The architecture of Bedford Park in

Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district in West London, split between the London Borough of Hounslow, London Boroughs of Hounslow and London Borough of Ealing, Ealing. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist Wi ...

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: Central London, N ...

, is characterised largely by Queen Anne Revival style, meaning an eclectic mixture of English and Flemish house styles from the 17th and 18th centuries, with elements of many other styles featuring in some of the buildings. As well as domestic buildings, the Bedford Park estate has a group of public buildings, namely its church, St Michael and All Angels; a

social club A social club or social organization may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation or activity with in an organizational association known as a Club (organization), club. Exampl ...

, now the

London Buddhist Vihara The London Buddhist Vihara ( Sinhala:ලන්ඩන් බෞද්ධ විහාරය ''Landan Bauddha Viharaya'') is one of the main Theravada Buddhist temples in the United Kingdom. The Vihara was the first Sri Lankan Buddhist monastery t ...

; its inn,

The Tabard The Tabard was an inn in Southwark established in 1307, which stood on the east side of Borough High Street, at the road's intersection with the A2 road (England), ancient thoroughfare to Canterbury and Dover. It was built for the Hyde Abbey, Abb ...

, and next door its shop, the Bedford Park Stores; and its art school, now replaced by the

Arts Educational Schools Arts Educational Schools, or ArtsEd, is an independent performing arts school in Chiswick, West London, England. Overview ArtsEd provides specialist vocational training at secondary, further and higher education level in musical theatre an ...

. The garden suburb was created from 1875 over a period of some 20 years, its development by Jonathan Carr prompted by the arrival of the

District Line The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road tube station (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines), Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One br ...

Turnham Green Station Turnham Green () is a London Underground station in Chiswick of the London Borough of Hounslow, west London. The station is served by the District and Piccadilly lines in a manner of cross-platform interchange although Piccadilly line trains no ...

. Major architects involved in the early period of the creation of the estate included

Edward William Godwin Edward William Godwin (26 May 1833 – 6 October 1886) was a progressive English architect-designer, who began his career working in the strongly polychromatic "John Ruskin, Ruskinian Gothic" style of mid-Victorian Britain, inspired by ''Th ...

Richard Norman Shaw Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...

Edward John May Edward John May (1853–1941) was an English architect. Career E.J. May was the last pupil of Decimus Burton. He then went to the assist Eden Nesfield who was at the time working in partnership with Richard Norman Shaw. He entered the Royal A ...

Henry Wilson Henry Wilson (born Jeremiah Jones Colbath; February 16, 1812 – November 22, 1875) was the 18th vice president of the United States, serving from 1873 until his death in 1875, and a United States Senate, senator from Massachusetts from 1855 to ...

, and

Maurice Bingham Adams Maurice Bingham Adams FRIBA (1849–1933) was a British architect in the Arts and Crafts movement, Arts and Crafts style.Curl, J. S., & Wilson, S., (2015) ''The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture'', 3rd edn, (OUP, Oxford) Life Adams was born in ...

; later, a modernist building was contributed by C.F.A. Voysey, and another by Fritz Ruhemann and Michael Dugdale.

Historical context

The Bedford Park estate was developed by Jonathan Carr, who in 1875 bought of land in

just north of

on the

, opened in 1869. The

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

was only 30 minutes by steam train. Carr began with 24 acres of farmland, surrounded by orchards; by 1883, the development had grown to acres, with almost 500 houses. By 1915 it had become part of an integrated network of streets.

A mixture of styles

Many of the best-known architects of the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

contributed buildings in Bedford Park; two of them, E. J. May and

, chose to live on the estate. Between them, the architects contributed around 30 house designs, used repeatedly in a mix across the estate. The strong influence of

Norman Shaw Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...

's designs on the other architects has resulted in a harmoniously unified effect. Most of the houses are large, often

detached A single-family detached home, also called a single-detached dwelling, single-family residence (SFR) or separate house is a free-standing residential building. It is defined in opposition to a multi-family residential dwelling. Definitions ...

semi-detached A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single-family Duplex (building), duplex dwelling that shares one common party wall, wall with its neighbour. The name distinguishes this style of construction from detached houses, with no sh ...

, but there are some smaller terraced cottages, such as on Marlborough Crescent. Most, too, are in Queen Anne Revival style, meaning a mix of English and Flemish house styles from the 17th and 18th centuries, and sharply distinct from Victorian

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

style which recalled an earlier era, but elements of many other styles are included in some of the houses. The streets, too, have names from the time of Queen Anne (1665–1714), as for instance Addison Grove for

Joseph Addison Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 May 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was the eldest son of Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richard Steele, with w ...

(1672–1719), Newton Grove for

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...

(1642–1726), Blenheim Road for the

Battle of Blenheim The Battle of Blenheim (; ; ) fought on , was a major battle of the War of the Spanish Succession. The overwhelming Allied victory ensured the safety of Vienna from the Franco-Bavarian army, thus preventing the collapse of the reconstituted G ...

(1704), Marlborough Crescent for the

Duke of Marlborough General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 O.S.) was a British army officer and statesman. From a gentry family, he ...

, victor of that battle, Woodstock Road for the site of Marlborough's

Blenheim Palace Blenheim Palace ( ) is a country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough. Originally called Blenheim Castle, it has been known as Blenheim Palace since the 19th century. One of England's larg ...

, and Queen Anne's Gardens for the monarch herself. Characteristic features of the houses are red brick, walls hung with tiles,

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

s of varying shapes, balconies,

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. A bow window is a form of bay with a curve rather than angular facets; an oriel window is a bay window that does not touch the g ...

terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...

and rubbed brick decorations,

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

s, elaborate chimneys, and

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

s painted white. The eclectic approach is well seen in the estate church of St Michael and All Angels, where Shaw has incorporated

Arts & Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

, Georgian,

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

, Tudor, and

Wren Wrens are a family, Troglodytidae, of small brown passerine birds. The family includes 96 species and is divided into 19 genera. All species are restricted to the New World except for the Eurasian wren that is widely distributed in the Old Worl ...

styles. File:Smaller Bedford Park cottages, Marlborough Crescent.jpg, Smaller Bedford Park cottages, Marlborough Crescent File:Woodstock House, Woodstock Road.jpg,

Mock Tudor Tudor Revival architecture, also known as mock Tudor in the UK, first manifested in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture, in rea ...

style: Woodstock House, Woodstock Road

Architects

Edward William Godwin

The first architect for the estate in 1876 was

, a leading member of the

Aesthetic Movement Aestheticism (also known as the aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century that valued the appearance of literature, music, fonts and the arts over their functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be produced to b ...

, but his plans were criticised in the leading journal '' The Builder'', and Godwin and Carr parted company. Godwin's houses were in the Queen Anne Revival style, taken up by the other architects especially Shaw. The houses were thought poor, as they had steep staircases, a toilet in the same room as the bath, relatively small rooms, and narrow corridors. Only a few of his houses were built; they are taller and narrower than those built by other architects. File:The Avenue first Bedford Park houses tiled gable over bay window by E. W. Godwin 1876.jpg, The Avenue first Bedford Park houses by E. W. Godwin, 1876

Henry Coe & Stephen Robinson

For a short period from 1876, some designs were commissioned from the short-lived Scottish architectural practice of Henry Edward Coe and Stephen Robinson. These were semi-detached villas with tall chimneys and paired gables, their plans published in ''The Building News'' in February 1877. File:First houses of Bedford Park, The Avenue by Coe & Robinson paired gables 1876.jpg, Among the first houses of Bedford Park was this one with paired gables on The Avenue by Coe & Robinson, 1876

Richard Norman Shaw

Domestic buildings

In 1877 Carr hired

, the leading architect of his day, to be the estate architect. By then the layout of the Park had been set but Shaw's house designs, in the Queen Anne Revival style, gave the impression of great variety using only a few house types. Shaw built detached,

, and

terraced house A terrace, terraced house ( UK), or townhouse ( US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls. In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row ...

s in the estate. These were essentially scaled-down versions of the more expensive houses that he had designed for wealthy areas such as Chelsea,

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

, and

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

. Some of his early houses had elaborate detail such as decorative sunflower panels; his later buildings were simpler. He designed the focal buildings of the estate, the church of St Michael and All Angels and the Tabard Inn opposite it, in 1879 to 1880. He resigned the post of estate architect in 1880, tired of Carr's combination of tight requirements and delayed payments. Shaw continued to work as a consultant to the project. File:Norman Shaw's first semis, picturesque sunflower panel, corbelled bay window, The Avenue, 1878.jpg, Norman Shaw's first semi-detached houses, The Avenue, 1878 File:Norman Shaw's first semis detail, sunflower panel, corbelled bay window The Avenue 1878.jpg, Details like

sunflower The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a species of large annual forb of the daisy family Asteraceae. The common sunflower is harvested for its edible oily seeds, which are often eaten as a snack food. They are also used in the pr ...

panels and

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

led bay windows found only on Shaw's early houses File:Norman Shaw's first terrace, Woodstock Road, 1878.jpg, Norman Shaw's first

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk a ...

, Woodstock Road, 1878

Community buildings

Shaw provided the estate's focus with his community buildings, again in Queen Anne Revival style. Carr's intention was to create a functioning community by providing places for estate residents to socialise, worship, and drink together, and to shop locally for groceries; there was also a school of art, designed by the

Arts and Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

architect

. An early building was the Bedford Park Club on The Avenue, setting the tone with its red brick and domestic style. The interior, now extensively reworked, was by E. J. May. The building now serves as the

. He designed a single block with matching heights but varying architectural details to contain the Stores, a manager's house, and the "Hostelry", now

pub downstairs and the

Chiswick Playhouse The Tabard Theatre is a small 96-seat theatre in Chiswick in the London Borough of Hounslow. Close to Turnham Green Underground station, it is situated above the Tabard public house on Bath Road. The Tabard Theatre was licensed and opened for t ...

theatre upstairs. This was influential in the design of later suburbs. His sources of inspiration for The Tabard were most likely

Staple Inn Staple Inn is a part-Tudor period, Tudor building on the south side of High Holborn street in the City of London, London, England. Located near Chancery Lane tube station, it is used as the London venue for meetings of the Institute and Faculty ...

, Holborn, which similarly has seven gables, and Sparrowe's House, Ipswich, which has projecting bays. Shaw built St Michael and All Angels Church in a similar style to his Bedford Park houses, with domestic features from seventeenth and eighteenth century properties. This was an unusual choice for an ecclesiastical building, though he incorporated a measure of

Perpendicular Gothic Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-ce ...

alongside the Queen Anne style red brick, white woodwork, and dormer windows. The church was consecrated in 1880., based on File:London Buddhist Vihara, London, UK.jpg, The estate social club on The Avenue by

, 1878 File:Plans for Bedford Park Club by Norman Shaw 1878.jpg, Shaw's 1878 plans for Bedford Park Club, with two

billiard room A billiard room (also billiards room, or more specifically pool room, snooker room) is a recreation room, such as in a house or recreation center, with a billiards, pool or snooker table (The term "billiard room" or "pool room" may also be use ...

s The Tabard pub Chiswick735.JPG, The estate inn,

by Shaw, Bath Road, 1879 File:Norman Shaw's plan for Bedford Park Stores and Hostelry 1879.jpg, Shaw's plan for Bedford Park Stores and Hostelry 1880 File:Bedford Park Stores (and Tabard) corner view.jpg, The estate shop, the Bedford Park Stores (with a private house and The Tabard), all by Shaw, 1880 File:St Michael and All Angels.jpg, The estate church of St Michael and All Angels by Shaw, 1880 File:St Michael and All Angels by Norman Shaw Building News 1879.jpg, Shaw's St Michael and All Angels, drawn by

for ''Building News'', 1879 File:Chiswick School of Art, Bath Road, 1881.jpg, Design for

Chiswick School of Art The Chiswick School of Art, sometimes called the Chiswick School of Art and Science, was an art school in Bath Road, Bedford Park, London, from 1881 until 1899, which was then merged into the Acton and Chiswick Polytechnic. In 1928, it became the ...

, 1881

E. J. May

In 1880, E. J. May took over as Estate architect, adding Priory Gardens and some houses in Addison Grove and Queen Anne's Grove; he lived in no. 6 Queen Anne's Grove during the 1880s. Priory House is used as the Chiswick and Bedford Park Preparatory School. May built a terrace in Marlborough Crescent, and many of the houses on The Orchard. File:Priory House, Priory Gardens by E. J. May 1882.jpg, Priory House, Priory Gardens by E. J. May, 1882 File:Terrace by E. J. May shaped gables Marlborough Crescent 1880s.jpg, Terrace with shaped gables, Marlborough Crescent, 1880s

