We’ve got a green to envy

Richmond Green is one of the grandest greens in London, fringed by fine William and Mary houses and several good pubs. An annual black-tie May Ball is held there in a marquee. In aid of the Orange Tree Theatre, the ball is a glitzy event, heavily patronised by the big names of stage and screen.

Former teacher Jan Temple, who lives nearby on Old Palace Terrace, is a regular at the ball, and also walks her dog on the green daily. “The ball gets bigger every year and is great fun,” she says. “I love the fact that it is such an easy walk home.

“I’ve never known a place like this. I have lived here for nine years now and find it very villagey. People are always friendly and those with families use the green for playing. This is the friendliest place I have ever lived.” However, Jan will soon be moving as she wants to be closer to her children, now that her first grandchild is on the way. “Though I shall be sad to leave,” she says, “someone else will be able to enjoy the house and this wonderful green.”

Local communities have a fight on their hands saving village greens from developers, according to the Open Spaces Society. The campaign groups says there has been a doubling of applications for protective status for village greens in the past 12 months, with London communities determined to guard their remaining open spaces more jealously than most.

It is exactly 40 years since The Kinks released their classic single The Village Green Preservation Society, which illustrates just how much the group’s lead singer and the song’s writer, Ray Davies, was ahead of his time.

Though most would not associate London living with an idyllic life of sitting round a village green, with its cricket pitch or pond, edged by a pub, a clutch of rose-covered cottages and a looming church spire, the capital does have its “greens”.

They are not always green, as it happens, but they are precious open spaces, preserved for families who love a focal point, somewhere to gather and gossip. Pimlico Green, for example, is now paved over but is enjoyed by all the locals who flock to its Saturday farmers’ market.