On 20th July the HWA and the Friends of the Library co-hosted public event to mark the renovation of the Queen Victoria Jubilee Memorial and its setting at the entrance to the Library.

The Friends of Hampton Wick Library have spent months campaigning and keeping up the pressure on Richmond House Partnership and the Council to protect this historic memorial and to enhance its setting.

Watch this fabulous Alan Benns video of the event

The Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Drinking Fountain was originally built in the High Street, paid for by public subscriptions from local residents. When the trams came to Hampton Wick it was moved to a relatively obscure position near the end of Church Grove. When the Library was built, Cllr Tony Arbour arranged for it to be moved to its current position at the entrance.

Unfortunately the Memorial was placed close to a brick wall behind which a tree had been planted on RHP owned land in Jubilee Close. Over the years the tree had grown to obscure the Memorial and the brick wall was in danger of collapsing which could have led to damage or destruction of our Memorial. It should be noted that the tree wasn’t very happy encased in a too-small brick container!

Click here to see what the problem was…

One of the Friends, Mark Buckley, spotted the problem and contacted both the Council and RHP. He organised joint site meetings and eventually the tree was removed and a new wall has been built giving the Memorial enough space for a proper setting.

We decided to mark this historic event with an afternoon reception which also served to launch the Summer Wildlife in Bushy Park photography exhibition in the Library. The event was attended by more than 60 people who enjoyed fruit punch and cucumber sandwiches while listening to speeches by Cllr Tony Arbour and HWA Chair Mark Merrington. Cllr Arbour then unveiled a plaque kindly provided by Richmond Housing Partnership.

Throughout the summer the Friends of Hampton Wick Library were pleased to host a photography exhibition in the Library showcasing the work of local wildlife photographer Caz Buckingham.

The theme of the exhibition was Summer Wildlife in Bushy Park and visitors to the Library were able to enjoy stunning images of birds, insects, plants and mammals to be found during the summer in our local park.

A children’s colouring and quiz competition accompanies the exhibition with prizes of fantastic nature books provided by Fine Feather Press.

Our Library is tucked away and needs good signage from the High Street and other side roads.

The Friends have had a meeting with officers from the Council traffic department. We gained approval for five blue pedestrian direction signs to the Library. Four of these are either brand new or replacements for old/incorrect signage. Included in the scheme is a brand new sign opposite the station.

We also gained Council Streetscene design encouragement for our ideas for better signs on the Library itself to replace the current “invisible” signage.

In our experience we will need to continue to press on both these issues to prevent them getting ‘buried in the intrays’ of our council officers, but we were encouraged but this meeting.

The signposts to our Library are OK for cars but they do leave considerable room for improvement for pedestrians.

The signage on the Library (and Bullen/village hall) is somewhere between invisible and non-existent.
This is a long-standing problem.

Those living close by often report folk knocking on their doors to ask where the Library (or Bullen Hall) actually is. Carol Dukes reports: “I’ve been standing literally a few feet away from the building and been asked where the Library is and where the entrance is. I’ve been able to reach out and touch the building itself to show people and they’re astonished!”

This is clearly not good enough. We are campaigning for good quality visible signage on the two buildings, visible from the two different pedestrian approaches and the car park.

Signage obviously has to be in keeping with the conservation area in which the two buildings are located – but it should be VISIBLE! See the photos below which illustrate the issue better than words can do.

After a long campaign the Friends of Hampton Wick Library are delighted to announce a success – our Library is now VISIBLE!

We’ve been keeping the pressure on for years now. This has helped our Libraries Department (headed by Amanda Stirrup who has really helped push this through) to achieve some clear, visible signage on the previously invisible Library.

Good signage can only help to encourage greater use of our Library.

For reference, here’s how it used to be…

Click here for full photo gallery (Annie Stevens).
Click here for the exhibition.

The first event organised by the Friends of Hampton Wick Library proved to be a sell-out success.

On 27th April 2016 the Friends hosted a preview reception and talk on the History of Hampton Wick Royal Cricket Club.

The event launched an exhibition on the same theme which runs in the Library until 30th June.

The preview took place in the Library where guests gathered for a first look at the exhibition while enjoying a glass of wine.

Dr Chris French, co-author of a book on the subject, then gave a very interesting illustrated talk in Bullen Hall.

The evening was a great success, showcasing a little-known facet of our local history and encouraging people to visit the Library. One measure of success was that there was standing room only in Bullen Hall!

Our thanks to Dr Chris French and the Hampton Wick Royal Chricket Club. (www.hwrcc.co.uk)

The exhibition is based on the history of the HWRCC and includes references, photos and features of interest about St John’s Church, Kingsfield, the Royal Paddocks Allotments and of course Hampton Wick itself.

