The Richmond, Petersham and Ham Open Spaces Act 1902 was enacted to protect the view from

Richmond Hill, London Richmond Hill in Richmond, London, is a hill that begins gently in its townside (north and north-east) through the former fields, orchards and vineyard to a point just within Richmond Park, the deer park emparked and enclosed by Charles I. ...

Ham Ham is pork from a leg cut of pork, cut that has been food preservation, preserved by wet or dry Curing (food preservation), curing, with or without smoking (cooking), smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. Lo ...

and Petersham Commons and certain meadows and manorial rights in the same were vested in the Richmond Corporation for purposes of public enjoyment. The lammas rights on part of the manor were also, by the same Act, taken from the commoners who had enjoyed rights of pasture. The river-side, from Petersham to Kingston, was put under the Richmond Corporation and the

Surrey County Council Surrey County Council is the county council administering certain services in the non-metropolitan county of Surrey in England. The council is composed of 81 elected councillors, and in all but one election since 1965 the Conservative Party has ...

, in two sections, for enjoyment by the public for ever. An initial bill, ''The Petersham and Ham Lands Footpaths Bill'' presented by Lord Dysart in 1896 seeking to enclose of lammas lands was defeated by 262 votes to 118 as it was deemed to contravene the

Metropolitan Commons Acts 1866 to 1878 Commons Act is a stock short title used in the United Kingdom for legislation relating to commons. List Acts of the Parliament of England *The Commons Act 1236 *The Commons Act 1285 Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom *The Commons Act 1 ...

. The act itself details that in December 1896, a local enquiry was established with the Board of Agriculture to consider a scheme for the lammas lands under the Metropolitan Commons Acts. The Board determined that the provisions of the acts did not apply in this case. A few years later, the

Private Bill Proposed bills are often categorized into public bills and private bills. A public bill is a proposed law which would apply to everyone within its jurisdiction. This is unlike a private bill which is a proposal for a law affecting only a single p ...

, the ''Richmond Hill (Preservation of View) Bill'', passed through the

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

stage. The latter bill contained the same proposals but more concessions than its predecessor and focused more on the preservation of the view from Richmond Hill. It was challenged, unsuccessfully, in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

with votes divided 179 in favour of the bill to 79 against. Despite the earlier ruling by the Board of Agriculture, the

Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

Sir Robert Finlay Robert Bannatyne Finlay, 1st Viscount Finlay, (11 July 1842 – 9 March 1929), known as Sir Robert Finlay from 1895 to 1916, initially formally qualified as a doctor, was a British barrister and politician, and Lord High Chancellor of Gre ...

definitively advised the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

that the Metropolitan Commons Acts did apply to the lammas lands and thus those laws would need to be overlooked for the Bill to pass. The Richmond, Petersham and Ham Open Spaces Act gained

Royal Assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...

on the 18 November 1902. The Act was proposed to be amended by clause 20 of the bill leading to the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1982.

References

External links

* {{UK legislation 1900s in London Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning London Ham, London History of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Petersham, London Richmond, London United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1902