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Bedford Park is a suburban development 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 F ...
,
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, begun in 1875 under the direction of Jonathan Carr, with many large houses in
British Queen Anne Revival British Queen Anne Revival architecture, also known as Domestic Revival, is a style of building using red brick, white woodwork, and an eclectic mixture of decorative features, that became popular in the 1870s, both for houses and for larger bui ...
style by Norman Shaw and other leading
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 Edwa ...
architects including Edward William Godwin, 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 ...
, and Maurice Bingham Adams. Its architecture is characterised by red brick with an eclectic mixture of features, such as tile-hung walls,
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 aest ...
s in 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 ...
s,
terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terra ...
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 pedim ...
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 c ...
s painted white. The estate's main roads converge on its public buildings, namely its church, St Michael and All Angels; its club, now the London Buddhist Vihara; its inn, The Tabard, and next door its shop, the Bedford Park Stores; and its Chiswick School of Art, now replaced by the
Arts Educational Schools Arts Educational Schools, or ArtsEd, is an independent performing arts school based in Chiswick in the London Borough of Hounslow. Overview ArtsEd provides specialist vocational training at secondary, further and higher education level in ...
. Bedford Park has been described as the world's first garden suburb, creating a model of apparent informality emulated around the world. It became extremely fashionable in the 1880s, attracting artists including the poet and dramatist
W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
, the actor William Terriss, the actress Florence Farr, the playwright
Arthur Wing Pinero Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (24 May 185523 November 1934) was an English playwright and, early in his career, actor. Pinero was drawn to the theatre from an early age, and became a professional actor at the age of 19. He gained experience as a supp ...
and the painter
Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). ...
to live on the estate. It appeared in the works of G. K. Chesterton and
John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career ...
, and was gently mocked in the '' St James's Gazette''. The development is protected by a
conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
in the London Borough of Ealing, and a smaller one in the London Borough of Hounslow. Over 350 of its buildings are
Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...
; the church and the inn are Grade II*. The historian of London Stephen Inwood calls it probably the best garden suburb in London.


Garden suburb


Development

Bedford Park's developer was Jonathan Carr, who in 1875 bought of land just north of Turnham Green Station on the District Line, 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 f ...
was only 30 minutes by steam train. The area included three existing Georgian houses: Bedford House (now on The Avenue) for which the new estate was named; Melbourne House, set back from South Parade; and Sidney House, which stood between The Avenue and Woodstock Road, and was replaced by a block of flats in the 1890s. File:Bedford House, The Avenue, Bedford Park with John Lindley blue plaque.jpg, Bedford House, The Avenue, is an 18th-century house, lending its name to the estate which grew up around it. File:Melbourne House, South Parade.jpg, Melbourne House, South Parade was one of the few other existing houses on the estate. The area covered by the estate's housing grew, and neighbouring areas were also developed. By 1883, Carr's 24 acres had become acres, with almost 500 houses. By 1915 Bedford Park stretched from Esmond Road in the west to Abinger Road in the east, and from Flanders Road in the south to Fielding Road in the north; and where the estate had in 1877 been bordered by orchards and farmland, it had become part of an integrated network of streets.


Estate plan

File:Maurice B. Adams map of Bedford Park 1897.jpg, The architect Maurice Bingham Adams's map of Bedford Park, 1897 File:Focus of Bedford Park Garden Suburb.svg, Locations of community buildings. The development was enabled by the arrival of the District Line in 1869. The plan of the estate was of three main roads, namely The Avenue from the north, Woodstock Road from the northeast, and Bath Road from the east, which converged on the focal area with the new church, St Michael and All Angels, the new inn, The Tabard, its next-door neighbour the Bedford Park Stores, and an art school a little further up Bath Road. There was a club house, meant to be the social centre of the estate, on The Avenue, now much modified as the London Buddhist Vihara. The area at the western end of Bath road was intended to be the centre of a village-like complex. File:The Church, Tabard Inn and Stores from Acton Green by Edward Hargitt 1882.jpg, The Church, Tabard Inn and Stores from Acton Green by
Edward Hargitt Edward Hargitt (3 May 1835 – 19 March 1895) was a Scottish ornithologist and landscape painter. Biography Edward Hargitt was born in Edinburgh, son of the composer Charles Hargitt. He studied art in the Royal Scottish Academy under Robert S ...
, 1882 File:School of Art, Stores and Tabard Inn by Thomas Erat Harrison 1882.jpg, School of Art, Stores and Tabard Inn by Thomas Erat Harrison, 1882


