Hampstead Garden Suburb

"Hampstead Garden" redirects here. For the area of Adelaide, see Hampstead Gardens, South Australia.

Hampstead Garden Suburb
Hampstead Garden Suburb  Hampstead Garden Suburb shown within Greater London
OS grid reference	TQ265885
London borough	Barnet
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	N2
Postcode district	NW11
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
EU Parliament	London
UK Parliament	Finchley & Golders Green
	Hendon
London Assembly	Barnet and Camden
List of places UK England London

Hampstead Garden Suburb is a suburb, north of Hampstead, west of Highgate and east of Golders Green. It is an example of early twentieth-century domestic architecture and town planning located in the London Borough of Barnet in northwest London. The master plan was prepared by Barry Parker and Sir Raymond Unwin.

History

Hampstead Garden Suburb was founded by Henrietta Barnett, who, with her husband Samuel, had started the Whitechapel Art Gallery and Toynbee Hall. In 1906, Barnett set up the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust Ltd, which purchased 243 acres of land from Eton College for the scheme and appointed Raymond Unwin as its architect.

Among the scheme's aims were the following:

• It should cater for all classes of people and all income groups
• There should be a low housing density
• Roads should be wide and tree-lined
• Houses should be separated by hedges, not walls
• Woods and public gardens should be free to all
• It should be quiet, with no church bells

This required a private bill before Parliament, as it was counter to local bylaws. The provisions of the new act, Hampstead Garden Suburb Act 1906, allowed less land to be taken up by roads and more by gardens and open spaces.

The ideas for the "Garden Suburb" were clearly based on the ideas and experience of Parker and Unwin in the planning and development of Letchworth Garden City, the first development of its kind, inspired by the work of Ebenezer Howard. Other consultant architects involved with the Hampstead development include George Lister Sutcliffe and John Soutar.

However, with no industry, no public houses and few shops or services, the suburb, unlike the garden cities, made no attempt to be self-contained. In the 1930s the "Suburb" (as it is known by locals) expanded to the north of the A1. While more characterful than most other suburban housing, some of the housing to the north is considered, overall, of less architectural value.

On Central Square, laid out by Sir Edwin Lutyens, there are two large churches, St. Jude's Church and The Free Church, as well as a Quaker Meeting House. There are two mixed state primary schools in the Suburb, Garden Suburb and Brookland. There is also a state girls' grammar school, Henrietta Barnett School. The school used to house The Institute, an adult education centre, but most of The Institute has now moved to accommodation in East Finchley, opposite the tube station, with the opening of a new purpose-built arts centre.

Shops and other services are provided in the shopping parades of Market Place and Temple Fortune, with Golders Green and East Finchley within walking distance for those who live at either end.

Little Wood contains an open air arena, which is used for summer theatrical performances by a local amateur theatre society.

In 2015, the residents' association decided to implement a yellow and red card penalty system to discourage neighbours from using noisy lawnmowers and leafblowers.

Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust

Freehold houses, flats and commercial premises within the Suburb are subject to a scheme of management approved pursuant to the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 by an Order of the Chancery Division of the High Court, dated 17 January 1974, as amended by a further Order dated 17 February 1983.

The HGS Trust protects the character and amenity of the Suburb and is responsible for implementing the management scheme. It has offices in Finchley Road. Freeholders are required to get the prior approval of the Trust before altering the external appearance of their properties. Consent is also required for significant changes to gardens, erection of garden sheds and felling or pruning of trees. The Trust is also the freeholder of the majority of the remaining leasehold property in the Suburb which are mostly held on very long leases.

Hampstead Garden Suburb Act 1906

Urban town planning had been restricted by the byelaws established after the 1875 Housing Act, which had de facto called for a grid iron street layout, and a minimum housing density. This had prevented Cadbury building workers houses within a city, and caused Rowntree to build his housing in rural parishes. For Unwin to design a street structure that followed the contours, and built houses in cul-de-sacs a parliamentary act was needed. The Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust sponsored a private bill.

The three relevant sections of the Act were

Section 2

"There shall not be built in the Garden Suburb on the average throughout a greater proportion of houses to the acre than eight".

"On every road in the Garden Suburb (whatever the width of the said road) there shall be between any two houses standing on opposite sides of the road a space not less than fifty feet free of any buildings except walls, fences or gates."

