The Hampstead Garden Suburb is the most important piece of submrban
planning whi.ch has hitherto been undertaken in England;not only because
it is cn the outskirts of London, but because it is on a larger scale
than any earlier or contemporary efforts.
The site, which lies to the north-west of Hampstead Heath, con-
sists of about 240 aeres, and wras purchased in 1906 for 107,500. A
company known as the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust was forned to do
this and to take in hand the development of the estate, with the object
of providing houses for about 8,000 people.
cbject in view: Firstly, it was an attempt to meet the housing problem
by putting within reach of a 2d. fare of Central London, land at a
reasonable price on which cottages and houses could be built, with
gardens where the family labour might produce vegetables, fruit, and
The Trust had a fourfold
8 e people might deveo a sense of home lnfe and a and
n-
crowded suburb of Lond de lsit intended to have the suburb laid
out as a whole on an orderly and thought-out plan, with open spaces and
plots left for public buildings, and the building plots so disposed
that no house might darken and offend a neighbor's, and that from every
part there might be good views or glimpses of distant country; thirdly,
there was the desire to promote a better understanding between the
classes who form the nation9to this end, therefore, the cottages were
not to be restricted to any size, the cottager paying from 6s. a week
and the wealthy E100 a year and upwards); foturthly, there was the aim
at preserving natural beauty.
ground of a wide western view from Harpstead Heath, had been built up-
If this estate, which occupies the fore-
one of the most beautiful
the ordinar
lative builder's
cenes round Londo ud have been spoin the reservation of
trees, the wide spacing and grouping of the houses, and a judicious re-
striction as to their materials, the new suburb wiil rather enhance the
beauty of the region.
The estate is excellently situated, for not only has it the ad-
vantage of the adjacent north and more secluded end of the Heath and
Golders Hill Park, but it is conveniently connected with London by the
Charing Cross, Euston, and Hampstead Tube Railway, which has its sta-
tion at Golders Green in close proximity.
moters of the Trust a long strip of 80 acres in area has been purchased
by the London County Council and added as an extension to Hampstead
Heath.
into the Garden Suburb, and is surrounded on three sides by the proper-
ty of the Trust; on the east and west by comparatively narrow, irregul-
ar strips, the eastern arn having frontages to the golf course on one
side and the extension on the other, and it is there that it is propos-
ed to sell the land for the largest houses.
abuts cn the north, on the main body of the estate has been built a
straight wall, so that the fomal lay-out of the Suburb here stops ab-
ruptly on the wild Heath.
By the efforts of the pro-
This tongue of comon heath projects for three-fifths of a mile
Where the Heath extension
The Suburb is laid out on formal lines where the contour of the
site would allow. There is a central square; this, however, is not led
up to by radiating roads from all parts of the estate, as the Suburb
does not pretend to be a self-contained cormunity, but is frankly a re-
sidential offshoot of London; and a civic centre as the dominating
It is, however, situated on
the highest pointof the site, so that the large buildings will be ef-
Round three sides of this square are grouped the two
principal churchesr the Institute, and several other buildings of a pub
point of the plan would be out of place.
fectively seen.