This fascinating exhibition has been organised by the Friends of Hampton Wick Library. The Library is open on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

The Friends of the Library are please to present a new exhibition in the Library.

Hedgehogs to Hearthrugs, Pumpkins to Pepys is an exhibition of favourite quotes from literature to celebrate (and commiserate) different aspects of autumn and winter.

The quotes are illustrated with some wonderful photography. The quotations are chosen from both children’s and adult literature including: Kenneth Grahame, James Joyce, P.G. Wodehouse, Stephen King, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, J.K. Rowling, Robert Frost and more!

So please do encourage all your family, friends and neighbours to visit the Library. We hope you enjoy the exhibition and your visit.

UPDATE: Now that the exhibition has closed you can click here to view the display panels online.

The Hampton Wick Queen Victoria Memorial graces the entrance area to the Library.

The memorial was paid for by public donations in 1897. It was originally sited on the High Street but with the arrival of the trams in the early twentieth century it had to be relocated. Its new home on Hampton Court Road (“Between the Walls”) opposite Church Grove was not ideal. It mouldered, and became overgrown losing its lamp in the process.

Half a century later Tony Arbour had the idea of restoring it and moving it to its current position marking the Library entrance way. This was achieved with the enthusiastic help of Lottie (Charlotte) Shaw of the HWA. The cost was underwritten by the Council and local businesses.

In recent years, the memorial has become endangered by an overgrown tree container immediately behind it, on property owned by Richmond Housing Partnership (RHP).

The Friends of Hampton Wick Library have lobbied over many months both the council and RHP to carry out the necessary remedial works to save our Queen Victoria Memorial.

We have written many, many emails to many people, had site visits with council and RHP representatives and now we seem to have some success. The tree in the container that was threatening the Memorial has been removed.

We’re now working on getting the ugly, and about-to-collapse, brick container removed.

Hopefully our wonderful, historic (if slightly quirky) local memorial will end up with a setting that shows it to best advantage!

Following the success of our inaugural Friends bookmark last year we commissioned five new designs featuring literary quotes. Each bookmark is a different colour and has a different topical bookmark on each side. The bookmarks also show off our Library Friends logo exclusively designed by David Rees.

Why not collect all of them. One free with every visit to the Library.

Hurry though, when they’re gone, they’re gone!

The Friends are proud to present a brand new exhibition about Normansfield, the pioneering Victorian-era mental asylum in Hampton Wick that helped change forever the perception and care of people with learning disabilities.

Click here for exhibition teaser

Click here for more information about the exhibition

The centre-piece of this exhibition is a talk at 7:30pm on 20th September in Bullen Hall by Ian Jones-Healey, the Archivist of the Langdon Down Museum.

This will be preceded by a reception in the Library (6:30pm) which will be an opportunity to view the exhibition and meet other Friends.

Click here to book tickets for the Normansfield talk & reception evening

These wonderful agapanthus plants are blooming their hearts out at the Library.

Agapanthus are native to southern Africa. They are also known as African Lilies or Lilies of the Nile.

Thanks to the generosity of local resident John Previte we can all enjoy this stunning display – another good reason to drop by the Library this summer!

Our Library is 80 years old! On Thursday 9th December 1937 Hampton Wick’s very own public library was opened by the mayor. It was housed in one room (measuring 320 square feet) in the offices of the Hampton Wick Urban District Council, which had just been disbanded.

Click here for the full story on the HWA website.

We were thrilled that so many people came along and enjoyed the Hampton Wick Summer Garden Party at the Library on Wednesday 5th September.

Local people met old friends and new, and much cake was enjoyed! Our star bakers – Nick & Janet Baylis and Jenny Bourne – produced a delicious array of goodies. We discovered that Nick is an “historic baker” for the National Trust and his biscuits made to genuine 17th century recipes were a real hit.

Click here to view the photo album of the event.

The Garden Party gave the HWA an opportunity to recognise the amazing work of the Good Fellowship Club which has, since 1962, organised weekly gatherings for older people of Hampton Wick. The regular Wednesday social events have been held in Bullen Hall since it opened during the 1970s.

With a little skulduggery (thank you David Lindsley!) we were able to surprise the three main Good Fellowship organisers with awards for Outstanding Contributions to the Life of Hampton Wick. Between them, Ann Battersby, Jo Lindsley and Mary Ramsay have contributed over 60 years of voluntary service, week in and week out, and we all owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

If you could spare a little time to help out with this wonderful local service please do let us know and we’ll pass your details along. Email info@hamptonwick.org.uk.

Thank you to all the volunteers who made the Garden Party possible and to everyone who came along. Same time, same place next year?