Section 3

"With respect to any gardens, recreation grounds or open spaces provided by the Company for the common use of the inhabitants of any dwellings in the Garden Suburb the Company may make bye-laws for the regulation thereof...."

Section 5

"Any road not exceeding 500 feet in length constructed primarily for the purpose of giving access to a group of houses in the Garden Suburb and not designed for the purposes of through traffic (known as an accommodation road), may with the consent of the local authority be exempted from any operation of any bye-laws of the local authority relating to the width of new streets and footways."

Section 2, defined a low building density, and wide streets with gardens or verges where trees could be planted. Section 5 distinguished between through-roads (known as an accommodation roads) and residential cul-de-sacs. It recognised the difference between cul-de-sac roads of limited length and other roads, and allowed the suspension of certain the operation of local planning bye-laws

Parks and nature reserves

The Suburb has large areas of open space, including Hampstead Heath Extension; Big Wood and Little Wood and the private Turner's Wood. The southern end is close to Golders Hill Park.

Notable residents

Present

• Tom Hiddleston – Actor
• Hugh Laurie – Actor & Musician.
• Theo Adams – Performance Artist
• Martin Bell – BBC war reporter, independent MP & British UNICEF Ambassador
• Sir Victor Blank – Finance (Lloyds TSB)
• Katie Boyle – TV presenter
• Sir Brian Leveson – Lord Justice of Appeal (Press ethics inquiry)
• Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan – TV presenters
• David Matthews – Composer
• Michael Ridpath – Author
• Claudia Roden – Cookbook writer & cultural Anthropologist
• Jonathan Ross – TV & Radio presenter.
• Marc Sinden – Film Director, Actor & Theatre Producer
• Harry Styles – Pop singer with One Direction.
• Lord Winston – Professor, Surgeon, Scientist & TV presenter
• Gok Wan – Guru stylist & TV presenter

