Hampstead Garden Suburb Brave New World?

In the summer of 2008 a When we think of the picturesque designers swept villages away and English village we see a huddle of re-sited consciously picturesque new- group of landscape houses and cottages of varying sizes and builds to improve the view from rich architecture and spatial heights, built in local vernacular materi- men’s windows. The aim was to create planning students from als, clustered in a ‘higgledy-piggledy’ the impression of an elysian rural idyll, manner around a visual focus of the although more enlightened landowners Wageningen visited parish church with its tower or spire. might have more practically used the London and Southern Nearby, there may be a village green opportunity to improve living conditions England on a study trip. which was common land for the inhabit- for their estate workers. ants to use for sports or pastimes and The programme included perhaps a manor house, home of the Powerful and philanthropic industrialists Hampstead Garden local squire or lord. We might describe of the high Victorian-age built model this image as ‘chocolate-box’. villages in which to house their workers. Suburb, one of the best- Here they lived in well-built homes with known examples of The appearance of such places may sanitation and enjoyed life-enhancing ‘garden city’ planning in delight us today, but their development, centres such as schools, community halls in visual terms at least, was anything but offering social events and evening-class- London. Dating from the conscious. Beyond location, perhaps es, churches and sports fields, in the early years of the last adjacent to water or taking advantage of shadow of the great factories and mills century its design a valley for shelter or hill-top for secu- that provided their employment. The rity, such places grew by a gradual Prince of Wales is today conducting his concept was to influence process within the topography of the own social, environmental and architec- Dutch garden cities of landscape to accommodate the needs tural experiments, praised and criticised and lives of people. Men simply built in equal measure, in the model village of the 1950’s and 60’s. shelters to house their families on what Poundbury near Dorchester, under the Professional Blue Badge little land they could acquire, from direction of American architect and Guide, David Thompson, materials found close-to-hand. Building urban planner Leon Krier. In the mas- methods, though generally crude, devel- terplan, buildings of varying styles and gave a tour and provides oped through numerous years of experi- material composition are juxtaposed at TOPOS with the context mentation and structures were changed angles, positioned along curving streets and ‘Genius Loci’, the or enlarged, dependent upon such basics or grouped in squares and courts, with as success of a harvest or number of strictly regulated ground surfaces and sense of the place. children born and surviving. If there plantings. Such concepts were and still was an obstacle such as a large tree are, attempts to create environments people just walked round it. When the pleasing to the eye and pleasant to live tree either died or was cut down, the in, whilst holding and sustaining human established path was maintained rather communities and social needs based than straightened, as homes or enclo- upon traditional patterns that evolved sures had probably long-since been over centuries. Some are undoubtedly established along its curves. Only the more successful than others, but all church and manor house, frequently should be viewed in the context of the incorporating expensive materials time and beliefs in which they were imported into the area and built respec- created. tively to impress for the glory of God and a man’s wealth and social position, London also has model villages or might be considered architecture. communities woven into its urban fabric. One of these is Hampstead Periodically, people of wealth and Garden Suburb, situated a few miles due influence have attempted, with varying north of the city’s centre. David Thompson degrees of success, to consciously Blue Badge Guide emulate such habitations. In the eigh- At the turn of the century the metropo- [email protected] teenth century, English landscape lis was expanding rapidly, assisted by the

8 TOPOS / 03 / 2008 development of the Underground Railway (known as the Tube today). When the lines emerged from tunnels under Central London, they were fre- quently continued above ground into the surrounding suburbs and open land beyond. Londoners now had the facility to leave densely built-up areas and, within a relatively short journey, be close to open countryside to take recreation and fresh-air. The railway also encour- aged speculative developers to buy open land for house building and the age of the commuter was born. A downside was that all too often, in the haste of profit-making, developments were poorly built in a haphazard and uncoor- dinated manner.

