Richmond upon Thames

The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is a London borough in South West London and part of Outer London.

It can been seen from a map that the borough is not entirely urbanised. There are some large areas of open space within the borough boundaries. The main suburban developments are Hampton and Teddington in the south, Twickenham, St Margarets and Whitton in the central area west of the River Thames and the Richmond-Kew-Mortlake-Barnes corridor across the loop of the river. It is the only London borough to straddle the Thames with districts on both sides of the river.

The borough was formed in 1965 by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Twickenham from Middlesex with the Municipal Borough of Richmond and the Municipal Borough of Barnes from Surrey. The name ‘Richmond upon Thames’ was coined at that time; it is now commonly but inaccurately used to refer to Richmond only.

The borough is twinned with Konstanz in Germany, Fontainebleau in France and Richmond, Virginia, USA.