River Thames from Richmond Hill down path

Richmond Hill in

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

and Petersham, London, is a hill that begins gently in the north and north-east side of Richmond town and through its former fields, orchards and vineyard to a point just within

Richmond Park Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is the largest of Royal Parks of London, London's Royal Parks and is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation. It was created by Charles I of England, Cha ...

, the deer park emparked and enclosed by

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

Topography

Joseph Mallord William Turner - View of Richmond Hill and Bridge - Google Art Project

The straight southwest slope is steepest, falling away to Petersham meadows by the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

and is a backdrop to

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

and Richmond Bridges. Other returns to the

flood plain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

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 Wimbledon Common is a large open space in Wimbledon, London, 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 Co ...

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 46 ...

– beyond. On, and gently scaling the steep

fluvial terrace Fluvial terraces are elongated Terrace (geology), terraces that flank the sides of floodplains and fluvial valleys all over the world. They consist of a relatively level strip of land, called a "tread", separated from either an adjacent floodplai ...

, is residential street Richmond Hill. It is built up only on its higher (northeast) side – from the Richmond Bridge corner of the town centre to the hilltop fronted by a cinema, homes, eateries and hotel-restaurants. It is one-way along its bulk.

Unique scenery

The hill offers the only view in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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 and also known as Clam Island) is a small island in a tree-lined section of the Thames River, known as Horse Reach on the Tideway, tidal Thames, between Richmond Lock and Footbridge, Richmond ...

(also known as Clam Island), 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 John Wootton (c.1686– 13 November 1764)Deuchar, S. (2003). "Wootton, John". Grove Art Online. was an English painter of sporting subjects, battle scenes and landscapes, and illustrator. Life Born in Snitterfield, Warwickshire (near Stratfo ...

Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter who specialised in portraits. The art critic John Russell (art critic), John Russell called him one of the major European painters of the 18th century, while Lucy P ...

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 turbu ...

, it was described by

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

as "an unrivalled landscape". It was this view that inspired the name of

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

, after the colonial founder of the city,

William Byrd II William Byrd II (March 28, 1674August 26, 1744) was an American planter, lawyer, surveyor and writer. Born in the English colony of Virginia, Byrd was educated in London, where he practiced law. Upon his father's death, Byrd returned to Virginia ...

, noticed a curve in the

James River The James River is a river in Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows from the confluence of the Cowpasture and Jackson Rivers in Botetourt County U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowli ...

that remarkably resembled this

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the Channel (geography), channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erosion, erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank (cut bank, cut bank or river cl ...

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 is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

* listed in

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

'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 Richmond Palace was a Tudor royal residence on the River Thames in England which stood in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Situated in what was then rural Surrey, it lay upstream and on the opposite bank from the Palace of Westminste ...

, 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 or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...

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

Clarence House Clarence House is a royal residence on The Mall in the City of Westminster, London. It was built in 1825–1827, adjacent to St James's Palace, for the royal Duke of Clarence, the future King William IV. The four-storey house is faced in ...

Halford House Halford House is a Grade II listed building in Halford Road, in the centre of Richmond in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in south-west Greater London, London, England, forms part of ...

Michel's Almshouses Michel's Almshouses are Listed building, Grade II listed almshouses in Richmond, London, located in The Vineyard, Richmond, The Vineyard, opposite Bishop Duppa's Almshouses, Richmond, Bishop Duppa's Almshouses and Queen Elizabeth's Almshouses, ...

and Vineyard House. Richmond Hill shares with

Ham Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term '' ...

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", "burning fire", "the man he said", or "vibrating with motion". It is a manifestation of tautology by traditional rhetorical criteria. Pleonasm may also be used f ...

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

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

. 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 military 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 encour ...

and thus

Richmond, North Yorkshire Richmond is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is located at the point where Swaledale, the upper valley of the River Swale, opens into the Vale of Mowbray. The town's population at the 2011 ...

. This settled into the title of

Earl of Richmond The now-extinct title of Earl of Richmond was created many times in the Peerage of Peerage of England, England. The earldom of Richmond, North Yorkshire, Richmond was initially held by various Breton people, Breton nobles; sometimes the holde ...

briefly in its history borne by

Henry VII of England Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509), also known as Henry Tudor, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Henr ...

. It was popularised from his local development of

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 The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

'', (9th edition, 1881), ''s.v.''

Footnotes

References

External links

Turner at The Tate

View from Richmond Hill
–

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

panoramic view
–

photos of Richmond Hill
–

{{LB Richmond Conservation areas in London Hills of London Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Richmond, London Richmond Hill, London Streets in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Petersham, London