Vitae Lifestyle

Edit No.22 — The Richmond Edit

Tower House, Bingham Riverhouse, The Poppy Factory, Danieli and Via Romana.

Richmond is a place people who live in London quietly envy — a bend of the Thames, a royal park full of deer, the grand houses on the hill, an embarrassment of good pubs, and the sort of independent shops that other high streets have long since lost. What it hasn't always had, in proportion to the scenery, are the restaurants and openings to match. That is beginning to change.

Edit No.22 is a portrait of the neighbourhood as it looks now. It begins with Tower House, the modern Mediterranean restaurant that opened in November 2025 in the restored 19th-century clocktower on Richmond Bridge, from the team behind Notting Hill's Gold. It's the arrival — the sign of a Richmond that is quietly raising its game — and the natural place to start.

It continues with Bingham Riverhouse, the 15-room Georgian boutique hotel on Petersham Road where the Bingham sisters wrote poetry to Oscar Wilde's circle and where the restaurant, riverside terrace and eco-wellness studio now make it feel more like a home than a hotel. Then The Poppy Factory, tucked further along the same stretch of road, where veterans have made the nation's Remembrance wreaths by hand for a hundred years — a quietly moving heritage visit that most Londoners walk past without knowing exists. Danieli, the family-run gelateria on the ancient Brewers Lane, whose spoonably-thick hot chocolate went viral and whose gelato is, quietly, some of the best in London. And Via Romana, the tiny Roman sandwich shop halfway down Paved Court — Richmond's "Ted Lasso alleyway" — making the sort of Italian sandwich you eat on the Green or by the river.

Taken together, they are the small institutions and new arrivals that make Richmond feel less like a suburb of London and more like a town in its own right.

In this edit

PLACE — Tower House

Tower House — The Riverside Restaurant in the Old Clocktower

A modern Mediterranean restaurant from the team behind Notting Hill's Gold, set in Richmond's restored 19th-century riverside clocktower — with a glass garden room and a terrace on the Thames.

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LIVING — Bingham Riverhouse

Bingham Riverhouse — The House That Remembers Its Poets

A 15-room boutique hotel in a Georgian townhouse on the Thames at Richmond — literary heritage, an acclaimed restaurant, an eco-wellness studio, and the feel of a home rather than a hotel.

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EXPERIENCE — The Poppy Factory

The Poppy Factory — The Home of Remembrance

For a century, Richmond's Poppy Factory has made the nation's Remembrance wreaths by hand, employing veterans — a quietly moving heritage visit on a stretch of Petersham Road near the river.

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PLACE — Danieli

Danieli — London's Thickest Hot Chocolate

A long-standing family-run Italian gelateria and chocolate shop on Richmond's ancient Brewers Lane, famous for its viral spoonably-thick hot chocolate — and, quietly, for some of London's best gelato.

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PLACE — Via Romana

Via Romana — The Sandwich Down the Ted Lasso Alley

A tiny Roman sandwich shop halfway down Richmond's "Ted Lasso alleyway," making some of the best Italian sandwiches in London — to carry to the Green or the river.

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Each article in this edit is experienced first-hand and written independently. All Vitae Lifestyle articles are archived under Lifestyle and can be read out of sequence.

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