Gainsborough Gardens is a private road in

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 ...

, in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and St ...

. The road is arranged in an oval crescent around a central garden. It was laid out towards the end of the nineteenth century and influenced by the Bedford Park development in south west London. Many of its houses are grade II listed with Historic England. Notable former residents include the songwriter Gary Osborne, the historian Bernard M. Allen, and author John le Carré.

History

It was laid out on land that belonged to the Wells and Campden Charity Trust overseen by H.S. Legg, the surveyor of the trust between 1882 and 1895. The creation and aesthetics of Gainsborough Gardens was influenced by the Bedford Park development in Chiswick, in south west London. In 1934 ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' stated that the residents of Gainsborough Gardens "...enjoy privacy and quietude as there are gates and lodges, and few, except an occasional visitor out of curiosity, enter the gardens unless to call at one of the houses". It is protected under the London Squares Preservation Act 1931. In 1888 the annual rental income of a house on Gainsborough Gardens was estimated to be £300 (). A 2 bedroom garden flat on Gainsborough Gardens was available to rent for £125 a week in 1981 (). A detached 5 bedroom house on Gainsborough Gardens was offered for sale for £1 million in 1990 (). The average price of a house in Gainsborough Gardens was £7 million in 2019.

Garden

The

communal garden A communal garden (often used in the plural as communal gardens) is a (normally formal) garden for shared use by a number of local residents, typically in an urban setting. The term is especially used in the United Kingdom. The centre of many cit ...

at the centre of the development is in size and was the site of a bowling green and ornamental pond in former pleasure gardens. The garden has been opened to the public on 17 occasions as part of the Open Garden Squares Weekend organised by the London Parks & Gardens Trust. File:Gainsborough Gardens, June 2021 13.jpg, File:Gainsborough Gardens, June 2021 16.jpg, The communal garden in June 2021 File:Gainsborough Gardens, June 2021 06.jpg,

Architecture

Nos. 5, 6, 9a and 14 are individually listed Grade II on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

(NHLE). Nos. 3 and 4, 7 and 8, 9 and 10, and 11, 12, and 13 are listed in their respective groups. Nos. 11, 12, 13 were designed and developed in 1893 by the influential Queen Anne revival architect

Horace Field Horace Field was a London-born architect. His work was often in a Wrenaissance style, as well as other post-gothic English historical revival styles, with influences from the Arts and Crafts movement and Richard Norman Shaw. His commissions incl ...

as a speculation, in part funded by his stepmother, Alicia Field, for whom he also designed "The Small House", No.14. 9a, known as 'Eirene Cottage' was designed by Elijah Hoole for C.E. Maurice and his wife and was completed in 1891. The National Heritage List for England praises its "high-quality design in the Vernacular Revival mode". Maurice was married to the sister of

Octavia Hill Octavia Hill (3 December 1838 – 13 August 1912) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, whose main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Born into a fa ...

, the founder of the National Trust. Hoole's designs for Hill are remiscent of his design for 9a including his model cottages in Ranston Street in Marylebone and in Redcross and Whitecross Gardens in Southwark. 9a is noted for its distinctive sgraffito frieze of roundels in a cinquefoil design, above this, its name of 'Eirene Cottage' is inscribed. The former stables to No. 6 is now known as the Cottage on the Heath and is Grade II listed. It was designed by Legg and built in 1885. The NHLE listing describes the cottage as occupying "a prominent, bastion-like position in Gainsborough Gardens". The lodge building to Gainsborough Crescent at the entrance to Well Walk was built in 1886 by Legg for the gardener of the crescent. It is listed Grade II. The semi-detached pair of No. 3 and 4 was the first completed building in Gainsborough Gardens, they were completed in 1884 and designed by

E.J. 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 ...

. No. 4 featured in the 1970 film '' The Railway Children'' as the location of the family home before the children's move to Yorkshire.

Notable residents

9a, 'Eirene Cottage', was the home of C.E. Maurice, the husband of the sister of

. Hill was the founder of the National Trust and a pioneer of conservation. Maurice helped preserve Parliament Hill Fields and limit the expansion of construction onto nearby

Hampstead Heath Hampstead Heath (locally known simply as the Heath) is an ancient heath in London, spanning . This grassy public space sits astride a sandy ridge, one of the highest points in London, running from Hampstead to Highgate, which rests on a band o ...

while living at 9a. The family of songwriter Gary Osborne lived in Gainsborough Gardens in the late 1960s. The women's suffrage campaigner Elizabeth Knight lived at No. 7 in 1933. The historian Bernard M. Allen moved to "The Small House", No. 14, in Gainsborough Gardens in 1904. The Labour MP Arthur Greenwood lived at No. 8 in the 1950s. The former Governor of Northern Nigeria, George Sinclair Browne, died at his residence in Gainsborough Gardens in 1946.

Archibald Chisholm Archibald Hugh Tennent Chisholm, (August 17, 1902November 22, 1992) was a British oil executive and journalist who was editor of ''The Financial Times'' between 1937 and 1940. Early life Chisholm was born in 1902, his father was Hugh Chisholm, th ...

, the oil executive and former editor of the '' Financial Times'', lived at No. 4 in the 1940s. The author John le Carré lived at No. 9 from January 1980 until his death alongside his homes in Tregiffian in Cornwall and Wengen in Switzerland.

Gallery

File:3 Gainsborough Gardens, June 2021.jpg, No. 3 File:6 Gainsborough Gardens, June 2021 1.jpg, The side profile of No. 6 File:6 Gainsborough Gardens, June 2021 2.jpg, No. 6 File:The Lodge, Gainsborough Gardens, June 2021 01.jpg, The Lodge to Gainsborough Gardens File:7 Gainsborough Gardens, Hampstead, June 2021.jpg, No. 7 File:8 Gainsborough Gardens, Hampstead, June 2021.jpg, No. 8 File:The Cottage on the Heath, Gainsborough Gardens, Hampstead, June 2021 (2).jpg, The 'Cottage on the Heath' at the Heathside entrance to Gainsborough Gardens File:Gainsborough Gardens, June 2021 08.jpg, 'The Small House', No. 14 File:Gainsborough Gardens, June 2021 10.jpg, No. 11, 12 and 13 File:Gainsborough Gardens, June 2021 11.jpg, 'Eirene Cottage', No. 9a File:Gainsborough Gardens, June 2021 19.jpg, Nos. 9 and 10 File:5 Gainsborough Gardens, Hampstead, June 2021.jpg, No. 5

References

{{Commons, Gainsborough Gardens 1882 establishments in England 1882 in London Communal gardens Grade II listed houses in the London Borough of Camden Houses completed in 1895 Houses in Hampstead Streets in the London Borough of Camden