River Thames from Richmond Hill down path

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.

Topography

The straight southwest slope is steepest, falling away to Petersham meadows by the Thames and is a backdrop to

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

and

Richmond Bridge Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California ...

s. Other returns to the

flood plain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

are more complex across and beyond the park due to semi-natural ponds and dry and wet running vales feeding an easterly draining brook. The park has further upland – Wimbledon Common and

Putney Heath Wimbledon Common is a large open space in Wimbledon, southwest London. There are three named areas: Wimbledon Common, Putney Heath, and Putney Lower Common, which together are managed under the name Wimbledon and Putney Commons totalling 460 ...

– beyond. On, and gently scaling the steep fluvial terrace, is residential street Richmond Hill. It is built up only on its higher (northeast) side – from the

corner of town centre to the hilltop fronted by a cinema, homes, eateries and hotel-restaurants. It is

one-way One-way or one way may refer to: *One-way traffic, a street either facilitating only one-way traffic, or designed to direct vehicles to move in one direction *One-way travel, a trip that does not return to its origin Music *One Way (American ban ...

along its bulk.

Unique scenery

The hill offers the only view in England to be protected by an Act of Parliament—the Richmond, Ham and Petersham Open Spaces Act passed in 1902—to protect the land on and below it and thus preserve the fine views to the west and south. Two years before the wooded isle centrepiece of the view,

Glover's Island Glover's Island (originally called Petersham Ait) is in a tree-lined section of river, formerly known as Horse Reach on the tidal Thames, between Richmond Lock and Teddington Lock in the Borough of Richmond upon Thames, London, England. Desc ...

, was bought by a local resident and given to the Richmond Corporation (Borough) in return for the latter noting against its records that it and its successors would not develop the isle. Immortalised in paintings by John Wootton, Sir Joshua Reynolds and

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...

, it was described by Sir Walter Scott as "an unrivalled landscape". It was this view that inspired the name of

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, after the colonial founder of the city, William Byrd II, noticed a curve in the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...

that remarkably resembled this meander.

Terrace Gardens and Terrace Walk

The scenic panorama may be viewed from Terrace Walk, laid out near the top of the hill in the 18th century. This promenade surmounts the Terrace Gardens and both are

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

* listed in Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.

History

As the town of Richmond developed from its founding in the early 16th century, after Henry VII had established Richmond Palace, the attributes of the hill naturally attracted desirable residential and commercial development – with the result that many large, ornate properties came and went on the hill over the centuries, some of them with famous or notable persons as owners or occupiers. Newer waves and subdivisions of these have continued, subject to external stylistic conformity.Richmond Hill Conservation Area 5
- London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames. This three-times extended

Conservation Area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

is "almost entirely surrounded" by others. The original homes on Richmond Hill were set back in what is now The Vineyard, including Clarence House,

Halford House Halford House is a Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scot ...

Michel's Almshouses Michel's Almshouses are Grade II listed almshouses in Richmond, London, located in The Vineyard, opposite Bishop Duppa's Almshouses and Queen Elizabeth's Almshouses. They were founded in the 1690s by Humphrey Michel. The original ten almshou ...

and Vineyard House. Richmond Hill shares with Ham and Petersham TW10 postcodes.

Etymology

The last two syllables (mond, hill) are an unlinked

pleonasm Pleonasm (; , ) is redundancy in linguistic expression, such as "black darkness" or "burning fire". It is a manifestation of tautology by traditional rhetorical criteria and might be considered a fault of style. Pleonasm may also be used for em ...

(tautology) unapparent to native speakers. ''Mond'' and large hill are

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...

. The origin is as a description of a place in France. This came across due to a noble style of at least 1071 Lord of (''seigneur de'') Richmond/t, associated with the

Harrying of the North The Harrying of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–1070 to subjugate northern England, where the presence of the last House of Wessex, Wessex claimant, Edgar Ætheling, had encouraged An ...

and thus Richmond, North Yorkshire. This settled into the title of Earl of Richmond briefly in its history borne by Henry VII of England. It was popularised from his local development of Richmond Palace to replace Shene Palace, precisely as the manor name had already changed and parish name would change. The associated settlement took the same name; for some years the two names were often used in conjunction (for example, "Shene otherwise called Richemount")."Richmond", in '' Encyclopædia Britannica'', (9th edition, 1881), ''s.v.''

Footnotes

References

External links

Turner at The Tate

View from Richmond Hill
– BBC
panoramic view
– BBC
photos of Richmond Hill
– BBC {{LB Richmond Conservation areas in London Hills of London Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Richmond, London Streets in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames