School of Art, Stores and Tabard Inn by Thomas Erat Harrison 1882

The architecture of Bedford Park in

Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Full ...

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: North London ...

, 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 may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation, or activity. Examples include: book discussion clubs, chess clubs, anime clubs, country clubs, charity work, criminal ...

, 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 to ...

; its inn,

The Tabard The Tabard was an inn in Southwark established in 1307 that stood on the east side of Borough High Street, at the road's intersection with the ancient thoroughfare to Canterbury and Dover. It was built for the Abbot of Hyde, who purchased the l ...

, and next door its shop, the Bedford Park Stores; and its art school, now replaced by the Arts Educational Schools. 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 in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One branch runs to in south-west London and a short branch, with a limited servic ...

at Turnham Green Station. Major architects involved in the early period of the creation of the estate included

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

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,

Henry Wilson Henry Wilson (born Jeremiah Jones Colbath; February 16, 1812 – November 22, 1875) was an American politician who was the 18th vice president of the United States from 1873 until his death in 1875 and a 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 1 ...

; later, a modernist building was contributed by

C.F.A. Voysey Charles Francis Annesley Voysey (28 May 1857 – 12 February 1941) was an English architect and furniture and textile designer. Voysey's early work was as a designer of wallpapers, fabrics and furnishings in a Arts and Crafts style and he ma ...

, 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 Turnham Green Station on the

, opened in 1869. The

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

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 period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

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 stand-alone house (also called a single-detached dwelling, detached residence or detached house) is a free-standing residential building. It is sometimes referred to as a single-family home, as opposed to a multi-family residential dwelli ...

semi-detached A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single family duplex dwelling house that shares one common wall with the next house. The name distinguishes this style of house from detached houses, with no shared walls, and terraced house ...

, 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, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

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 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richard S ...

(1672–1719), Newton Grove for

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...

(1642–1726), Blenheim Road for the

Battle of Blenheim The Battle of Blenheim (german: Zweite Schlacht bei Höchstädt, link=no; french: Bataille de Höchstädt, link=no; nl, Slag bij Blenheim, link=no) fought on , was a major battle of the War of the Spanish Succession. The overwhelming Allied v ...

(1704), Marlborough Crescent for the

Duke of Marlborough General (United Kingdom), 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 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was an Engl ...

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

Blenheim Palace Blenheim Palace (pronounced ) is a country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough and the only non-royal, non- episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, on ...

, 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. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or r ...

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

and rubbed brick decorations,

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

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 con ...

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,

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

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

, Tudor, and

Wren Wrens are a family of brown passerine birds in the predominantly New World family Troglodytidae. The family includes 88 species divided into 19 genera. Only the Eurasian wren occurs in the Old World, where, in Anglophone regions, it is commonly ...

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 itself 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 ...

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 the Aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century which privileged the aesthetic value of literature, music and the arts over their socio-political functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be prod ...

, but his plans were criticised in the leading journal ''

The Builder ''Building'' is one of the United Kingdom's oldest business-to-business magazines, launched as ''The Builder'' in 1843 by Joseph Aloysius Hansom – architect of Birmingham Town Hall and designer of the Hansom Cab. The journal was renamed ''Bu ...

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

, 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 In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

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 Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

, and

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, 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 b ...

. 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 large annual forb of the genus ''Helianthus'' grown as a crop for its edible oily seeds. Apart from cooking oil production, it is also used as livestock forage (as a meal or a silage plant), as ...

panels and

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

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 A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

architect

. An early building was the

Bedford Park Club 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 ...

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 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 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 of Actuaries ...

, 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-c ...

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

, 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 us ...

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 Ch ...

, 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 A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

architect

built nos. 12 to 14 Newton Grove for the painter and illustrator John Charles Dollman 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 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany), Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buz ...

in 1944, and replaced on the same site by the Arts Educational Schools. 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 John Charles Dollman, 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.

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

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

, 14 South Parade

Fritz Ruhemann and Michael Dugdale

No. 2 South Parade is a low

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

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 (architect), Francis Skinner, Denys Lasdun, Michael Dugdale, Anthony Chitty, Val Harding, Godfrey Samuel, and Lindsay Drake in 1932 and disbanded ...

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