Sometimes it takes a tenacious personality to start a
process that leads to something truly visionary. Henrietta Barnett was such a
person. The wife of an inner city vicar (Whitechapel in London, situated north
of the Tower), she had seen the poverty and appalling living conditions for
workers and immigrants in what should be classed as slums. From their weekend
house overlooking Hampstead Heath at Spaniards End the had the vision of
building a residential suburb not far from Golders Green station. The opening
of this station in 1900 gave the prospect of the adjacent land being developed
in the typical piecemeal manner that had been commonplace since Victorian
times. To prevent standard bylaw housing, Henrietta Barnett lobbied for the retention
of open space in future development and was determined to realise a social and
architectural experiment aimed at improving the lives of what she saw as a socially
mixed housing estate. By including various classes the richer residents could
subsidise the rents of the poorer.
The land north of Hampstead Heath belonged to Eton
College and comprised of fields with a few farms and stands of mature oaks,
hedgerows and some copses of indigenous woodland, especially along Mutton Brook.
This brook discharges into the Brent river near Hendon. Misses Barnett felt
that housing estates should be designed as a whole with well-designed houses
for all classes, attractively grouped at low density and surrounded by gardens
with hedges. Open spaces would be integrated in the layout, as would be
existing woodland and trees. To ensure residents could grow their own,
allotment gardens should also be included.
In 1906 Henrietta Barnett set up the Hampstead Garden
Suburb Trust Ltd, which purchased the 243 acres of land north of Hampstead
Heath from Eton College. This vision of an attractive high-quality suburb needed
someone to make it practical. For this appointed Raymond Unwin as master
planner of the new garden suburb. She stipulated a number of requirement for
the garden suburb which were at odds with local building bylaws. Thus an act of
parliament was needed. A private bill, sponsored by the Trust was drawn up.
This Hampstead garden Suburb Act 1906, allowed less land to be taken up by
roads and more by gardens and open spaces (thus reducing overall density) and
allowed for a different layout of streets than the prescribed parallel streets
or grid iron.
Unlike Letchworth Garden City, which was first conceived
before Unwin had come into contact with Sitte-esque German town planning,
Hampstead Garden Suburb was planned on artistic principles and as such the
first truly Unwinesque housing project. In contrast to the ideas of Howard in
his Garden Cities, Hampstead Garden Suburb only comprised of housing and
amenities (schools, shops, churches); no provisions were made for public
houses, industrial use, offices or other business premises. This is a suburb,
not a self-contained unit beyond the city as advocated by the Garden City Movement.
Hampstead garden Suburb is, however, clearly an exponent of this movement and
more typical of how these ideas were put into practice in other places in
Britain and Europe.
The design for Hampstead Garden Suburb shows a mix of
formal and informal elements. The situation in 1911 shows a half-completed
estate that is wrapped around the Hampstead Heath Extension (1), with a clearly
recognisable centre (2) beyond the Wall (3). Two "gates" (G) are
featured on the edges of the central area. The small green at Temple Fortune
was formalised with radiating streets (4) with no clear end point. The 3 stands
of woodland (w) and the brook (in blue) are still untouched in 1911. Note the
regular layout in the central "town area" of this layout.
Although bases on the experiences gained by his work
on both Letchworth Garden City and Brentham Garden suburb, Unwin took
inspiration from German hill towns and designed the housing estate to be seen
from the Hampstead Heath Extension -which was retained as open space with an
old farmstead- higher up the slope with a clear demarcation and a recognisable
skyline behind it. At the centre of the estate Unwin planned a formal ensemble,
that was realised by the architect Lutyens. Raymond Unwin shows a preference
for such formality to mark the centre (we also see this at Letchworth and
Welwyn). In Hampstead the central ensemble of two large churches and the
Henrietta Barnett School, Formerly The Institute, a centre for adult education.
The suburb is also home to a Quaker Meeting House, a girls' grammar school and
two primary schools. No shops are included in the central area, as was
commonplace in German examples of garden suburbs, but the shops and a shopping
parade are located on the edges of the estate on older thoroughfares.
Hampstead Garden Suburb in 1936 shows a completely
laid out suburb comprising of several neighbourhoods. The central ensemble has
been completed with three radiating streets (reminiscent of a baroque Patte d'Oie)
on the east side. It is also here that most of the building were erected after
1912 (shown in yellow).The later section has less communal open space and
building wrapped around greens, instead this section is dominated by cul-de-sacs
and short roads lines with short terraces of row housing. The woodland reserves
have their present area. The areas with shops are shown in red.
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