Community buildings

The architect Norman Shaw set the style for the suburb with his early houses, and provided its focus with the community buildings. He designed the Stores, a private house, and the "Hostelry" as a single block with matching heights but varying architectural details. He designed the estate church, St Michael and All Angels, in a similar Queen Anne Revival style to his Bedford Park houses, an unusual choice for an ecclesiastical building, though incorporating 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 ...
. The School of Art was designed by Maurice Bingham Adams. The school was meant to provide the estate with a feeling of community. It taught classes such as "Freehand drawing in all its branches, practical Geometry and perspective, pottery and tile painting, design for decorative purposes – as in Wall-papers, Furniture, Metalwork, Stained Glass". File:London Buddhist Vihara, London, UK.jpg, The estate club on The Avenue by Norman Shaw, 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 us ...
s The Tabard pub Chiswick735.JPG, The estate inn, The Tabard 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 Maurice Adams for ''Building News'', 1879 File:Chiswick School of Art, Bath Road, 1881.jpg, Design for Chiswick School of Art, Bath Road by Maurice Bingham Adams, 1881


Informality

A major feature of Bedford Park is its apparently informal plan. One suggestion is that this derived from a desire to protect the estate's fine trees, the smaller streets incorporating bends to allow the favoured mature trees to remain. This is denied by the local historian David Budworth, who writes that the roads followed plot boundaries, which were marked by trees, though he accepts that avoiding trees influenced the siting of some houses. The historian Stephen Inwood writes that the plan was to look unplanned, without squares, without formal crescents, and almost without right angles; the bending streets could be village lanes, just as the houses give the illusion of being country cottages. Budworth however traces the origins of the bends in each road, finding practical explanations: Woodstock Road takes its lines from the eastern edge of Carr's 24-acre purchase; a track, with bend, already existed by 1875; and the bends in Queen Anne's Gardens may, he writes, have been introduced to allow best use to be made of the trapezoidal area delineated by The Avenue, Blenheim Road, Woodstock Road, and Bedford Road. The ''Bedford Park Gazette'' of July 1883 quoted a report from the ''Daily News'' to the effect that the estate's roads were made "with cunning carelessness to curve in such wise as never to leave the eye to stare at nothing... he streetsform a succession of views as if the architect had taken a hint from Nature". Visitors admired the country feeling of the suburb, rather than the assemblage of buildings; the essayist Ian Fletcher comments that it was '' rus in urbe'', the countryside in the city, noting that in the 1880s and '90s, nightingales were reported to sing in the gardens. The informality attracted intellectuals and artists; some twenty houses incorporated studios for artists to work in. A result was a reputation for being aesthetic and arty. File:Zigzag in Queen Anne's Gardens, Bedford Park.jpg, Double bend in Queen Anne's Gardens File:Leafy Bedford Road.jpg, Bedford Park was by intention a pleasant leafy place to live. This view is on Bedford Road. File:Joseph Nash's studio with 1879 cartouche Blenheim Road on Norman Shaw corner house.jpg, Joseph Nash Jr.'s
studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...
with 1879 cartouche, Blenheim Road, on Norman Shaw corner house


Architecture

Many of the best-known architects of the Victorian era contributed buildings in a mixture of styles in Bedford Park; two of them, E. J. May and Maurice Adams, chose to live on the estate. Major architects involved in the early period of the creation of the estate included Edward William Godwin,
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 ...
, 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 ...
, and Maurice Bingham Adams; later, a modernist building was contributed by C.F.A. Voysey, and another by Fritz Ruhemann and Michael Dugdale. Most of the houses are large, often detached or
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 hous ...
, but there are some smaller terraced cottages, such as on Marlborough Crescent. Most, too, are in
British Queen Anne Revival British Queen Anne Revival architecture, also known as Domestic Revival, is a style of building using red brick, white woodwork, and an eclectic mixture of decorative features, that became popular in the 1870s, both for houses and for larger bui ...
style, meaning a mix of English and Flemish house styles from the 17th and 18th centuries, 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 Richar ...
(1672–1719), Newton Grove for
Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, Theology, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosophy, natural philosopher"), widely ...
(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 ...
(1704), Marlborough Crescent for the Duke of Marlborough, 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, ...
, 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 aest ...
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 ...
s,
terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terra ...
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 pedim ...
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 c ...
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,
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 period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, 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 commonl ...
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