On 20th September 2018 we held an event to complement the summer exhibition on the subject of Normansfield. A drinks reception in the Library gave people the chance to meet and to view the exhibition. It was followed by an illustrated talk in Bullen Hall by Ian Jones-Healey, the archivist of Normansfield.

Ian’s talk took the remarkable history of Normansfield and its founders as a startpoint for a fascinating review of how learning disabilities have been perceived and treated over the past two centuries, ending with some thought provoking questions for our own time. We were reminded of the significance of Normansfield as a local landmark building, as a radical institution pioneering new approaches to mental health and as a major local employer in the past.

We are grateful to Ian for his talk and we highly recommend the work and programme of events that he helps organise at the Langdon Down Museum of Learning Disability, housed at Normansfield.

Thank you to everyone who came along and helped make this an enjoyable, friendly and interesting evening at the Library.

The exhibition can still be viewed in Hampton Wick Library until October.

The Friends of Hampton Wick Library are delighted to announce a new exhibition: The Sky at Night.

The Exhibition accompanies the talk on 23rd January 2019 by Pieter Morpurgo, the acclaimed BBC producer who worked with Patrick Moore for many years on the iconic ‘Sky at Night’ programme. Click here for details and to book tickets.

The exhibition will feature stunning space photography together with inspiring and thought-provoking quotes and facts about space and space exploration.

The Sky at Night exhibition will open in January and run in Hampton Wick Library until March.

On Wednesday 19th December 2018 Hampton Wick Library was completely filled to overflowing with children. They were listening to a reading of Christmas stories before setting off on their annual procession to the village carol singing.

Library manager Clare Thompson commented afterwards: “The event was super super successful: we had loads of little people and their parents in the library and it was a joy to see.”

The Friends of Hampton Wick Library hosted the event and made sure every child had a colourful glow-stick as they left to follow the Fulham Brass Band in the procession down to join in the carol singing round the Christmas tree.

A magical evening!

The Friends of Hampton Wick Library talk by Alison Merrington on 1st November was well attended and greatly enjoyed.

We all think of 2018 as ‘the year that the First World War ended’ but in reality is was so much more complicated than that, on the international, national and local stages.

Alison’s researches into the names listed on the Hampton Wick War Memorial have uncovered a wealth of both context and detail and her talk reflected this.

The evening was another great success for Alison, and for the Friends of the Library.

One of the aims of the Friends is to make the Library as attractive as possible. One of our regular activities is the monthly garden gang which has now been going for three years. We’ve planted the gardens behind and around the Library and we weed, water, litter-pick and generally keep an eye on things.

Today we planted two new shade-lovers in the small beds just outside the door from the Library into the back garden.

The one pictured above is a Korean rock fern (Polystichium tsussimense) and the one below is a Hart’s tongue fern (Asplenim scolopendrium).

They are both evergreen and will be of interest throughout the year. They both like part or full shade so we think they’re in the right spot!

Look out for them when you next visit the Library!

All Libraries in the Borough, including Hampton Wick Library, closed on Friday 20th March until further notice.

This is the current information:

• If customers currently have items on loan – the return dates will be changed to Monday 15th June 2020. This will be reviewed if needed going forward.

• If customers would like to continue renewing books themselves – this can be done online or by telephone and the renewal limit has been increased from 4 to 15 renewals per item to allow customers to remain at home.

• Any customers wishing to return items to the library in the closed period can put them in drop boxes available at the following libraries: Castelnau, Hampton, Richmond, Teddington or Whitton.

• E libraries and online services remain open 24/7
Click here for full details on Richmond’s Digital Library

• Richmond libraries have two elibraries offering free books and eaudiobooks plus a free emagazine service, an online music library and many more online services.

• These can be accessed with the Richmond card /library card number and personal pin
If you have difficulties accessing online services email: elibrary@richmond.gov.uk

For other enquiries you can phone 020 8734 3358 or 020 8891 1411 from 10am to 4pm Monday to Saturday or email libraries@richmond.gov.uk

So many people told us how much they enjoyed the “Hedgehogs to Hearthrugs, Pumpkins to Pepys” Exhibition two years ago that we decided to show it again.

The popular exhibition features literary snippets coupled with fantastic photos on the theme of Autumn into Winter.

GREAT NEWS!

The Friends and the HWA succeeded in their 2019 bid to the council’s Community Fund in full.

A key objective of the bid was to allow the Library to remain open at lunch-time by providing a place where the Librarians could eat their lunch.

The bid will allow the redevelopment of the shared kitchen to provide such a place.

To read more about the bid, please read this article on the HWA website: HWA bids to improve Village Hall and the Library

And click here for an update from February 2020

Louise Drummond-Murray, a regular member of the Friends’ Gardening Gang, is on a mission to improve the appearance of the Library and Bullen Hall from the car park.

