The historic town of Richmond Upon Thames – personified by its picturesque river vistas and Richmond Green – is a beautiful place to live. With London only 18 minutes away via the District Line and surrounded by miles of open parkland and river walks, it combines the convenience of a quick journey to work into the City with a more restful home life.
Richmond has an abundance of amenities, with a beautiful and renowned local theatre and a thriving town centre with two cinemas, a range of hotels, shops, supermarkets, delicatessens, boutiques, bars, restaurants and pubs.
In the summer months, many residents picnic on Richmond Green – where there is easy access to good eateries or pubs – and watch the cricket or enjoy a drink on one of the terraces next to Richmond Bridge where they can enjoy the hustle and bustle of river craft going by whilst being serenaded by open air concerts. The highlight of the calendar is the Richmond May Fair Ball, which always manages to raise a significant amount for charity and is a good place to meet local people.
Family life centres on the excellent local schools of Marshgate Primary School, Christ’s School, King’s House School, The Vineyard School, Old Vicarage School and St Elizabeth’s Catholic School.
Richmond Town Centre, which includes Richmond Green, is ideally situated near the shops and train/tube stations, with many purpose-built/conversion flats and all types of Victorian and Georgian properties. There are some very pretty roads, including Richmond Green itself, Old Palace Lane that leads down to the river and the Old Swan Pub, Old Palace Yard, where the remains of Henry the VIII’s old palace can still be seen and Sydney Road, which is a good example of Victorian architecture at its best. There is also a gym off Wakefield Road, near the main bus station which has routes to all of the local areas.
Richmond Hill is just to the south of the town centre and has prestigious residential roads lined by fine Victorian for and five-bedroom townhouses and conversion flats and is within five to 15 minutes journey of the train/tube. Richmond Hill is a roughly triangular shape and can be outlined on a map by drawing a line from the bottom of Richmond Hill (road) up the Hill as far as the Richmond Park Gates (passing spectacular views from the Terrace Gardens across the Thames and beyond to Petersham, Twickenham and Teddington) then broadly to the bottom of Kings Road and back to the bottom of Richmond Hill (road). At the heart of Richmond Hill is ‘the village’ which radiates out from the small shops dotted along Friars Stile Road. There is also a membership gym in the Richmond Gate Hotel.
Within Richmond Hill there is another subarea called ‘The Alberts’, which is a series of quaint Victorian roads lined with two and three-bedroom cottages. The area is so called because the largest of these roads is Albert Road, at the bottom of which are two very good pubs and a children’s playground. Two other well-known roads here are Princes Road and Houblon Road, named after the first Governor of the Bank of England and with a slightly higher proportion of a larger style of cottage.
The Old Deer Park area is just north of the town centre/A316 and is within five to 10 minutes of the train station and has parkland walks down to Richmond Lock and along the river. This area has some very pretty roads, including the roads off Kew Foot Road which mainly have Victorian townhouses interspersed with Victorian two to three-bedroom terraces but with some Georgian properties too. Other roads include the Beaumont/Selwyn Avenue area, which has beautiful three to five-bedroom Edwardian terraced properties. Slightly further from Richmond there is Raleigh Road, a very pleasant street lined with two to three-bedroom Victorian terraced properties. There are great sports facilities nearby, including a membership sports centre, the indoor and outdoor Pools on the Park swimming pool, gyms, a rugby club and the Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club.
The Sheen Road area is just to the east of the town centre and within five to 15 minutes of the Richmond stations and mainly consists of pretty roads of three to four-bedroom Victorian Townhouses and two, three and four-bedroom Victorian and Edwardian terraced properties. Many of these have larger gardens and slightly further out of Richmond, there are an increasing number of 1930s homes.
The Lower Mortlake Road area (north-east of the town centre) are the roads just to the south of the A316 (Lower Mortlake Road). Here are terraces of two-bedroom cottages, larger three and four-bedroom Victorian houses and some more modern 1990s properties. Walking times to the train station range from three to 15 minutes.