![R H Tawney and Haydn Wood plaques in London](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/R_H_Tawney_and_Haydn_Wood_plaques_in_London.jpg)
Lissenden Gardens is a small inner urban area in north London 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 ...
at the very south east of
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 ...
.
History
Lissenden Gardens was built between 1898 and 1906 by the Armstrong family. Alfred Armstrong was the son-in-law of E. J. Cave, a prolific speculative builder. Alfred had made his fortune first through selling automatic vending machines, then through generating electricity. He was the first to generate electricity in Hampstead.
The estate was designed by
Boehmer and Gibbs, the architects who were experienced in building middle class blocks of flats in the Hampstead area and working for Cave.
Edward Boehmer
Edward Boehmer (1861–1940) was an American-born, London-based architect.
Early life
Edward Boehmer was born in 1861 in Pennsylvania, United States. He was educated in Stuttgart, Germany.
Career
Boehmer co-founded an architectural firm with ...
was American born but had trained in Germany.
The estate consists of Clevedon Mansions, Lissenden Mansions, and Parliament Hill Mansions built round what was initially a garden but is now a private tennis court.
The flats were built in the fashionable Edwardian period
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 ...
style, using red brick, with attention to detail such as
stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
above the front doors and some windows aw well as in the stair columns; hand-made tapered brick arches over the windows; hand-made red clay tiles; and
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 ...
foliage panels and flower tiles by the front doors.
Wrought iron
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...
was used for the railings and weather vanes and
cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
in the fireplaces.
There were service lifts (some hand operated) to raise coal to the upper floors, a speaking tube with a whistle to allow the residents to attract the attention and then to speak to porters, and rubbish chutes from kitchens to ground floor collection bins.
In autumn 1939, the pacifist and suffragist
Mary Sheepshanks moved into an apartment in Parliament Hill Mansions after she was bombed out in her Hampstead home. Her old friend, the Czech Jewish social worker from refugee organization
Marie Schmolka lived here between 1939 and 1940.
The estate was hit by incendiary bombs in early September 1940 but there were no injuries. On 26 September 1940, a high explosive bomb hit the southern end of Parliament Hill Mansions, destroying 10 apartments served by one staircase (1-10 Parliament Hill Mansions). 13 people were killed, including several children.
After the war, the remains of 1-10 Parliament Hill Mansions was replaced by the six-storey Chester Court, built in the utilitarian style by architects
Anderson, Forster and Wilcox
Anderson, Forster and Wilcox were a practice of London architects, who were partially responsible for the modernist Daily Mirror building (1961–1994) in Holborn Circus and the six-storey Chester Court apartment block in Lissenden Gardens
Lissend ...
. The Armstrong family's intention was that residents would be able to move into this block, which has a lift, in old age.
Purchase by Camden Council
In 1972 the Armstrong family decided to sell the estate through a sealed bid auction. The residents formed a tenants’ association and planned an expert campaign to save the estate. This was a period when many estates were being sold and tenants being persuaded to leave, so that new owners could
refurbish them and then sell them to owner occupiers, making a significant profit. The Lissenden Gardens Tenants Association lost the battle to prevent the Armstrongs from selling privately, in spite of devising the
Lissenden Formula, a creative proposal for the
Camden Council to buy the estate, but to then allow tenants to buy the leases to their flats. The estate was purchased by
Gulindell. Their first act was to put up the rents.
The Gulindell plan was thwarted by the tenants' association campaign. The Council prepared plans to serve a
compulsory purchase order
A compulsory purchase order (CPO; , ) is a legal function in the United Kingdom and Ireland that allows certain bodies to obtain land or property without the consent of the owner. It may be enforced if a proposed development is considered one for p ...
on the Gardens, and the tenants' association used this fact to dissuade potential purchasers of vacant flats with posters in windows, warning "‘Caveat emptor’ – buyer beware – the estate was the subject of a compulsory purchase order".
