Before entering the final years of Richter's life, which, from the turn of the century, were devoted primarily to his activities in England and at Bayreuth, a glance through the surviving diary extracts, which his son Edgar later selected for his sister Mathilde in England, makes fascinating reading. Unfortunately Edgar stopped at June 1900, presumably on the assumption that Mathilde knew all about the final decade in Manchester because she, together with her sister Ludovika, lived with her parents in Bowdon. Her diaries contain little more than a perfunctory account of her father's music-making in the north of England and elsewhere. As always, the faithful Mrs Joshua would have a basket of flowers or fruit awaiting Richter upon his arrival in London when he entered No. 11 Bentinck Street. Soon the conductor was doing the social rounds, meeting his friends and entertaining his soloists or orchestral players at either the Café Royal, the German Athenaeum Club or his favourite restaurant, Pagani's. He heard singers and players recommended to him by either his manager Narciso Vert or by other musicians and teachers. He went to rehearsals of other musicians to pay his respects; on 7 June 1894 ‘went to the Philharmonic rehearsal to speak with Saint-Saëns and heard his symphony [No. 3] – organ and piano duet – “viel Lärm um nichts”’. He had endless meetings with administrators from the Birmingham Festival or (after Hallé's death) from the Hallé orchestra.

On 11 June 1894 he recorded his nervousness before a concert because he was conducting Schubert's Great C major symphony from memory, but it went well, and the next day he could relax with a visit to his old friend Hubert Herkomer at his new house ‘Lululaund’, nearly completed at Bushey. At the end of the day he wrote (and despite his earlier advice that Herkomer should leave composition alone), ‘Spoke into the phonograph: “Dear friend! What you have painted and what you have built are quite wonderful but if one has such beautiful musical ideas, one must not be lazy; when you have finished another score, I will deem it an honour to conduct it”.’ Unfortunately there is no trace of this short speech (made in German) having survived the years. It would have been the only audible record of the great man, as he never conducted a note of music for the growing gramophone industry.