What’s going for it? Being in the 99%, most of London west of Piccadilly Circus is dead to me. Occasionally, though, you’ll find slivers not entirely bought up by oligarchs. Like Ham. On the surface, it’s not for the likes of me. It has its own stately home. It is made up of verdant lanes lined with Georgian mansions inhabited by rock stars. And Tommy Steele. Petersham Nurseries roots there – very much not like your local garden centre. There are pubs – pubs! – that serve “Anjou rabbit, hay smoked ‘Sables des Landes’ white asparagus, morel sauce”. There’s not just a golf club, but a polo club. It’s red chinos at dawn. But good fortune and enlightened politics from a time before Boris Johnson meant estates of modern and modernist housing were built in the 1950s and 60s, council and private, meaning the likes of me might live there. Ham is almost affordable – because the wealthy are mostly not predisposed to live in homes that smack of a welfare state, or to use a bus.
The case against… Them and us, big time. It’s a pain to get to and from (see below). You’ve got to be super-rich or like British housing circa 1945-1979.
Well connected? Once you get out. It’s a 20-minute bus to Richmond for trains and tube: 13 an hour to Waterloo in peak time (22-60 minutes); two to four an hour to Reading (66 minutes). Or head south to Kingston for the train to Waterloo – eight an hour in peak times (32-50 minutes). The A3 passes by at Kingston if you’re brave/patient.
Schools Primaries: St Richard’s CofE, St Agatha’s RC and The Russell are “good”, says Ofsted, Fern Hill and Latchmere are “outstanding”. Secondaries: Grey Court and The Tiffin Girls are “outstanding”.
Hang out at… Petersham Nurseries (super-fancy), The Dysart (fancy) and the Hand & Flower (a little less fancy).
Where to buy Loaded? Then you won’t balk at the mansions round Ham Common and on Petersham Road. A little less loaded? There are Victorian terraces and cottages for you, or 20s and 30s semis and terraces around Tudor Drive. Better off than most of the country? Stick west of Petersham Road (bar the wonderful Span estate, Parkleys); there’s a great Wates estate, plus you are closest to the Thames. Large detacheds and townhouses, £1m-£6m. Semis, £700,000-£1.5m. Detacheds, £550,000-£1m. Terraces, £450,000-£1m. Flats, £250,000-£1m. Rentals: one-bed flats, £800-£1,200pcm; three-bed houses, £1,750-£3,000.
Bargain of the week A two-bed flat in the Parkleys estate is on for £359,950, needs updating. With Mervyn Smith.
From the streets
Lydia Dickinson “I’ve lived near the pond on Ham Common all my life. It’s thriving, even more than it was in the 60s when I was a child. The swans have just hatched cygnets into their giant nest, and the whole community keeps a protective eye on them.”
Crispian Luke “M&J Hardware on Ham parade is an outstanding shop. Sells pretty much everything.”
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