Richmond Hill, London

The straight southwest slope is steepest, falling away to Petersham meadows by the Thames and is a backdrop to Kingston and Richmond Bridges.

Other returns to the flood plain are more complex across and beyond the park due to semi-natural ponds and dry and wet running vales feeding an easterly draining brook.

[a] It is built up only on its higher (northeast) side – from the Richmond Bridge corner of the town centre to the hilltop fronted by a cinema, homes, eateries and hotel-restaurants.

It was this view that inspired the name of Richmond, Virginia, after the colonial founder of the city, William Byrd II, noticed a curve in the James River that remarkably resembled this meander.

As the town of Richmond developed from its founding in the early 16th century, after Henry VII had established Richmond Palace, the attributes of the hill naturally attracted desirable residential and commercial development – with the result that many large, ornate properties came and went on the hill over the centuries, some of them with famous or notable persons as owners or occupiers.