See our calendar of forthcoming events and list of forthcoming talks

Our next talk is on Monday 10 February

On 10 February, in a joint event with The Kew Society, Martin Stilwell will tell us about The industrialisation of Kew and North Richmond in the First World War. His talk is at Duke Street Church, Richmond, at 8pm; the doors open at 7:30pm

Len Chave

We are very sorry to announce that Len Chave passed away on 17 January at Lynde House Nursing Home. Len made a very significant contribution to the Richmond Local History Society and was actively involved with its publications work. He retired after 45 years in book publishing and printing and in 1994 became the production advisor to David Blomfield, the new editor of Richmond History. Len continued to be involved with the Society’s journal and its publications sub-committee and regularly produced detailed sales analyses.

Len was also a regular contributor to Richmond History up to 2014, and wrote Ham & Petersham in Wartime with Michael Lee, conceived and edited Ham & Petersham at 2000 and completed and edited Evelyn Pritchard’s Guide to the Street Names of Ham & Petersham.

Len was a lovely man who gave so much to our Society. We are very grateful for his contribution to our work.

Book now for the West London Local History Conference

The annual West London Local History Conference, co-organised by our own society and other local history societies in west London, is always a popular and well appreciated event. Speakers at this year’s conference, the 40th, will consider the ways in which people in our area of South and West London have chosen to celebrate achievements and commemorate loss.

The conference takes place on Saturday 21 March at the University of West London’s Brentford campus, and tickets, £15 each, must be bought in advance: our secretary, Liz Velluet, will have tickets available at our talks. Find out more

Catch up on our previous talks

Merlin’s Cave, a building that once stood in Kew Gardens

More than 100 people attended Susanne Groom’s talk to our Society in December 2019 on Kew Gardens’ lost buildings. You can now read reports of this and some of our other previous talks.

Looking ahead: our talks in 2020 and 2021

Coming up we have:

On 9 March 2020 (a joint event with the Museum of Richmond), Charles Pineles will speak about The social history of Queen’s Road, Richmond
On 20 April 2020, Stephen Bartlett will explore The early history of Kew’s Lawn Crescent
There is no talk in May but on 1 June 2020, after our Annual General Meeting, Johanna Coombes will give an illustrated talk on Artists and paintings in Richmond, Twickenham and Kew
On 14 September 2020, Simon Fowler will tell us about Richmond and town twinning

Klaus Fuchs

On 12 October 2020, Mark Dunton will be On the trail of Klaus Fuchs, atomic spy and will reveal a fascinating local connection with Kew
The speaker and topic for our talk on 9 November 2020 have yet to be announced

Mr Fezziwig’s Ball. Illustration by John Leech
from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, London 1843

On 14 December 2020, George Goodwin will explore Christmas traditions, with reference to Richmond and Kew
On 11 January 2021, Dr Simon Targett will talk about Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s first Prime Minister, and his connections with Richmond
On 8 February 2021, Dr Caroline Withall will give another talk to the Society (topic to be announced)
On 13 September 2021, Melanie Backe-Hansen will talk about Tracing the history of your house

Christmas Pudding (from Mrs Beeton’s The Book of Household Management, 1861).

On 13 December 2021, Simon Fowler and Sylvia Levi will tell us about Christmas food and drink in Richmond and will invite us to join them at the Society’s Christmas party for some mince pies, made to an 18th-century recipe.

Now available: books on Richmond’s vicars, local street names and our 2019 annual journal

The latest addition to our online bookshop is Derek Robinson’s new book The Vicars of Richmond. The stories he has uncovered about the ministers of St Mary Magdalene, Richmond since the 16th century include two vicars ejected for their political views, another who inspired Gulliver’s Travels, and a pair of performing poodles, Mouton and Don. Published by the Museum of Richmond, copies are available from our online bookshop.

A fully revised edition of The Streets of Richmond and Kew and Richmond History 40, the 2019 issue of our annual journal, are also now available.

We are delighted to be able to reintroduce The Streets of Richmond and Kew to our publications list after a very long gap: the first edition was published in 1989 and the second in 1990. Many Society members, including the late David Blomfield, contributed to this new, third edition, which has 140 pages and includes a full colour map. Comprehensive and up to date, it describes how each of Richmond and Kew’s streets was named and their wider significance for our local area’s history.

Find out more about our 40th issue of Richmond History.

We’re right up Kew Village Market’s street!

The Kew Village Market stall at Kew Village Market is now stocking our book The Streets of Richmond and Kew. The market is held on the first Sunday of every month (except January) between 10 am and 2 pm, outside Kew Gardens Station.

You can also buy copies of our books at: The Kew Bookshop; Lloyds of Kew; The Museum of Richmond; The National Archives’ bookshop; The Open Book in King Street, Richmond; Richmond Local Studies and Archive; or, using a credit card or debit card, from our online bookshop.

Resources on Richmond’s history are at your fingertips

It is sometimes suggested that the “deer leap” or “freebord“, the strip of land immediately outside Richmond Park’s wall, was designed so that if a deer managed to escape its hunters and get beyond the deer leap, it was then free from capture. That’s unlikely, says Richmond Park historian Dr Robert Wood, in an article on this website’s Resources pages about the freebord’s history. Find out more.