A wide block paved driveway running the full width of a frontage with parking for two cars, a charcoal border and a rebuilt brick boundary wall with piers.

A full-width frontage with room to lay out a driveway properly rather than fit one in. From one of our completed projects.

Strawberry Hill is quieter residential streets and larger period houses, taking its name from Horace Walpole’s Gothic Revival villa. The plots are generous by Twickenham standards, and that changes the nature of the work.

Elsewhere in the area the question is whether a driveway will fit at all. Here it is usually what shape it should be: a bay, a sweep, an in-and-out arrangement, or a turning area so you can leave in forward gear.

Which is more enjoyable to design and, done badly, easier to get wrong. A large expanse of paving with no thought given to proportion or planting looks like a car park in front of a beautiful house.

The Strawberry Hill frontage

What shapes the job here

Mature trees, and their roots

Established street trees and large garden trees are part of what these roads look like, and they are not negotiable. Council-owned trees bring the tree officer into any crossover application, and a protected tree brings a separate consent regime entirely.

Practically, roots change the build. Cutting significant roots can destabilise a tree and kill it slowly, so the correct approach is usually a no-dig construction over the rooting area: a cellular confinement layer built up rather than excavated down. It costs more and it is the right answer.

Conservation areas

Richmond upon Thames has 86 conservation areas, the most of any London borough, and Strawberry Hill contains designated areas. Where one applies, permitted development rights narrow, boundary treatment is scrutinised and material choice matters.

On these houses that is not a burden so much as a steer. A clay paver or a natural stone sett usually looks right where a modern concrete block would not. See our planning guide.

Bigger areas need more drainage, not less

It is tempting to assume a large frontage has room to absorb its own rainfall. It does, but only if soft landscaping is actually retained. Pave sixty or eighty square metres and the volume of water is considerable, and it has to be dealt with inside the boundary.

On larger areas this usually means a permeable build with a properly sized stone reservoir, rather than a single soakaway doing all the work. Permeable paving and drainage.

Proportion and planting

The best-looking driveways on these houses are usually the ones that pave less than they could. A defined parking area with generous planting either side reads far better than paving to every boundary, and it satisfies the borough’s requirement to keep at least ten per cent of the frontage soft.

It also costs less, which is a rare combination.

Underneath

Trees, clay and seasonal movement

Twickenham sits on Thames river terrace gravels over London Clay. Where clay is close to the surface and there are mature trees nearby, you get a specific and predictable problem: the tree draws water out of the clay through the summer and it shrinks, then takes water back in winter and it swells.

That seasonal cycle moves paving. It is the reason some driveways near large trees develop a slow undulation that never quite settles down, and no amount of sub-base entirely eliminates it. What a properly built driveway does is accommodate it: adequate depth, good compaction, a flexible pavement that can move slightly without cracking, and joints kept full so the interlock holds.

It is also a strong argument for block paving over resin or tarmac on these frontages. When something does move, block paving can be lifted and re-laid invisibly. More on why paving moves.

In-and-out drives

Where the frontage is wide enough, two crossovers and a sweep let you leave in forward gear, which on a busier road is a genuine safety benefit. Bear in mind it is two crossover applications, two sets of council charges, and the borough will look at whether the remaining kerb between them still functions.

It also uses a great deal of paving. Worth pricing both options before committing. How crossovers work.

Strawberry Hill sits comfortably inside our patch. For the wider picture, see our driveway paving across Twickenham.

Most asked for here

On a house of this type the entrance treatment does a disproportionate amount of the visual work. It is worth spending there rather than on a larger paved area.

Before you plan around a tree

Find out whether it is protected and whether it belongs to the council. Both change what is possible, and both are free to check before any money is spent on design.

Free, no-obligation quote

Driveways in Strawberry Hill

Tell us about your driveway and your plans. We’ll get back to you within 24 hours.

On a larger frontage it is worth talking through the layout before anyone quotes a square metre rate, because the right design often uses less paving than the obvious one.