube here and another with Ben Fogle exploring the glamour of the island in pre-war days.

Just a little further and we were approaching Hampton Court Bridge, which we walked over and into The Mitre Hotel for some well earned lunch.  We were keen to try here as it's the sister hotel to The Retreat Elcot Park just 10 minute from us at home.

We sat outside under the big marquee ceiling, it had been a much shorter walk today, as our next plan was to spend the afternoon at Hampton Court Palace.

We had walked about 5 miles and 12k steps on this walk.

Susan had gnocchi for lunch

And I had aubergine

Just before we left we noticed that the hotel's launch was called Em!

From here we headed over to Hampton Court Palace to spend the rest of the day exploring the palace and gardens.

Hampton Court Palace was the home and court of Henry VIII and his many wives and children, it's set amongst 60 acres alongside the River Thames. 

After Henry seized all the wealth of the English Catholic church, he became the richest monarch in English history, and spent a fortune on palaces and other lavish treasures.  Hampton Court was 'devoted to pleasure, celebration and ostentatious display'.

Once the Palace was finished in 1540 it was the most modern, sophisticated and magnificent palace in England.

There are some beautiful Tudor rooms to see, the huge kitchens, incredible ceilings and amazing tapestries, King Henry owned about 2000 of them, many with silver and gold thread that glittered in the candle light.

This was our last walk of 2023 as Susan travelled to USA and then Winter came followed by never ending rain!  I'm glad we've got the soggier areas of the Thames Walk done and dusted.