Just south of where Hampstead Garden Suburb stands today, was Hampstead Heath, a beautiful undulating area of 288 hectares of woodland and open heath and grassland, immortalised by artists such as John Constable, and preserved for all time for the enjoyment of Londoners. Although only a few kilometres from the centre, in the early years of the twentieth century, wide tracts of open countryside reached to the northern boundaries of the Heath.

In 1906 a remarkable woman called Henrietta Barnett owned a cottage in the area and sensing that the opening of an extension of the railway from Hamp- stead to a distance several kilometres further north, posed an immediate threat to the surrounding landscape, she began a personal crusade. As she was to say, ‘it required no imagination to see rows of ugly villas in the foreground of that far-reaching and far-famed view’. With formidable campaigning zeal Henrietta raised sufficient support and funds to purchase an additional 32.5 hectares as an exten- sion to the Heath. Although at an age when many people might be considering retirement, Henrietta’s story did not end there. Of genteel birth and described as, ‘a girl who had been reared in a luxurious home, accustomed to lavish living and entertain-

TOPOS / 03 / 2008 9 number of up-and-coming architects were enlisted to design houses and buildings for varying domestic and community needs. This was a bold move, as it was ultimately to create within the Suburb contrasting senses of intimacy, spaciousness, and grandeur. Architectural design incorporated reference from established historic housing style associated with differing ing, who revelled in hunting and gardening and community, it has always been known as social levels, emphasising harmonious outdoor life’, Henrietta married a clergy- the Suburb. visual variety and at least attempting to man and together they lived for many convey an impression that the Suburb years in London’s East End administer- Edwin Lutyens who was making a name had grown piece-meal through a passage ing to the social needs of the poor. The for himself as an architect of country of time. Artisan homes resemble stylised legacy of their ministry remains to this houses was later appointed consulting rural vernacular cottages with low-reach- day. architect. A private Act of Parliament ing roofs, plastered and painted white or was needed to protect Unwin’s designs, pebble-dashed, whilst in contrast those Henrietta harboured a dream of build- incorporating groupings of houses of the wealthy in the neighbouring ing a community ‘where all classes of society around miniature village greens or environs of the Square are built of red and standards of income should be accommo- cul-de-sacs, from restrictive local bye- and blue brick, with sash-windows and dated’. laws which demanded housing to be detailing resembling the domestic built along through-roads. This Act was architecture of Christopher Wren. She was a great admirer of Ebenezer the forerunner of the first Town Plan- Throughout the full domestic range, Howard, social reformer and pioneer of ning Act in Britain and also allowed the excellence in quality of materials and Town Planning, whose vision of respon- Trust to build an average density of 20 construction was employed. sibly planned high-standard environ- houses per hectare within the overall ments offering social and economic inte- plan. Houses were more densely packed Planting also reflected the social-eco- gration, provided an alternative to the in some areas, in particular artisan nomic status of the occupants. Hedging soulless ribbon development prevalent homes, which were usually grouped or surrounding the cheaper homes was of at the time and formed the planning- terraced, in contrast to more spaciously privet and fruit trees were planted in the basis for the Garden Cities of Letch- positioned detached homes intended for gardens, while more expensive proper- worth and Welwyn to the north of the wealthy professionals. ties were divided by yew. Individual plots capital. Such principles appealed to were laid out in the understanding that Henrietta and she determined that they On the 2 May 1907, Henrietta Barnett poorer people would want to grow should be applied to anything she might herself, ceremoniously turned the first vegetables and fruit, in contrast to the build herself. With unflagging energy sod and construction commenced. more affluent who would use theirs for and persuasiveness she enlisted a num- Roads were to be tree-lined and there recreation and the growing of flowers. ber of influential people, bringing both were to be no dividing walls between For the parade-ground scale Central gravitas and finance, to form the Hamp- plots, all necessary division and bound- Square featuring vast lawns, Edwin stead Garden Suburb Trust, with the ary-marking being of low hedging. On Lutyens designed twin churches, both sole purpose of realising her dream. the highest point of the gentle undulat- resembling high-pitched brick built, clay Money was provided to purchase a ing site a town square was intended to tile roofed tithe-barns. The roof of The further 98.5 hectares. act as a social, religious and visual Free Church, punctured and capped central focus. Housing provision was to with an Italianate green copper dome, When Letchworth was built to the be made for varying threads of social and that of neighbouring St Jude’s by a designs of Barry Parker & Raymond fabric, including the elderly and even soaring spire, were to act as visual Unwin, the Trust took notice of the single professional women, for whom a markers in distant views and create a strength of its conceptual integrity and cloistered monastic-style court was sense of place. Lutyens was also respon- appointed Unwin to prepare plans for scheduled. sible for the ‘Wrenesque’ style Institute, the Suburb. Although Hampstead’s resembling a miniature Hampton Court concept was the creation of a ‘village’ Unwin provided the masterplan and a Palace, along the northern side of the

