Market Place, Kingston upon Thames - 020 8547 5592 Old Town Hall, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond - 020 8940 9125 info@kingstonfirst.co.uk

Petersham is a village in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the east of the bend in the River Thames south of Richmond, which it shares with neighbouring Ham. It provides the foreground of the scenic view from Richmond Hill across Petersham Meadows, with Ham House further along the river. Other nearby places include Twickenham, Isleworth, Teddington, Mortlake, and Roehampton.

Petersham appears in Domesday Book (1086) as Patricesham. It was held by Chertsey Abbey. Its assets were: 4 hides; 1 church, 5 ploughs, 1 fishery worth 1,000 eels and 1000 lampreys, 3 acres (1.2 ha) of meadow. It rendered £6 10s 0d.

Archibald Campbell, later 3rd Duke of Argyll and Earl of Islay, was born at Ham House in 1682. He went on to found the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh in 1727.

The explorer George Vancouver retired to Petersham, where he wrote A Voyage Of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World.[5] He lived in a house in River Lane that is now two separate dwellings - Navigator's House (formerly known as Craigmyle Cottage) and Glen Cottage. He died in 1798 and is buried in the churchyard of Petersham Parish Church. The Portland stone monument over his grave, renovated in the 1960s, is now Grade II listed in view of its historical associations.

In 1839 Charles Dickens rented Elm Cottage, renamed Elm Lodge, where he wrote Nicholas Nickleby.

In 1847 Queen Victoria granted Pembroke Lodge in the Petersham part of Richmond Park to John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, and it became the Russell family home. Lord Russell's grandson, Bertrand Russell, spent some of his childhood there. During World War II the GHQ Liaison Regiment (also known as Phantom) established its regimental headquarters nearby at the Richmond Hill Hotel, with its base (including the officers' mess and billet) at Pembroke Lodge.

In the early 19th century, Charles Stanhope, styled Lord Petersham, later Earl of Harrington, gave the Petersham name to a type of greatcoat. In 1955 Petersham also gave its name to HMS Petersham, which was a Ham-class minesweeper.

Listed buildings include a watchman's box that also served as a village lock-up and dates from 1787.

Petersham Road (part of the A307) includes an extremely sharp right-angled bend edged by a pair of handsome wrought iron gates. This is the entrance to Montrose House, one of the most notable houses in Petersham. After a spate of serious accidents on the bend in the road, the neighbours formed a group in the 1850s called Trustees of the Road. The Hon. Algernon Tollemache of Ham House was their leader and they managed to persuade the owner of Montrose House to part with some land to reduce the sharpness of the bend. But various dents in the brick wall today reveal that motorists are still taken unawares by it.

Adjacent to Montrose House and equally as impressive is Rutland Lodge, built in 1666 for a Lord Mayor of London; it is Grade II* listed.

Another historic house in Petersham is Douglas House, just off the west drive to Ham House. One of its notable inhabitants was Catherine, Duchess of Queensberry. In 1969 it was bought by the Federal Republic of Germany for use as a German school. New buildings have been erected in the grounds, but the original house and stables have been preserved.