Kingston Vale Online

Welcome to Kingston Vale. This is a guide to the Kingston Vale area.

Horse riders passing the lodge at the Robin Hood Gate on the east side of Richmond Park
©steve
©Noel Foster
Putney Vale Cemetery. Howard Carter, the archaeologist who discovered Tutankhamun's tomb is buried here.
©Tony Grant
Taken from the very edge of the square at about TQ 219 725 looking southwest.
©Roger Miller
Taken from approx TQ 219 724 looking west.
©Roger Miller
It's a roundabout, Jim, but not as we know it..., since you can't drive round it, at least not since 1995 can you have done. Actually this is now just the junction between the A3 and the A308 Kingston Vale. In the photo, which was taken from the footbridge, the southbound A3 is on the right, the queuing traffic is waiting to turn south westwards on the A308 to the lower left and the northbound A3 is on the upper left. The roundabout marks the start of the Kingston Bypass, opened in 1927. Formerly the A3 followed the current route of the A308 through Kingston upon Thames. Plans are afoot to improve access for equestrian users between Richmond Park to the left and the tracks to Wimbledon Common on the right. Apparently at present they have to rely on the courtesy of drivers on the A3 to let them pass...! The Robin Hood Gate entrance to Richmond Park is in front of the white house by the red truck trailer. For aficionados of such things a sewer vent pipe, grey with a yellow top, forms the centrepiece of the roundabout. It is surrounded by a motley collection of utilities' cabinets.
©Nigel Cox
Maurice Gatsonides was the inventor of the Gatso speed camera and here is one in operation, complete with the calibration lines in the road, placed to control southbound traffic on the A3 on the approach to [[675837]]. The building on the right with the orange top is part of the Roehampton Vale campus of Kingston University, housing the Engineering faculty.
©Nigel Cox
Beverley Bridge carries the A3 road over Beverley Brook here between Kingston Vale to the left and Putney Vale to the right. There has been a bridge here since historic times, but the current structure dates from the early eighteenth century when the road to Portsmouth from London became strategically important. It has been much altered and widened through the years.
©Nigel Cox
This gate allows access to the park for pedestrians, cylists and horse riders, but not for the general public in motor vehicles, at its south eastern corner by the A3. At one time motor traffic was allowed through but southbound traffic was stopped some time ago and from 2003 northbound traffic has been prohibited too. The black plate on the left side brick pier gives distances in miles and yards to the other gates in the park.
©Nigel Cox
Richmond Park covers almost 1,000 hectares and is designated as a National Nature Reserve (NNR), a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). Here a dead tree has been left in situ to provide a particular environment for certain species of mammals, birds and insects.
©Nigel Cox
Beverley Brook, which flows out into the River Thames near Barnes, forms the eastern boundary of the park here. The protective fencing around the trees is still in place even though the trees are well-established.
©Nigel Cox
Mini Roundabout by Robin Hood Gate in Richmond Park
©Shaun Ferguson
Dist:1.0km east<br/>
©Noel Foster
Dist:1.0km east<br/>Howard Carter's gravestone in Putney Vale cemetery.
©Tony Grant
Dist:1.0km west<br/>Acid grassland is a rare habitat. Amongst other birds, it supports skylarks, which are increasingly uncommon. I could hear one singing as I took the pictures that make up this panorama, which was produced using Autostitch. The path on the outer edges of the image leads to the Pen Ponds. The panorama is looking towards the north edge of the square.
©Roger Miller

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Kingston Vale • Robin Hood • Coombe • Coombe Warren • Copse Hill • Putney Vale • Cottenham Park • Crooked Billet • Kingsnympton Park • Norbiton • Norbiton Common • Putney Heath • New Malden • Kingston Upon Thames • Palewell • Roehampton • West Barnes • Wimbledon • Wimbledon Park • Bushey Mead • Petersham • Raynes Park • Parkleys Estate • East Sheen • Ham • Mortlake • Motspur Park • South Wimbledon • West Hill • Berrylands •