My local council hosts a literary gathering every year at some library or other - the WriteideaFestival. They invite a wide range of authors to give free hour-long talks and last weekend I slipped in to enjoy three of them. One was by John Grindrod, author of Concretopia and Outskirts, who came to talk about his latest book Iconicon. His presentation on 40 years of London architecture included a sequence of modern classics including the Lloyds Building, Gherkin and Bedzed, and I nodded as each appeared on the screen. And then he flashed up Ordnance Road, a social housing project in Enfield, and I didn't recognise that so yesterday I decided to take a closer look.
This is Ordnance Road in Enfield (partway between Hertford Road and Enfield Lock station). And this is a terrace built four years ago by Peter Barber Architects in a style very much at odds to most recent housing. It's 100% brick but not in the usual flat-fronted way, and these aren't flats, they're eleven separate townhouses. London needs a variety of housing tenures and sometimes it's good to build homes with more than two bedrooms and proper front doors.
I had been hoping to get an unobstructed photograph like John had, but it soon became clear this wasn't going to be possible. Traffic was queueing back from the traffic lights almost to the level crossing, so was going nowhere fast, and I did well to get a shot with just a couple of intervening vehicles. Congestion is one reason it's good to build new homes without space for parking, and the other is you can use every scrap of space right up to the pavement.
The terrace is three storeys high making best use of a limited site, and each house has an arched porch stepped back from the street providing a bit of shelter and privacy. A tiny gated area forms a mini-front garden just big enough for storage or a bit of shrubbery. It also ticks the 'outdoor space' box which is why none of these homes have the ubiquitous vernacular balcony. The wall also brings its downsides - the owner of the house beside the bus stop has had to put up a sign telling people not to sit on it.
But if you go round the back it's completely different. Four mews houses have been spaced out along Sparkbrook Way, a cobbled cul-de-sac, each with a trademark Peter Barber giant window. These lowrise pseudo-bungalows are accessed via a backyard through a sidegate, and by being single storey allow direct sunlight to flood into the taller houses behind. The only sour note is that the backstreet is a private road and, oh, that the mews houses do all get their own parking space.
Previously this strip of land contained a 1970s pub, long derelict, and a church that best resembled a temporary church hall. Architecturally it was no great loss, and the townscape's quite mixed round here anyway. A row of classic 1930s semis faces the new development across Ordnance Road, postwar townhouses run up the side and a dreary block of flats looms behind. It all goes to make the new arrivals really stand out - an extraordinary island of modernity in the suburbs where normally homogeneity is king.
And then I read in yesterday's paper about another new Peter Barber project in the borough of Barnet. I should go and visit that too, I thought, completely underestimating how long it'd take to crawl nine miles by bus. Travelling radially across north London is so frustrating. Along the way I changed buses in Palmers Green immediately alongside the New River, and this reminded me I also attended Nick Higham's Writeidea talk on public water supply and that was excellent too.
This is Edgewood Mews in Finchley (immediately alongside the North Circular Road, not far from Henlys Corner). It's a much larger project and technically more challenging given that one side of the development is thunderous traffic. The roadside wall is curved, doorless and again segmented into individual properties. The street level arches are taller this time, providing light to heavily-glazed windows. Little sticky-out boxes provide a fraction more room inside, and the top of the tower provides the best lookout of all.
But step behind this bulwark and it's a totally different proposition. A pedestrianised street rises gently from one end of the development to the other, and also narrows providing some intriguingperspectives. Only the houses on the northern side have large windows which maximises sunlight and privacy. Most front doors open out directly onto the street, while others have recessed front yards on a variety of levels. The one word you really can't use about Edgewood Mews is uniform.
It's quite not finished yet, indeed they've not yet affixed the street name. I passed a number of workmen wielding tools and planks and poking around in storage spaces, and couldn't get past the narrowest section of the mews because it was blocked by a ladder and a cherrypicker. But most of the 97 homes are occupied, to the point where several windows are full of plants and knickknacks and one door already has a despairing message addressed to Amazon delivery drivers.
Previously this strip of roadside was a scrap of scrubby waste too challenging to do much with. But instead it's become a strangely appealing street of diverse properties where traffic noise isn't an issue and you could safely let your kids play outside. Increasing London's housing stock doesn't have to mean squandering the Green Belt, there's a lot you can do with an unpromising patch of brownfield, and it seems you can trust Peter Barber to do something practical and interesting with it.
When I got home and visited the practice's website I discovered I needn't have gone as far as North London to experience his work. He's delivered loads of similar housing projects across London, including in Stratford, Maryland and Stepney. And yes there's even one in Bow, ten minutes from my door, the Mediterranean-inspired Donnybrook Quarter.
The exterior may be white render rather than brick but several of Peter Barber's signature forms are plainly evident. Best of all when I visited for Open House in 2006 it was the architect who stood out front and enthused about the project, so I've actually met the man who created all this. Peter Barber was awarded the Soane Medal at a ceremony last night, and delivered a lecture (available here) to outline his winning philosophy. High density housing doesn't have to lead to a townscape of boxy flats, we can be a lot more imaginative than that.