Central government refused to approve the compulsory purchase in July 1973, but the council retaliated the same month by serving “dangerous structure” notices on the some of the blocks, requiring the owners to carry out urgent repairs. No flats had been sold and an economic crisis was looming. The council persuaded Gulindell to sell. On 6 October 1973 council leader
Frank Dobson
Frank Gordon Dobson (15 March 1940 – 11 November 2019) was a British Labour Party politician. As Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St. Pancras from 1979 to 2015, he served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Health from 1997 ...
, announced that Camden Council had bought the estate for £2.8 million.
Residents continued to be organised and active after the sale to the council. They successfully resisted a comprehensive modernisation that would have destroyed the community, by moving all residents out for a number of years, and changed the appearance of the estate. Instead a much more sensitive programme of work was carried out, managed jointly by the council and residents.
Lissenden Gardens today is a diverse community made up of council tenants, owner occupiers and private renters.
Notable residents
*
Alice Zimmern
Alice Louisa Theodora Zimmern (22 September 1855 – 22 March 1939) was an English writer, translator and suffragist. Her books made a significant contribution to debate on the education and rights of women.
Early years and education
Zimmern wa ...
*
Anthony Green
*
Haydn Wood
Haydn Wood (25 March 1882 – 11 March 1959) was a 20th-century English composer and concert violinist, best known for his 200 or so ballad style songs, including the popular ''Roses of Picardy''.
Life
Haydn Wood was born in the West Riding ...
*
James Hanley
*
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, ...
*
George Merritt (actor)
Frederick George Merritt (10 December 1890 – 27 September 1977) was an English theatre, film and television actor, often in authoritarian roles. He studied German theatre in Magdeburg, Germany, and taught at the Berlitz School at the outbreak ...
*
Martin Shaw
Martin Shaw (born 21 January 1945) is an English actor. He came to national recognition as Doyle in ITV (TV network), ITV crime-action television drama series ''The Professionals (TV series), The Professionals'' (1977–1983). Further notable ...
*
Patricia Roc
Patricia Roc (born Felicia Miriam Ursula Herold; 7 June 1915 – 30 December 2003) was an English film actress, popular in the Gainsborough melodramas such as ''Madonna of the Seven Moons'' (1945) and '' The Wicked Lady'' (1945), though she only ...
*
R H Tawney
Richard Henry Tawney (30 November 1880 – 16 January 1962) was an English economic historian, social critic, ethical socialist,Noel W. Thompson. ''Political economy and the Labour Party: the economics of democratic socialism, 1884-2005''. 2nd e ...
*
Denny Wright
Denys Justin Wright (6 May 1924 – 8 February 1992), known professionally as Denny Wright, was a British jazz guitarist.
A session musician for many years, Wright frequently acted as arranger and "fixer" for recording sessions. He was a proli ...
Location in context
The neighbourhood is positioned between
Gospel Oak
Gospel Oak is an inner urban area of north west London in the London Borough of Camden at the very south of Hampstead Heath. The neighbourhood is positioned between Hampstead to the north-west, Dartmouth Park to the north-east, Kentish Town to t ...
to the west,
Dartmouth Park
Dartmouth Park is a district of north west London in the Borough of Camden, north of Charing Cross. The area adjoins Highgate and Highgate Cemetery (to the north) and Kentish Town (to the south). Parliament Hill is to the west.
The nearest Un ...
to the east,
Kentish Town
Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town. Less than four miles north of central London, Kentish Town has good transport connections and is situated close to the ope ...
to the south, and
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 ...
to the north. Lissenden Gardens lies across NW5 postcode and is served by
Gospel Oak railway station
Gospel Oak railway station is in the London Borough of Camden in north-west London. It is on the North London line (NLL) and is also the western passenger terminus of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line – known informally as GOBLIN. Passengers us ...
on the
London Overground
London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a ...
and three local buses, namely 88, C11, 214. A footpath runs from the top of the estate directly onto the heath.
See also
Eileen Armstrong
References
External links
Lissenden Gardens Community Website
{{commonscat, Lissenden Gardens
Areas of London
Districts of the London Borough of Camden