New Look For Chiswick War Memorial

Public to be consulted on possible re-landscaping of the site at Turnham Green

The Friends of Turnham Green have been given the go-ahead by local Councillors to launch a public consultation on the possibility of re-landscaping the Chiswick War Memorial on Turnham Green. They feel the memorial has in recent years virtually vanished inside a dense screen of hedging.

Air Architects, who are based in Barley Mow, presented various solutions for relandscaping the area around the memorial to a well attended Friends meeting in November at Christ Church where the response to the idea was overwhelmingly receptive. As a result Councillors agreed at the Chiswick Area Forum meeting (Jan 22) that the Friends should now put up a range of proposals for wider public consultation in order to gauge how residents would like to proceed.

Details of the consultation will be provided in the coming months.

Rebecca Frayn, Chair of the Friends of Turnham Green said, “I hope it goes without saying that any re-landscape must primarily consider the historical significance of the memorial and honour the memory of those who have given their lives for our freedom. Indeed my great grandfather was one of them.”

James Grant, a Chiswick resident of 50 years standing who served in a Highland regiment and is a member of the Friends of Turnham Green’s landscaping committee said, “Unhappily the bulk of municipal memorials have remained unchanged for several generations. Their form demonstrates the gloomy morbidity of so much late Victorian thinking and they are probably largely ignored by the young.  In life nothing is certain except change (and our deaths).  Why not let a fresh wind blow?"  

The Friends have been working closely with the head of Hounslow Parks and Groundworks, Mr. Andy Smith, on a series of improvements to the Green. They have now almost finished the first stage of their work including;

• taking down the derelict buildings that stood on the corner of the Sutton Lane North/High Rd junction
• re landscaping the rockery that was revealed when the buildings came down.
• pioneering a wild flower scheme, the most dramatic section of which ran along side Sutton Lane North.
• The final stage yet to be implemented will be re surfacing the paths with bonded resin like those on Kew and Richmond Green.

Rebecca Frayn said; "These improvements have been met with great local enthusiasm, the wild flowers in particular inspiring a flurry of delighted letters both to the Friends and the Council."

The second stage of renovations will include finding some kind of a solution to the perimeter fencing, sections of which are falling apart, particularly on the west side.

January 24, 2013