Henry Wilson

designed only a few houses, in Bedford Park or elsewhere; he worked mainly on ecclesiastical buildings. He appears to have been the architect of two houses in Queen Anne's Gardens, including no. 7 for the artist T. M. Rooke. It is unusual for Bedford Park in having a large garden, and in being set far back from the road amidst its lawns. File:7 Queen Anne's Gardens by Henry Marriott Paget 1882.jpg, 7 Queen Anne's Gardens, probably by

for the watercolourist T. M. Rooke. Painting by Henry Marriott Paget, 1882

Maurice Bingham Adams

The

arts and crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

architect

built nos. 12 to 14 Newton Grove for the painter and illustrator

John Charles Dollman John Charles Dollman RWS RI ROI (6 May 1851 – 11 December 1934) was an English painter and illustrator. Life Dollman was born in Hove on 6 May 1851 and moved to London to study at South Kensington and the Royal Academy Schools, after wh ...

in 1880, with a studio on the first floor. No. 12 later became the home of the architect Thomas Affleck Greeves, co-founder of the Bedford Park Society; the building is marked as historic with a Bedford Park green plaque. He designed the Chiswick School of Art on Bath Road in 1881, destroyed by a

V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb ( "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () name was Fieseler Fi 103 and its suggestive name was (hellhound). It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug a ...

in 1944, and replaced on the same site by the

. The school was meant to provide the estate with a feeling of community. Adams designed the parish hall and north aisle extension to the estate church of St Michael and All Angels in 1887. File:Maurice Bingham Adams houses on Newton Grove for JC Dollman 1880.jpg,

houses on Newton Grove for

, 1880 File:Church Hall St Michael and All Angels Bedford Park.jpg,

Church hall A church hall or parish hall is a room or building associated with a church, generally for community and charitable use. In smaller and village communities, it is often a separate building near the church, while on more restricted urban sites ...

and north aisle extension to Shaw's St Michael and All Angels, 1887 File:Chiswick School of Art, Bath Road, 1881.jpg, Design for Chiswick School of Art, Bath Road, 1881

C.F.A. Voysey

Carr's company collapsed in 1886, and the remaining house-plots were sold piecemeal to other developers; houses went on being built by a variety of architects on the estate until 1914. The architect and furniture and textile designer C.F.A. Voysey created a distinctive building at no. 14, South Parade, facing Acton Green common, in 1891. It is a tower house with the top floor given over entirely to a studio for his client, the artist and author J. W. Forster. The house is covered in roughcast, and has metal-framed windows with stone dressings. The eaves of the roof project conspicuously and are supported by thin metal brackets. Pevsner comments that the house was clearly intended to oppose the suburb's "red brick cosiness". Voysey added the side extension in 1894. It was Grade II* listed in 1970, with the comment "Of greatest historical importance". The literary critic Ian Fletcher called it "the most remarkable of Bedford Park's houses". File:Artist's cottage by Voysey, South Parade, Bedford Park.jpeg, Artist's cottage by C.F.A. Voysey, 14 South Parade

Fritz Ruhemann and Michael Dugdale

No. 2 South Parade is a low

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

house, built 1938–1939 by the German architect Friedrich "Fritz" Abraham Ruhemann and the

Tecton Group The Tecton Group was a radical architectural group co-founded by Berthold Lubetkin, Francis Skinner, Denys Lasdun, Michael Dugdale, Anthony Chitty, Val Harding, Godfrey Samuel, and Lindsay Drake in 1932 and disbanded in 1939. The group was one ...

architect Michael Dugdale for Leo Neumann, like Ruhemann a recent immigrant from Nazi Germany. It has a flat roof and a spacious terrace on the first floor with a curving sun roof and a matching flat-topped curved concrete entrance porch. The house is constructed of yellowish-red brick and concrete with an open-plan interior. It was Grade II listed in 1991, with the comment that "The house and its fittings are a remarkable survival of a compact house reliant for its convenience on well-designed fitted furniture". File:No 2 South Parade by Fritz Ruhemann and Michael Dugdale 1938-9.jpg, No 2 South Parade by Fritz Ruhemann and Michael Dugdale 1938-1939 File:No 2 South Parade entrance and roof terrace.jpg, No 2 South Parade,

entrance with curved concrete porch and curved roof terrace

References

{{Chiswick Bedford Park Chiswick