Residents of the Queens Road Estates Richmond are coming together with supporters and allies to make the estates the best possible place for residents and wildlife to thrive. Working with partners like Habitats and Heritage and LBRUT we are already making plans to improve the future of the Queens Road Estates..
Plans for our first initiative, a Wildlife Corridor, got underway this summer with a site visit from Habitats and Heritage to identify the best route for a wildlife corridor. This will start at Grove Road Gardens in the north, wind down Grove Road, past the Cambrian Community Centre, thread through the back of Reynold's Place and Hobart Place, and end at the Amenity Land, behind the Lass of Richmond Hill, in the south.
The Wildlife Corridor will include Rain Gardens, designed both to support wildlife and to help prevent flooding in the future. The site chosen for the first rain garden is the disused, bowl-shaped, asphalt playground at the rear of Hobart Place, on the route of the Wildlife Corridor. A preliminary consultation with Community Bluescapes recommends 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, as well as beig an uplifting environment for residents, would provide wildlife habitat in an otherwise barren patch.
Future initatives include:
- 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.
- Dark Skies - we support the local dark skies initiative which was announced at the launch of LBRUT Biodiversity Plan in September 2025 https://habitatsandheritage.org.uk/our-work/parks-nature/richmond-biodiversity-partnership/.
- 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.
- 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.
- Getting Stuck In - volunteers meet to count species, remove brambles, pick litter or whatever task needs doing.
- Website and Social Media - friends who can help build the website and a social media presence can make a real difference to our success.
- 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.
If you are able to contribute to any of these initiatives, drop us an email at friendsofqueensroadestates@gmail.com. Better still JOIN us to help make it happen https://e-voice.org.uk/foqre/join/