Richmond Hill, London

File:Joseph Mallord William Turner - View of Richmond Hill and Bridge - Google Art Project.jpg by J. M. W. Turner, 1808.]]

The straight southwest slope is steepest, falling away to Petersham meadows by the Thames and is a backdrop to Kingston and Richmond Bridges. Other returns to the flood plain 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 – beyond. On, and gently scaling the steep fluvial terrace, is residential street Richmond Hill.{{efn|Classed as the B321}} 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.

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 (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, Sir Joshua Reynolds and J. M. W. Turner,{{cite web | url=http://www.apollo-magazine.com/revolutionary-richmond/ | title=Revolutionary Richmond? | work=Apollo | date=15 September 2013 | accessdate=4 December 2014 | author=Warde-Aldam, Digby}}{{cite web | url=http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/laing-art-gallery/whats-on/exhibitions/turner-and-constable-sketching-from-nature.html | title=Turner & Constable & their Contemporaries: Sketching from Nature | publisher=Laing Art Gallery | work=Forthcoming events and exhibitions at the Laing | date=2014 | accessdate=4 December 2014 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140403144821/http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/laing-art-gallery/whats-on/exhibitions/turner-and-constable-sketching-from-nature.html | archivedate=3 April 2014 | df=dmy-all }} it was described by Sir Walter Scott as "an unrivalled landscape". It was this view that inspired the name of Richmond, Virginia, after the colonial founder of the city, William Byrd II, noticed a curve in the James River that remarkably resembled this meander.

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{{cite web |last1=Jackson |first1=Hazelle |title=To Tree or not to Tree |url=https://londongardenstrust.org/features/totree.htm |website=London Gardens Trust |access-date=10 February 2024}}{{NHLE |desc=TERRACE AND BUCCLEUCH GARDENS, Non Civil Parish |num=1001551 |accessdate=6 December 2021 }}{{cite web |title=Terrace Gardens |url=https://www.richmond.gov.uk/services/parks_and_open_spaces/find_a_park/terrace_gardens |website=London Borough of Richmond upon Thames |access-date=6 December 2021 |language=en-gb}} and both are Grade II* listed in Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.

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.[https://www.richmond.gov.uk/media/13288/conarea5_a3_rgb.pdf Richmond Hill Conservation Area 5] - London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames. This three-times extended conservation area is "almost entirely surrounded" by others.{{Cite web |title=Richmond Hill conservation area study |url=https://www.richmond.gov.uk/media/4074/richmondhillstudy5.pdf |url-status=live |website=Richmond.gov.uk}}

The original homes on Richmond Hill were set back in what is now The Vineyard, including Clarence House,{{cite web|title=Clarence House|url= http://www.thevineyardrichmond.info/clarence-house.html|publisher=The Vineyard, Richmond|accessdate = 7 May 2013|author= Orr, Stephen}} Halford House,{{cite web|title=Halford House|url= http://www.thevineyardrichmond.info/halford-house.html|publisher=The Vineyard, Richmond|accessdate = 7 May 2013|author= Orr, Stephen}} Michel's Almshouses{{cite web|title=Michel's Almshouses|url= http://www.thevineyardrichmond.info/michel's-almshouses.html|publisher=The Vineyard, Richmond|accessdate = 7 May 2013|author= Orr, Stephen}} and Vineyard House.

Richmond Hill shares with Ham and Petersham TW10 postcodes.

{{main|Richmond, London#Name}}

The last two syllables (mond, hill) are an unlinked pleonasm (tautology) unapparent to native speakers. Mond{{efn|Mound and Mount are corruptions of mont, as is the non-word mond, which bore a longer vowel sound in most Old Norman French. An unusually strong similarity exists in phonetics with the term's Latin root mōns, montes (genitive).}} and large hill are cognate. 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 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.{{cite book |first1=J. E. B. |last1=Gover |first2=A. |last2=Mawer |author2-link=Allen Mawer |first3=F. M. |last3=Stenton |author3-link=Frank Stenton |title=The Place-Names of Surrey |series=English Place-Name Society |volume=11 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1934 |pages=65–66 }}

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{{reflist}}

• Richmond Local History Society (2022). The Streets of Richmond and Kew (4th edition), {{ISBN |978-1-912314-03-4}}.

• [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999947&workid=44548&searchid=8155&tabview=image Turner at The Tate]
• [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5079602.stm View from Richmond Hill]  – BBC
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/panoramas/richmond_hill_360.shtml panoramic view] – BBC
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/image_galleries/richmondhill_gallery.shtml?1 photos of Richmond Hill]  – BBC

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{{LB Richmond}}

Category:Conservation areas in London

Category:Hills of London

Category:Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames

Category:Richmond, London

Category:Richmond Hill, London

Category:Streets in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames

Category:Petersham, London