History

Introduction

• A brief history
• Historical development of the Suburb
• A Concise History
• Growth and Change
• Henrietta Barnett's planning vision
• Unwin's town planning
• Small scale planning
• Town Planning Act
• Central Square Architecture
• St. Jude's and the Free Church
• The Institute

Growth and Change

The development of Hampstead Garden Suburb was exceedingly rapid, growing in 40 years from the land first bought by Henrietta Barnett from Eton College into the 800 acres that the suburb covers today.

The Wyldes estate and the 80 acre Heath extension were sold to Henrietta in 1900 on the condition that she “got some men behind her” ideas.

The Trust had never intended to develop the land itself, setting up the garden suburb development company instead. They aimed to develop the land within Unwin’s master plan and collaborate with the lessees to ensure good design. The continuity of style within each street or group came from convincing the potential lessees to choose a common architect from a who’s who of architects of the day.

Some areas were developed by the co-partners or Hampstead Tenants Ltd, part of a wider movement which combined ‘five percent philanthropy’ with tenant participation. Each tenant would purchase a share in the company, receive a dividend and participate in the management of the scheme. The dividend should cancel out the rent while also guaranteeing a 5% return for investors.

Construction began on ‘the old suburb,’ as it is now commonly known, in 1907.

The co-partners used their own contractors and suppliers, getting a discount on mass orders. They strictly controlled the quality, and in one period of 9 months over 9,000 men were sacked from the garden-suburb-builders ‘garsubil’. From 1908-1909 they built over 120 houses, 100 of which were sold and 60 occupied.

One of the first additions to the old suburb was the ‘Hendon leasehold estate’ bought in 1908, now the area around Rotherwick Road, which provides access to the suburb from Golders Green tube station.

A more significant increase in the size of the Suburb was the 112 acres towards Falloden road in 1907, including Big Wood and Little Wood. This land was originally leased to the Trust who developed Middleway, North Way and South Way while the co-partnership tenants developed Oakwood Road and Denman Drive. Later the lease was assigned to the co-partnership tenants and the subsequent designs favoured the semi and the terrace rather than the group, and nearly every house had its own architect.

The final large acquisition of land was the 300 acres linking the suburb to East Finchley station. This was originally leased to the co-partners and the trust did not exercise control over it, however the Holmes, (a series of small closes), by Sutcliffe are consistent with the old suburb style.

Henrietta Barnett disliked the trend of individual houses and pushed for more low-cost group housing. She was behind the development of Queen’s Court and Emmott Court in the late 1920’s and while these fulfil the ideals of available housing, the loss of the open spaces within the suburb was widely disliked.

The final extension to the suburb came in 1930 with the co-partners’ development of the ‘Finchley leasehold extension’ which added to Winnington Road and Ingram Avenue. The co-partners paid the Trust a fee to include these newer areas within the bounds of Hampstead Garden Suburb.

At the time of building the newer extensions were seen as comparatively more commercial, but today the new suburb stands as a positive example of commercial development with an architectural and social eye.

In 1958 the Trust decided to buy all the freeholds of the ‘new suburb,’ and now all of the phases of development are protected under the same architectural guidelines.