Cambridge Gardens, including Warren Footpath

The site was once part of a large riverside estate where in c.1616 Sir Humphrey Lynd had built a mansion near Richmond Ferry; by the end of the C17th the grounds had been enlarged by Sir Joseph Ashe. In 1751 the house, called Twickenham Meadows, was purchased with 74 acres of parkland by Richard Owen Cambridge and the house was given the name Cambridge House after he died in 1802. His son Revd George Owen Cambridge, Archdeacon of Middlesex, inherited the property and leased it to Lord Mount Edgcumbe, moving to another villa, Meadowbank, which he had built south of Cambridge House in c.1824. The Cambridge House estate was divided in 1835 when the Archdeacon sold the main house and 30 acres to Henry Bevan. Bevan commissioned Lewis Vulliamy to enlarge and modernise the house, with a large conservatory built at the south end, and the grounds were embellished and lavishly praised by William Keane in 'The Beauties of Middlesex'. A large kitchen garden was established to the west of the house.

At Bevan's death in 1860, Cambridge House was inherited by his eldest daughter Lady Caroline Mary Chichester. After her death in 1883 her nephew Edward Dean Paul, later Sir Edward, inherited the estate but soon aggravated the Twickenham Local Board by erecting railings on each side of the river towpath to prevent people crossing his lawns. An agreement was reached in 1887 and the Board created a footpath 12 ft wide alongside which Sir Edward erected iron railings, with maintenance of the footpath undertaken by the Board. This later became known as the Warren Footpath, running from Orleans Road to Richmond Bridge; it was opened in June 1923 by the Duke of York, later George VI, when a promenade with seating had been raised to avoid flooding.

After Sir Edward's death in 1895 his will stipulated his wish for Cambridge House to be sold. The 30 acre estate was purchased in 1897 by builder Henry Cresswell Foulkes, who kept the house, immediate grounds and lawns to the river but began plans to build over the remaining parkland. In 1907 building began on Clevedon Road, separating the house from the riverside. By 1908 160 houses, 7 blocks of flats and 54 shops with living accommodation had been erected but Foulkes was then bankrupted. Cambridge House became the Middlesex County Club and was then sold for The Cambridge House Residential Hotel in 1915 but it was eventually demolished in 1937. The land to the south of the present gardens became The Sports-Drome, an ice rink open from 1928-1932. It was re-opened in 1934 by Claude Langdon and developed into Richmond Ice Rink, a large facility with indoor golf range, outside bowling green, two tennis courts, pitch and putt course and children's playground with tea gardens onto the river. It was purchased in the 1980s by the London and Edinburgh Trust for housing development.