of England. His nephew and biographer Otto Trevelyan wrote in 1876: "His brother-in-law had taken a house in the village of Esher; and Macaulay accordingly settled himself, with infinite content, exactly in the middle of the only ugly square mile of country which can be found in that delightful neighbourhood. 'I am pretty well pleased,' he says, 'with my ... pleasant, small dwelling, surrounded by geraniums and roses... The only complaint I have to make is that the view from my front windows is blocked by a railway embankment.' Macaulay's cottage, which stood in Ditton Marsh, by the side of the high-road from Kingston to Esher, was called Greenwood Lodge." TelevisionMonty Python, regularly poking jibes at adjoining Esher, in the sketch, 'Blackmail' has a scene in "Thames Ditton" filmed in a west London residential road. Exterior scenes for the 1980s sitcom After Henry were shot on the village High Street. In Amazon's 2019 series Hanna, the titular character's friend Sophie and her family live in Thames Ditton. Notable residents Dominic Raab – Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Christian de Duve, Nobel-Prize (1974), born Thames Ditton 1917 Henry Smith – recipient of the Victoria Cross Billy Merson – lived on the Thames Ditton Island in a bungalow called Yakka Hickey Dooley Hewett Watson – phrenologist, friend of Charles Darwin, evolutionary botanist Laurence Naismith – actor, born Thames Ditton 1908 Dick Emery – comedian, lived in Thames Ditton between 1958 and 1964 Charles Heslop – actor, born Thames Ditton 8 June 1883 – 13 April 1966. Sydney Camm – aircraft designer famous for having designed the Hawker Hurricane lived in Thames Ditton Jack Woolgar – actor, born Thames Ditton. Ronan Keating – pop singer Haydn Tanner – Welsh international rugby union player who represented both Wales and the British and Irish Lions Cesar Picton – a black servant from Senegal lived in Thames Ditton and ran a successful coal business from Kingston. His house is still visible and marked with a plaque and his house, by the river in Kingston, is also marked. Trevor Bannister – actor, "Mr Lucas" in Are You Being Served?'' Lucy Alexander – television presenter Douglas Reeman – writer, born in Thames Ditton 1924 Rob Henderson - British and Irish Lion 704 Demography and housing The average level of accommodation in the region composed of detached houses was 28%, the average that was apartments was 22.6%. The