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Hampstead Garden Suburb
Hampstead Garden Suburb
Background
The affluent area is home to many wealthy international families, glitterati and professionals. "The Suburb," as it is called, is also known for its strict council regulations concerning building alterations, which serves as evidence of the community's desire to preserve the character of this interesting social experiment.
Local History
The area was designed in 1907 by Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker on land originally given to Eton College by Henry V1.
The idea for the community, however, came from the Henrietta Barnett, the wife of Canon Samuel Barnett, the founder of Toynebee Hall, who wanted to buy Wyldes Farm at the time Golder's Green tube extension was being planned. Mrs. Barnett thought that 80 acres should be used to form an extension to the Hampstead Heath, with the remaining 243 acres developed into a unique residential area where rich and poor could share aesthetically pleasing surroundings.
Sir Edwin Luytens was one of the architects commissioned to design several structures, and he managed to successfully set the tone of the area with the Central Square, well -designed terraces of houses and flats on spacious, tree-lined streets with closes and cul-de-sacs.
He also designed St. Jude's Church, one of the area's most notable structures, the domed Free Church for Non-Conformist worshippers and The Institute on Central Square. Mrs. Barnett's proposed integrated community was then separated into different building areas according to class; with the flats built for artisans to the north, villas for middle classes to the west and grander houses for the upper class to the south in conjunction with the extension of the heath.
There were even areas designated for old people and working women called Orchard and Waterlow, respectively. Architects Park and Unwin designed the first cottages in the area in 1907 at Nos. 140 and 142 Hampstead Way, following the style of the Arts and Crafts movement by building traditional East Anglian cottages, with medieval German vernacular gable, dormers and wood window frames.
The Suburb spread significantly after the First World War, resulting in a distinction between the Old and New Suburb. Despite its spacious homes, the "New" suburb does not possess the same calibre of domestic architectural design as the "Old". Central Square has remained the focal point of the area and is still free from commercial buildings such as pubs, shops and cinemas.
Architecture
The area around Big and Little Woods and around Central Square and Meadway is known as the Old Suburb, although it is actually not that much older than the New. Generally, it covers NW11 parts of the Suburb, where the houses- built between 1907 and 1914 - are full of character and are more expensive.
Central Square was designed by Lutyens is the heart of the suburb; a very green and peaceful centre, where you'll find neo-Georgian terraced houses and flats that are of beautiful quality. Here, too you'll find the parish of St Jude, the Free Church of Non-Conformist worshippers, and the Institute, which also accommodates the Henrietta Barnett School for Girls. In the corner of the North Square is a Meeting House for the Society of Friends and in the South Square, opposite St Jude's Church, is a purpose built block of flats.
There is a memorial to Dame Henrietta on the fourth side of the square and one of the Suburb's many passageways (the aim was to keep pedestrian and motor traffic separate) leads down to Willifield Way. This is possibly the most charming road in the area, with a village green which is overlooked by Fellowship House, where the over 60s meet. Many of the Suburb's younger residents attend the Garden Suburb School, which is also in Willifield Way.
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