Details
HAMPSTEAD
ADELAIDE ROAD
Swiss Cottage
Regency Lodge
II
Includes: Regency Lodge, AVENUE ROAD, Swiss Cottage
Includes: Regency Lodge, FINCHLEY ROAD, Swiss Cottage
Flats and parade of shops on Finchley Road frontage, with underground garage. 1937-8. Robert Atkinson and A.F.B. Anderson. Brown and sandy buff bricks, with artificial stone bands and dressings on steel frame, flat roofs, and steel casement windows, a few windows replaced in late-C20. Moderne style development.
PLAN: Courtyard layout of 9 linked blocks, 6 storeys high, with narrow entrance in centre of south side. Individual lift and staircase services to groups of flats to minimise corridor lengths; separate trades' stairs and lifts characteristic of the period. Beneath the courtyard and the south ranged is a large underground parking garage for 100 cars with 15 lock-ups with access by ramps from Finchley Road and Avenue Road.
EXTERIOR: Horizontal emphasis, characteristic of the moderne style, is provided by artificial stone bands at window head and cill levels, with bold semi-circular bays at the block ends of the south range, and many casement bays with curved corners, two linked bays forming the main central feature above the entrance from the courtyard. The staircases are expressed by large vertical windows flanked by artificial stone fins. The top storey, although similar in plan to the lower floors, is treated as an attic, with windows in individual artificial stone surrounds, and not banded. Around the building are bas-relief panels, made by the Birmingham Guild, showing the trades employed in the building. The shops have been much altered in the C20, with modern shop fronts, but the overall planning interest of the scheme is maintained, with the curved corner and flat single storey roofs. The rear elevation to the north is utilitarian.
INTERIOR: Not inspected, but noted to have flats from 2-6 rooms, the larger having divisible living rooms.
HISTORY: Regency Lodge occupies the trapezoidal site at the south end of the Swiss Cottage triangle, which was redeveloped in the 1930s, with the Odeon Cinema site immediately to the north. Its location near an underground station whose services were expanded in the 1930s sets it within the context of inter-war transport developments and residential preferences for quality, stylish, flatted accommodation close to the centre of the metropolis.
Listed at grade II as a carefully designed scheme of inter-war flats with a parade of shops and underground garage by the notable early-C20 architect Robert Atkinson. The Moderne style development has a characteristic horizontal emphasis that suggests speed on this arterial route, and it effectively fills the trapezoidal site at the south end of the Swiss Cottage triangle, which was redeveloped in the 1930s. It is well detailed, including bas-relief panels of the building trades, as well as having planning interest and it is comparable with the best of the commercial flats of its date.
SOURCES
The Architect and Building News, 15th April 1938.
The Builder, 18th August 1944.