10 TOPOS / 03 / 2008 Square, containing educational facilities landscaping, the Suburb fulfils a picture- parking spaces, increasing both urban and a theatre. book notion of ‘an Englishman’s home is blight and flood-risk as water can’t then his castle’. Skilful utilisation of the con- drain away naturally. Acting as a barrier between the Suburb tours of the land of both architecture and a landscape that, even today, reflects and planting as well as juxtaposition of Perhaps the least successful element of its rural past as it stretches up to Hamp- styles, heights and social range, give the the Suburb is a physical lack of social stead Heath, a buttressed brick wall was Suburb visual variety and rhythm. In centring which was apparent even when built. Known locally as The Great Wall, parts there is beauty, whereas the design it was first completed. The churches it is punctuated at regular intervals by of other areas we might be tempted to may have provided spiritual focus, the what appear to be watch-towers, but are describe as ‘twee’. Visually the Suburb Institute educational focus and the Club- in reality gazebos in the raised gardens has survived much as Henrietta Barnett house a degree of social focus, but as of some of the wealthier homes hidden envisaged. public houses and shops were not behind. In its centre, a flight of wide incorporated in the plan, people have in steps leads to a receding vista of large The entire scheme is now a conservation general always tended to move from detached houses, culminating with the area and changes to properties can be place-to-place with individual purpose church of St Jude’s. Here the lawns are made only under considerable limita- and not stopped to gather. Central neatly trimmed, flower borders are in tions and consultation. The landscaping Square provides little reason to linger. check and hedges are razor clipped. The has reached lush maturity and appears at landscaping and spacing between the ease with itself. Only the formal expans- Ironically, Henrietta Barnett’s social classically-detailed houses gives an es of Central Square cry for attention, vision of an ‘idyllic village’ for social impression of leisured grandeur. This victim to cuts in local authority mainte- integration, so thoughtfully achieved, was the preserve of the wealthy and nance budgets. The lawns are still has failed under the financial pressures Edwin Lutyens, who twenty years later mowed, but geometric rose beds are in of 20th century city living. Hampstead was engaged on the architectural and need of replanting and lines of once Garden Suburb is today a very desirable landscaping project of the century in the pleached lime trees have long since been address and even the former artisan creation of the Imperial Capital of New left to grow unrestricted. Roads not cottages as owner-occupied dwellings, Delhi, designed to impress. It is a place designed to accommodate numerous are now far beyond the reach of service- where it seems the only sound might be motor vehicles are now lined with them, sector families. Any notion of mixed the whack of tennis balls against rackets. their owners having few alternative social classes living in close proximity parking spaces, the earliest houses being and harmony has long since evaporated. In contrast, lesser homes a short dis- built with neither garages or drives in a Nonetheless, the concept of the Suburb tance away nestle in intimate clusters, then relatively car-less world. Some was a brave initiative. It can still be said with narrow passages affording glimpses might say that this is a preferable alter- that ‘many designers use their heads but those of cottage style gardens beyond. Laugh- native to what is currently happening all of Hampstead Garden Suburb used their ing children in smocks might run by over London, with front gardens not hearts’. rolling hoops at any moment. Rich man, protected by conservation controls, poor man, through architecture and being ripped out and paved to provide

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