Supporters of Queens Road Estates Richmond are coming together with allies, inlcuding Habitats & Heritage, LBRUT, L&Q, the Richmond Foundation and Richmond Park, to make the Queens Road Estates a better place for wildlife and humans to live and thrive together.
WILDLIFE CORRIDOR
Plans are underway for a Wildlife Corridor running north to south from Grove Road Gardens, Grove Road, past the Cambrian Community Centre, the back of Reynold's Place and Hobart Place, and ending at the Amenity Land behind Sayers Walk and the Lass of Richmond Hill.
RAIN GARDEN
Incorporated in the Wildlife Corridor will be our first Rain Garden on the site of disused bowl-shaped playground at the rear of Hobart Place. In the summer the Rain Garden will allieviate the urban heat island, and year round it will help prevent flooding, support wildlife and promote residents' wellbeing.
The site visit was followed, in autumn 2025, by a preliminary consultation with rain garden experts, Community Bluescapes. The confirmed the site's suitability and recommended lifting the asphalt, improving drainage and planting a mix of trees, shrubs and grasses that would tolerate pollution, drought and flooding. The re-landscaped area will also provide valuable wildlife habitat in a currently barren patch along the Wildlife Corridor as well as being an uplifting environment for residents, who have already expressed their enthusiasm for the idea.
RESTORATION OF BLUEBELL WOOD AND ORCHARD
Residents who have lived on Phase One since it was built told us that there used to be fruit trees and a bluebell wood on the Amenity Land.
Fruit trees (damson, cooking apple and pear) planted gardens of the old Victorian houses that preceded the estate, were still fruiting when first residents moved in but later died and were never replaced.
Buebells, which used to carpet the wood in spring, have struggled to compete with ground ivy and brambles, which have also encroached into the grassed area. We aim to gradually clear the ivy and brambles to allow the bluebells to flourish once more, along with the naive Cuckoo Pint that is also found here.
Daffodils and primroses growing the grass have suffered both from the encroaching ivy and brambles, but also from careless mowing carried out before the flowers are over. We hope to reduce the number of mows and to create defined areas of longer grass for a range of spring and autumn flowers (bluebells, daffodils, primroses, native geraniums, autumn crocuses).
Peter Lawrence, Deputy Manager of Richmond Park, walked the area with us and idenitified areas where we can work together, including stablising the path to Bishop's Gate, building loggeries for stag beetles, thinning the self-seeded sycamores to allow more air and light into the wood and planting a few more wild cherries for wildlife.
In the future, we will also be seeking support from a charity, the Urban Orchard Project, to help us plan and plant new fruit trees.
In October 2026, after the nesting season ends, we will start work with Habitats & Heritage and volunteers to improve the first section on the Amenity Land.
FUTURE INITIATIVES
GUIDED WALKS
Over spring/summer 2026, we will have a series of guided walks. These will be on a mix of days and times - weekends and weekday, daytime and evening. This will give everyone a chance to walk the proposed route of the wildlife corridor and to visualise the difference the wildlife corridor will make to the lives of every living creature in our vicinity.
LAUNCH
In September 2026 the Supporters Group will hold a launch event at the Grove Chapel, with a guest speaker, art and photography exhibition and refreshments. The launche will be followed by a bat walk.
FUTURE IDEAS
- Our Natural Neighbours. In collaboration with Habitats & Heritage, LBRUT's Conservation and Ecology Team, and Naturalists, residents can monitor species that we once commonly saw on the Queens Road Estates, such as bats, owls or blackbirds but whose numbers are in decline.
- Sponge Streets - proposals to gradually replace hard surfacing with a mix absorbent surfaces, including permeable pavements, superdrain asphalt and plants which will absorb run off in periods of heavy rain, reduce the amount of water flowing into the drains and help prevent flooding.
- Live Chat - periodic catch ups over a tea, coffee or a glass of something to get to know each other in person and chat about how we see our future.
- Website and Social Media - friends who can help build the website and a social media presence can make a real difference to our success.
- Who Do We Think We Are? - oral histories providing first-hand, verbatim accounts of what it's like to live on the estates and their surrounding area. Contributions are also welcome from those who live close by, or remember the area before the estates were built.
- How We Got Here - a History of the land and estates from the 1700s to today.
- What We Are Made Of - original designs and lists of materials specified by the architects and approved by planners for use in the built environment. We hope that these pages will provide L&Q and their contractors a point of easy access to specifications, materials used, planning conditions, Grade 2 listing and other restrictions.
WHO PAYS?
Our initiatives will cost money. And currently, this is money we do not have. So we will have to find funding.
The first step needed if we are to raise funds is to give this group of friends a formal structure and organisation, so that we can start making funding applications. This means a constitution.
CONSTITUTION
With the help of Habitats & Heritage, we have written a constitution for the Supporters of Queens Road Richmond and we are in the process of sharing this with the three main stakeholders: the Richmond Foundation, London & Quadrant, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
Once this is done, we will publish the constitution here on our website along with a sign-up form for supporters.
More on this in the Community Newsletters and at the next Residents' Meeting, currently scheduled by L&Q for the evening of 25th March 2026 at the Cambrian Community Centre.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
If you want to support us, join us, volunteer, or pass on suggestions, thoughts or questions email us at friendsofqueensroadestates@gmail.com