In particular, Louise is determined to find some plants rugged enough to succeed in the challenging conditions of the sloping border between the steps and the car park signs.

This is no mean feat, as the “soil” there is shallow to non-existent and is choked with tree roots and bits of tile and brick making it, in Louise’s words, “a beast to dig”. The border is dry, receives little direct sun and on top of everything else council contractors regularly dump rubbish bags on top of it!

Undaunted, Louise has taken another swing at it, this time with cotoneasters, forget-me-nots and white periwinkles – all from her garden where they have proven their tough credentials.

Let’s hope they take so that this unloved corner of Hampton Wick can start to blossom.

Our wonderful Libraries team are continuing to offer a home delivery service for people unable to leave their home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Libraries staff and volunteers deliver books, CDs, DVDs – and a smile and a wave – throughout the Borough.

Many locals will remember Kim Hacker from when she used to manage Hampton Wick Library. She told us that the home delivery service “is certainly getting more popular at the moment. We are currently operating it out of Richmond Library for the Borough and we really enjoy doing it!”

If you or a neighbour or loved one would like to find out more, please contact the team on

Email: information@richmond.gov.uk
Telephone: 020 8734 3308

Watch Kim and the crew explain:

Jenny and Jem, two Friends of Hampton Wick Library, undertook a socially distanced gardening session at the weekend.

After the hot, dry weather we’ve had lately the plants were extremely grateful for all their watering. Jenny and Jem also kindly brought along and planted up some lovely new plants which will fill in the gaps and keep the place looking bright and cheerful – something for everyone to enjoy even while the Library itself has to remain closed during lockdown.

The long awaited project to improve the facilities at Bullen Hall and the Library is finally starting on Monday 8th March 2021.

Three years after the HWA and the Friends of Hampton Wick Library started work on a bid for funding and 18 months after the bid was approved, the contractors will be arriving on site to start work. This follows significant delays due to COVID, as well as a great deal of detailed work by council staff and HWA / Friends volunteers to refine the tender specifications.

Click here for more details of the project.

It is planned that the work will be completed in time for Bullen Hall to be used as our polling station on 6th May. Should the work over-run there are contingency plans in place to ensure the election can still take place.

This is perhaps the single biggest investment in Hampton Wick’s community infrastructure in a generation. We are thrilled that it is finally happening, just in time for us all to start emerging from lockdown when we can begin to think about social and community activities once again. We already have some plans for events to celebrate the re-opening but more ideas are always welcome so please do get in touch! Film nights, concerts, craft events, exercise and fitness activities, children’s parties… email us on hello@fhwl.org.uk.

It’s been 16 months since Hampton Wick Library closed for the first COVID lockdown in March 2020. It has remained closed … until now! July 2021 sees our Library coming back to life.

Our Library is now open once again so do drop in to say hello to the Library team and to remind yourself what it’s like to browse the bookshelves, sit and read a paper or use the PCs.

The Friends of the Library Gardening Gang have been in to tidy up so don’t forget to check out the lovely, secluded and fragrant garden while you’re there.

During the closed period, the HWA/Friends of the Library project to improve the facilities at the Library and Bullen Hall has started and is now (almost!) complete.

Lunchtime opening isn’t happening quite yet, but we have a team of volunteers ready and waiting and it shouldn’t be too long before our Library can open all day long,

For many years Hampton Wick Library has had to close betweeen12.30 and 1.30pm so that the Librarians could have lunch. This is very inconvenient as people already in the Library have to pack up and leave, while anyone hoping to pop in during their lunchbreak has found the Library closed.

In 2015 the Hampton Wick Association formed the Friends of Hampton Wick Library. One of our main aims was to find a way to keep the Library open at lunchtimes.

Now, in 2022, that has become a reality!

The recent refurbishment of Bullen Hall, led by the HWA, provides an enlarged kitchen facility enabling Library staff to have lunch within the building.

And now a rota of HWA Volunteers provide cover from 12 – 2pm while each Librarian in turn has their break.

At the moment staff shortages within the Libraries Department means that the Library still has to close at lunchtimes on Saturdays – we’re hoping these staffing issues will soon be resolved.

In the meantime, we are truly proud to say that on Wednesdays and Fridays the doors of Hampton Wick Library now stay open all day long!

A big thank you to the HWA Volunteers, organised by Helen Page, who are making this possible. If you’d like to join them, please contact us on info@hamptonwick.org.uk.

Hampton Wick Library (KT1 4AT) can be reached via Bennet Close off Park Road, via School Lane off School Road and via Shaws’ Path off the High Street.

Opening hours are:
Wednesday 10am to 6pm
Friday 10am to 6pm
Saturday (for now!) 9.30am – 12.30pm, 1.30pm – 4pm