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When George Street had room to breathe
Stand at the top of George Street in Richmond and you’re looking at tarmac. Rows of parked cars. A multi-storey. Nothing remarkable. Wind back a century and you’d be standing in a wide, open thoroughfare. No white lines. No ticket machines. Just cobbles, carts, and the occasional motor car still a novelty worth stopping to […]
When the May Fair came to Richmond Green
Richmond Green once hosted a proper May Fair every spring. Stalls lined the edges. Coconut shies, sweet vendors, and a small carousel that squeaked as it turned. Children ran between the canvas tents while their parents queued for tea. The fair arrived the same week each year, usually when the hawthorn was in bloom. By […]
The lights that never quite left
George Street dressed itself in strings of white bulbs last week, the kind that flicker just enough to feel generous without trying too hard. The switch-on happened on a Thursday evening, which meant you either caught it on your way home or you didn’t. Richmond’s Christmas lights have never been the sort that make headlines. […]
The day Richmond Park went to the people
On a drizzly Saturday in October 1987, more than 20,000 residents walked through the gates of Richmond Park. They were not there to admire the deer or walk the Pen Ponds. They were there to stop a motorway. The park had been earmarked for a six-lane highway cutting from Kingston to Petersham. Plans showed slip […]
When the street was our front room
The trestle tables came out of church halls and garages. Someone’s uncle knew someone with a van. The bunting appeared from attics, dusty tissue paper peeling away to reveal red, white and blue triangles that had seen Elizabeth’s coronation, possibly George’s before that. You remember the smell: squash in plastic jugs, egg sandwiches going warm […]
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