Hampstead Way north end
  back start next
On the west side of Hampstead Way opposite the junction with Willifield Way there is an important series of terraced cottages by several leading architects. Numbers 117-119, the only one built of two pairs designed in 1909 by W H Ward, a former Lutyens assistant, have smooth white walls and clipped gables, even the brick chimneys being severely geometrical. Numbers 121-123 are much cosier, by P Morley Horder (brother of the famous doctor), whose tile-hung gables derive from his early training in the office of George Devey. He was a prolific country house architect of great ability, mainly in a Home Counties vernacular. Numbers 125-127 are by Lucas, designed as an off cut from Lucas square (see below). Numbers 135-141 are a remarkable quartet by W Curtis Green, showing how far the English free-style architects went towards the Modern Movement. The four blocky white wings with their minimally detailed flush windows are relieved only by a curious "brushed" texture to the plaster-work. Numbers 143-149 are also a good quartet with tall half-hipped gables in white plaster, very much in Dawber's style and quite possibly by him. Numbers 167-169 are a pair of 1909 by J Gordon Allen, with a timber loggia between bay windows.

Opposite, number 42 is a good small house by Geoffry Lucas with his usual bay windows and red brick dressings, while number 46 is an excellent asymmetrical house (originally called Wayside), designed for himself by T M Wilson, 1908. A big sloping gable with a porthole window is balanced against a tall two-storey bay window, the smooth white plaster being pitted with small holes and ornamented by a plaque of a flower vase. Numbers 56-58 are by Gordon Allen (1908). On the same side of Hampstead Way the varied frontage of individual cottages is suddenly transformed by two big three-sided courtyards. Numbers 60-82 Lucas Square, named after its architect, is an excellent composition of terraces flanked towards Hampstead Way by two individual houses. The accents are, unusually for the Suburb, vertical, in the form of narrow two-storey bay windows under overhanging gables. The creamy roughcast of the walls is constantly enlivened by red brick quoins. The central gable of brick is curiously pinched, and at times the detailing is almost restless. Numbers 84-108, originally known as Litchfield Square (after Frederick Litchfield, the secretary of Second Hampstead Tenants Limited), is a restful contrast, in that it was designed by Parker and Unwin almost wholly in red brick, with accents kept to a minimum.



 
If you arrived at this page via a search engine you can load the surrounding frame by clicking Find my Frame
  back start next