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.