Industry

The area has always been residential, but in Flanders Road, near the railway line, the 1897 Bedford Park Works was home to a
coachbuilder A coachbuilder or body-maker is someone who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles.Construction has always been a skilled trade requiring a relatively lightweight product with sufficient strength. The manufacture of necessarily ...
, H. J. Mulliner & Co.; the neighbouring Bedford Park Stores building was used as its showroom. The long-established firm increasingly specialised in coachwork for luxury Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars. It was taken over by Rolls-Royce in 1959; the site is occupied by an office block, Mulliner House.


Promotion

Carr commissioned the artist F. Hamilton Jackson to create a set of nine
lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
s to publicise his Bedford Park development, including one, picturing St Michael and All Angels church, described as iconic, claiming that the suburb was "the healthiest place in the world". The development was promoted to people who had a moderate income but who had "aesthetic sensibilities". The promotion mentioned "A Garden and a Bath Room with Hot and Cold water to every house, whatever its size", and "A Kindergarten and good Cheap Day Schools on the Estate, and a School of Art. Also Church, Club (for Ladies & Gentlemen), Stores, 'The Tabard Inn', Tennis Courts, &c."


Impact


Fashion

Living in Bedford Park, with its church, parish hall, club, shops, pub and school of art, became the height of fashion in the 1880s.
W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
, the actor William Terriss, the actress Florence Farr, the playwright
Arthur Wing Pinero Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (24 May 185523 November 1934) was an English playwright and, early in his career, actor. Pinero was drawn to the theatre from an early age, and became a professional actor at the age of 19. He gained experience as a supp ...
and the painter
Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). ...
lived here. Pissarro made five paintings of the estate among his London works. Living there was felt to signify some connection with aestheticism. Nine painters contributed works to an 1882 illustrated book, ''Bedford Park'', celebrating the suburb. Bedford Park is Saffron Park in G. K. Chesterton's '' The Man Who Was Thursday'' and Biggleswick in
John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career ...
's '' Mr Standfast''. ''The Man Who Was Thursday'' begins: Fletcher wrote that Chesterton knew the suburb well, having met his future wife there; his depiction of it was "somewhat fantastic, somewhat inaccurate", as he liked to dramatise people, but his depiction was one of many, portraying Bedford Park as "Arcadian, Aesthetic, Bohemian; as ... a romantic Socialist Co-operative". Its residents were "artists, poets, academics, journalists, actors" and educated professionals, all self-conscious and articulate. File:A Garden in Bedford Park by F. Hamilton Jackson.jpg, A garden in Queen Anne's Grove by
Frederick Hamilton Jackson Frederick Hamilton Jackson (1848–1923), also known as Frank, was a painter, designer, and author. He was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy and in other places. Biography F. Hamilton Jackson was born in 1848 in Islington, London. He ...
, 1882 File:7 Queen Anne's Gardens by Thomas Matthews Rooke.jpg, 7 Queen Anne's Gardens
by T. M. Rooke, 1882
File:Newton Grove by Joseph Nash Jr 1882.jpg, Newton Grove by Joseph Nash Jr, 1882 File:The Avenue by John Charles Dollman 1882.jpg, The Avenue by
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 ...
, 1882 File:Bath Road looking east by Berry F. Berry 1882.jpg, Bath Road looking east by Berry F. Berry, 1882 File:Bath Road, London by Camille Pissarro.jpg, Bath Road by the
Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passag ...
Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). ...
, 1897
So fashionable did the suburb become that Bedford Park came in for some gentle ribbing in the '' St James's Gazette'' of 17 December 1881 in the lengthy "Ballad of Bedford Park", with verses such as Fletcher commented that the ballad "sounds like a malicious insider: dubious drains, Aestheticism, agnosticism, speculative building, are all present". By 1888, the area's fashionability may have been declining; a piece by a Miss M. Nicolle in
Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
's ''
The Woman's World ''The Woman's World'' was a Victorian women's magazine published by Cassell between 1886 and 1890, edited by Oscar Wilde between 1887 and 1889, and by Ella Hepworth Dixon from 1888. Foundation In the late nineteenth century, the market for peri ...
'' magazine stated that "five or six years ago, Bedford Park was supposed to be the Mecca of Aestheticism... Much has happened since then. Bedford Park is no longer aesthetic (if indeed it ever was so) and the appreciation of Japanese art-wares has long ceased to be confined within its narrow bounds."