Past

• Edgar Anstey – Documentary filmmaker and Oscar winner (lived at 6, Hurst Close)
• Saif al-Islam – Second son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi
• Sir Ove Arup – Architectural structural engineer and founder of the engineering firm Arup (lived at 28, Willifield Way) Blue Plaque
• Dame Henrietta Barnett – Social reformer, founder of Toynbee Hall, Whitechapel Art Gallery and creator of Hampstead Garden Suburb (lived at 1, South Square) Blue Plaque
• Stanley Black – Bandleader and Composer (lived at 8, Linell Close)
• Warwick Braithwaite – Opera Conductor (lived at 23, Linden Lea)
• Angela Buxton – Tennis player and winner of the 1956 women's doubles title at the French Championships and Wimbledon (lived in a flat above the shops in Market Place and later at 16, Winnington Road)
• John Chapman – Playwright of several noted farces (lived at 48, Wildwood Road)
• Charlie Chester – Comedian (lived at 94, Erskine Hill & 5, Vivian Way)
• Charles Clarke – Labour Party MP & Home Secretary (lived at 3, Meadway Close)
• Eric Coates – Composer (lived at 7, Willifield Way) Blue Plaque
• Constantine – the last King of Greece
• Sir Robin Day – Television & Radio journalist and interviewer (lived at 84, Oakwood Road)
• George Devine – Theatre Manager, Director and Actor, founder of the Young Vic Theatre (lived at Lucas Square, 64, Hampstead Way)
• Robert Donat – Actor (lived at 8, Meadway) Blue Plaque
• Clive Dunn – Actor
• Noel Edmonds – Broadcaster (lived in Brookland Hill)
• Vanessa Feltz – Personality (lived in Winnington Road)
• Darrell Figgis – Irish writer, Sinn Féin activist and independent parliamentarian in the Irish Free State
• Michael Flanders – Actor, Singer and lyric-writer, one half of Flanders and Swann (lived at 1, Brunner Close)
• Mark Fleischmann - Actor
• Martin Furnival Jones – Director General of MI5 from 1965 until 1972 (lived at 53, Temple Fortune Hill)
• John Gale – Theatre producer and Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre (lived at 57, Northway)
• Antony Gormley – Sculptor (lived in Wildwood Road)
• Tony Hancock – Comedian and Actor (lived at 10, Grey Close) Blue Plaque
• Dame Myra Hess – Concert Pianist (lived at 48, Wildwood Road) Blue Plaque
• Gerard Hoffnung – Musician, Humorist, Caricaturist and Broadcaster (lived at 5, Thornton Way)
• Archbishop Trevor Huddleston – Anti-apartheid campaigner (lived at 53, Hampstead Way)
• Barry Hugman - Sports Author/Statistician (lived in Denison Close)
• Bruce Kent – CND campaigner (lived at 73, Meadway)
• William Knightley-Smith - First Class Cricketer (lived in Ossulton Way)
• William Lewis – Daily Telegraph Editor (lived in Northway)
• Cyril Luckham – Actor (lived at 70, Hampstead Way)
• Peter Mandelson – Labour Party MP & Cabinet Minister (lived at 12, Bigwood Road)
• David McCallum – Actor (lived at 1, Erskine Hill)
• Millicent Martin - Actress - and Ronnie Carroll - Singer (lived in Ossulton Way)
• Lord Longford & Lady Elizabeth Pakenham & Lady Antonia Fraser – Historian & Biographer; Campaigner; Author (lived at 10, Linnell Drive)
• Heather Mills – Charity campaigner and former model (lived in Allingham Court, The Bishops Avenue)
• Cecil Parker – Actor (lived at 17, Litchfield Way)
• Frank Pick – Transport administrator (lived at 15, Wildwood Road)
• Sir Ralph Richardson – Actor (lived at Bedegars Lee, Kenwood Close) Blue Plaque
• Paul Robeson – American Actor and Singer (lived in Wildwood Road)
• Paul Scott – Novelist, Playwright and Poet (lived at 61, Brookland Rise & 78, Addison Way)
• Vikram Seth – Poet and Novelist (lived at 133, Willifield Way)
• Will Self – Author and Journalist (lived at 33, Brim Hill)
• Dinah Sheridan – Actress
• Emanuel Shinwell – Labour Party MP & Secretary of State for War (lived at 33, Erskine Hill)
• Alastair Sim – Actor (lived at 13, Wildwood Road)
• Sir Donald Sinden – Actor (lived at 60, Temple Fortune Lane) Blue Plaque
• Lord Soper – Methodist minister, socialist, pacifist and President of the League Against Cruel Sports (lived at 6, Willifield Way & 17, Bigwood Road)
• Jerry Springer – American television presenter (born & lived at Belvedere Court, Lyttelton Road).
• Ringo Starr – Drummer for The Beatles and Actor (lived in Kenwood Close)
• Nigel Stock – Actor (lived at 21, Heathgate)
• Thomas S. Tait – Modernist Architect (lived at Gates House, Wyldes Close) Blue Plaque
• Dame Elizabeth Taylor – Actress (lived at 8, Wildwood Road)
• Dimitri Tiomkin – Film-score Composer and four-time Oscar winner (lived in Hampstead Lane)
• Sir Raymond Unwin – Engineer, Architect and Town Planner, chief planner of Hampstead Garden Suburb (lived at Wyldes, Hampstead Way) Blue Plaque
• Anton Walbrook – Actor (lived at 36, Holne Chase)
• Sir Hugh Walpole Author (lived in Turner Drive and at 19, Thornton Way)
• Gwen Watford & Richard Bebb – Actress; Actor & noted collector of early sound recordings (lived at 22, Temple Fortune Lane)
• Evelyn Waugh – Author (lived at 145, North End Road)
• Fritz Wegner — Artist, illustrator.
• Rachel Weisz – Actress (lived at 6, Linnell Close)
• Rebecca West – Author, Journalist, Literary critic and Travel writer (lived at 5, Chatham Close)
• Harold Wilson – Labour Party MP & twice Prime Minister (lived at 10 & 12, Southway) Blue Plaque.
• Sir Donald Wolfit – Actor (lived in Hampstead Way)

See also

• The Bishops Avenue
• Ebenezer Howard
• Garden city movement
• Garden real estate
• Brentham Garden Suburb
• List of people from Barnet

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• HGS website
• HGS Trust
• Famous residents
• Hampstead Garden Suburb Notable Residents and where they lived compiled by Dr Eva Jacobs. Published by Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust. ISBN 978-0-9516742-9-1