Details
798-1/0/10300 GAINSBOROUGH GARDENS
05-FEB-2004 9A
II
Detached house. Dated 1891, probably by Elijah Hoole (1837-1912) for CE Maurice and his wife in the Gainsborough Gardens development.
MATERIALS: Red brick ground floor, yellow limestone lintels, rendered sgraffito frieze at first-floor level, with pebbledash rendered first-floor. Plain-tile roof, projecting eaves, large tile hung gable with bargeboards. All front windows and most rear have lozenge shaped leaded lights to the upper sash. Tall enriched brick stacks.
PLAN: Two storeys, attics and basement. The basement is at ground level at the rear. Rectangular plan, a large gabled bay to the left advances slightly beyond a narrow right-hand stair bay. The entrance has an enriched pointed arched doorway with a part glazed door, with coloured margin lights under a stained-glass fanlight. To left, is a three-light window, with stone mullions and lintel, of which the upper sashes have lozenge shaped leaded lights. Above is a frieze of cinquefoil roundels, executed in sgraffito, set in rectangular brick panels: that over the entrance is inscribed EIRENE COTTAGE 1891. The frieze continues across the front stopping abruptly at the angles. Corresponding three-light window to first-floor, with a single-light window above the entrance and paired sash to the right. The gable is enriched in alternating bands of plain and fishscale tiles and has moulded bargeboards. Under a shallow tile canopy is a paired sash. To right under the eaves is a small single light. Left hand return. Two tall brick stacks with enriched shafts and richly moulded caps rise from the roof.
Rear: Similarly treated to front, with pebble-dash rendered upper-floor and tile hung gable. Three-storey canted bay to the right has a tiled roof. Right-hand return has a tile hung gable to the rear. This and rear gable have internal enriched stacks rising from the roof.
INTERIOR: Open-well close-string stairs rise from basement to attic. Square, chamfered, newels have fielded panels to each face and facetted finials. Similar drop finials. Balusters are rectangular in section and slightly chamfered. Moulded rail. Panelled linings to stairwell to basement. Stairwell windows have lozenge pattern leaded glazing with coloured margins. Drawing room chimneypiece has reeded flanks, a gadrooned cornice and a deep frieze with panels enriched with low relief carved timber figures and foliate scrolls. It may be a compilation. Study chimneypiece has a marquetry frieze of repeated foliate pattern. Neither retains a fireplace. Both may be introduced. First-floor chimneypieces are of marble, one retains a cast-iron fireplace and grate. Cornices have flat shallow mouldings. Throughout, doors are four-panelled with chamfered rails and muntins. Rear basement plan is intact. Rear windows have chamfered architraves and retain their shutters. Single leaf door is original. Polychrome tiled entrance hall floor. The basement has been extended under the front garden: this area is not of special interest. Despite some alterations the plan reads well at all floors with sufficient detail surviving in each room.
HISTORY: Gainsborough Gardens was laid out between 1882 and 1895 on land belonging to the Wells and Campden Charity Trust. Plots were developed speculatively under the close scrutiny of the Trust and their Surveyor HS Legg. The development adopted the newly-heralded ethos shown at Bedford Park, Chiswick, developed from 1875, where different styles of building cohere informally in a planned, leafy environment. EJ May, recently appointed as principal architect at Bedford Park ,designed the first building: Nos. 3 and 4, Gainsborough Gardens, in 1884. Both architecturally and historically, this was a significant step in changing attitudes towards the emerging suburbs.
This is set against the background of steps to limit expansion onto Hampstead Heath and the preservation of Parliament Hill Fields, an achievement attributed to CE Maurice who built and lived at No. 9A. He was married to the sister of Octavia Hill, philanthropist and founder of the National Trust.
The history of Gainsborough Gardens is prominent in the history of the protection of open spaces, particularly in Hampstead where the seeds of national awareness were sown. The whole scheme and individual houses are well documented giving an important record of the development of the Gardens. The outcome is a scheme of significant historic and architectural interest and particular aesthetic quality, based on a fine balance between building and open space, both of which survive almost intact.
CE Maurice was a keen protagonist for the protection of open spaces and for social welfare until his death in 1927. He was married to the sister of Octavia Hill philanthropist and founder of the National Trust, for whom Elijah Hoole produced a private house, Larksfield, Crockham Hill on the Sussex-Kent border, and model cottages at Ranston Street, Marylebone (1886) and in Redcross and Whitecross Gardens, Southwark (1887 and 1890). These buildings bear a striking affinity to Eirene Cottage. Hoole was a pupil of James Simpson, and began his career working on industrial buildings. He became well known for his philanthropic work: workers' housing schemes, as architect of Toynbee Hall, Whitechapel, and numerous parochial buildings for the Church of England and the Wesleyan church. He espoused the ethos of vernacular revival and its architectural methods.
REASON FOR DESIGNATION DECISION
Eirene Cottage, No. 9A Gainsborough Gardens, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* High-quality design in the Vernacular Revival mode, attributed to
Elijah Hoole, a noted architect in this genre
* Overall survival of internal plan and features of note
* Strong group value with other houses in Gainsborough Gardens
* Strong contribution to the overall planning interest of Gainsborough
Gardens
SOURCES
Gainsborough Gardens Hampstead and the Estate of the Wells and Campden Trust. An account of their development with houses, 1875-1895, David A L Saunders, 1974
Proof of Evidence, Public Enquiry, No 9A Gainsborough Gardens and land adjacent, London NW3, Victor Belcher, December 2006
Building News, April 12, 1912, 517
The Builder, Apr.26, 1912, 499
London Suburbs, English Heritage, 1999
Octavia Hill. A Life, Gillian Darley, 1990
The Buildings of England London 2: South, Cherry B & Pevsner N, 1983, 588-9
The Buildings of England London 3: North West, Cherry B & Pevsner N, 1991, 662