Significance

Bedford Park has been described as the world's first garden suburb. Although it was not built in the co-operative manner like some later developments (
Brentham Garden Suburb Brentham Garden Suburb near Pitshanger in Ealing was the first garden suburb in London to be built in co-partnership housing movement principles, predating the larger and better-known Hampstead Garden Suburb by some years. It was mostly built be ...
, Hampstead Garden Suburb), it created a model that was emulated not just by the Garden city movement, but by suburban developments around the world. Sir John Betjeman called Bedford Park "the most significant suburb built in the last century, probably in the western world". Herman Muthesius, the German author of the 1904 book ''The English House'', commented that "It signifies neither more nor less than the starting point of the smaller modern house, which spread from there over the whole country". The historian of London Stephen Inwood writes that it "looks and feels like a true garden suburb, probably the best in London". John J. Duffy, reviewing Ian Fletcher's essay "Bedford Park: Aesthete's Elysium?", calls Bedford Park "timidly self-conscious and physically ill-constructed", and "that imaginary museum in the London suburbs where inhabitants tried to break down the limits between art and life by time-travelling in the historically self-conscious architecture of their homes". He writes that Fletcher suggests that such a project would have required "a firmer base than a genteel Bohemianism and the
omphalos An omphalos is a religious stone artifact, or baetylus. In Ancient Greek, the word () means "navel". Among the Ancient Greeks, it was a widespread belief that Delphi was the center of the world. According to the myths regarding the founding of ...
of the District Railway linking it to time-conscious London". Chesterton mocked the red-brick suburb with its "manufactured quaintness ... model cottages ... and arty-crafty shops", writing "Match me this marvel save where aesthetes are, A rose-red suburb half as old as Carr", a
parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...
of a famous couplet from J. W. Burgon's 1845 poem ''Petra'' about an ancient Middle Eastern city: "Match me such marvel save in Eastern clime, A rose-red city half as old as time". The popular press, like the architectural journals, admired the development. ''
The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News The ''Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News'' was a British weekly magazine founded in 1874 and published in London. In 1945 it changed its name to the ''Sport and Country'', and in 1957 to the ''Farm and Country'', before closing in 1970. His ...
'' commented in 1879 that "There is no attempt to conceal with false fronts, or stucco ornament or unmeaning balustrades ... everything is simple, honest, unpretending", and "There is an old-world air about the place despite its newness, a strong touch of Dutch homeliness, with an air of English comfort and luxuriousness, but not a bit of the showy, artificial French stuffs which prevailed in our homes when Queen Anne was on the throne".


Protection: The Bedford Park Society

Despite their creation by well-known architects, buildings in the suburb, especially the larger houses to the west with large gardens, have been demolished by developers to make way for blocks of flats. Among these was Carr's own property, Tower House on Bedford Road. Shaw designed it for him in 1878; it had 16 rooms, and its grounds were large enough to include both tennis and badminton courts. It served as St Catherine's Convent from 1908 to 1933, when it was replaced by St Catherine's Court. The Bedford Park Society, a
registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...
, was formed in 1963 by the local activist Harry Taylor and the architect Tom Greeves. Their concerns were united by the demolition of another Shaw house, The Bramptons on Bedford Road, to make way for a flat-roofed old people's home. The poet
John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture ...
, a founder of the Victorian Society, became its first patron. A breakthrough for the society came in 1967 when 356 of Bedford Park's houses were individually
Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...
; this unprecedented move was seen to be necessary to protect the suburb, as
conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
s did not then exist in Britain. In 1969, with the law updated, the London Borough of Ealing made Bedford Park a conservation area; in 1970, the London Borough of Hounslow followed suit for its part of the suburb.


Notable residents

Before the estate was developed,
John Lindley John Lindley FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidologist. Early years Born in Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four children of George and Mary Lindley. George Lindley w ...
(1799–1865), botanist, lived at Bedford House, The Avenue, marked with a blue plaque. ; Born in the 19th century * Hubert Willis (1862–1933),
silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
actor, lived at 39 Marlborough Crescent. *
W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
(1865–1939), poet, and his brother
Jack Butler Yeats Jack Butler Yeats RHA (29 August 1871 – 28 March 1957) was an Irish artist and Olympic medalist. W. B. Yeats was his brother. Butler's early style was that of an illustrator; he only began to work regularly in oils in 1906. His early pic ...
lived at 3 Blenheim Road, marked with a Bedford Park Society plaque. * Sir
Sydney Cockerell Sydney Carlyle Cockerell (16 July 1867 – 1 May 1962) was an English museum curator and collector. From 1908 to 1937, he was director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England. Biography Sydney Cockerell made his way initially as clerk ...
(1867–1962),
Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th V ...
curator, arts collector, lived at 51 Woodstock Road, 5 Priory Gardens, and 3 Fairfax Road. * Harold Hume Piffard (1867–1939), artist, illustrator, and early aviator, lived at 18 Addison Road. * Cecil Aldin (1870–1935), animal painter, lived at 47 Priory Avenue (then numbered 41). *
Karl Parsons Karl Bergemann Parsons (23 January 1884 – 30 September 1934) was a British stained glass artist associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. Early life, 1884 – 1898 Parsons was born in Peckham in south London on 23 January 1884, the 12th ...
(1884–1934), stained glass artist, lived at 38 Gainsborough Road. ; Born in the 20th century *
Jo Grimond Joseph Grimond, Baron Grimond, (; 29 July 1913 – 24 October 1993), known as Jo Grimond, was a British politician, leader of the Liberal Party for eleven years from 1956 to 1967 and again briefly on an interim basis in 1976. Grimond was a lo ...
(1913–1993), Liberal politician, lived at 24 Priory Avenue. *
Alec Dickson Dr Alexander Graeme Dickson CBE (23 May 1914 – 23 September 1994) was the founder of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). Dickson graduated from Oxford University in 1935 and worked as a foreign correspondent in Central Europe during the rise of H ...
(1914–1994) and his wife Mora, who founded Voluntary Service Overseas and Community Service Volunteers, lived at 19 Blenheim Road, marked by a Bedford Park Society plaque. * Michael Flanders (1922–1975), entertainer, lived at 63 Esmond Road, marked by an Ealing Civic Society green plaque. *
Blake Butler John David Blake Butler (22 October 1924 – 15 April 1981) was an English actor best known for his role as the lecherous chief librarian Mr. Wainwright during the first and third series of ''Last of the Summer Wine'' in 1973 and 1976 res ...
(1924–1981), actor, lived at 33 Bath Road. * Richard Briers (1934–2013), sitcom actor, lived and died at 6 The Orchard. * Fenja Anderson (1941–2020) of 33 Abinger Road painted four watercolours of Bedford Park streets; these now hang in St Michael and All Angels Church.


References


Further reading

* Binns, Sheila (2013). ''The Aesthetics of Utopia: Saltaire, Akroydon and Bedford Park'', Spire Books. * Budworth, David W (2012). ''Jonathan Carr's Bedford Park'', The Bedford Park Society. * Girouard, Mark (1977). ''Sweetness and Light: The "Queen Anne" Movement, 1860–1900'',
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
. * Greeves, Tom (revised edition 2010). ''Bedford Park: the first Garden Suburb'', Wordsearch Communications. 95pp.


External links


The Bedford Park SocietyBedford Park Residents Association
{{Authority control Areas of London Conservation areas in London Districts of the London Borough of Ealing Districts of the London Borough of Hounslow Garden suburbs Places formerly in Middlesex