Kingswood Estate, a post-war LCC housing development

The London County Council Estate of Kingswood in Dulwich takes its name from Kingswood House, formerly Kingswood Lodge located on the edge of Kings Coppice. The original Mansion House was built by William Vizard in 1811-12 in the middle of a 75 acre estate (almost 19 hectares) that was partly carved from the coppice. The first owner, a city lawyer,  can be best described as a "gentleman farmer", as was the fad in those days. The estate changes hands several time. In 1892 John L. Johnston, a nutritionist, acquired the lease and set about expanding the Georgian house into an over the top Scottish-baronial styled castellated mock-castle. He was incidentally from Scotland. This "Mr Bovril" also had the grounds landscaped, trees and shrubs planted and a fountain and garden folly were added.

The estate changed hands several times in the following decades. It even became a convalescence home for Canadian soldiers for a brief period until Sir Wiliam Vestey became the owner of Kingswood. He changed very little. After WW2 he proposed to turn his estate into a hospice for his employees, who had lost their homes in the Blitz. However, in 1946 the LCC issued a compulsory purchase order with the aim to developing the estate for housing.

The estate lay at the edge of what was then the Borough of Camberwell and was connected to central London via the neighbouring rail service from Sydenham Hill Station. Plans presented in 1947 included two schools and 748 dwellings to be built in 3-4 storey flats and 46 cottages. The planned development was part of a greater scheme to develop and built over the periphery of Dulwich to keep the heart open and green. The estates at Sydenham Hill, Lordship Lane and Dulwich Common are part of this LCC development policy.

The Kingswood Estate was one of the last housing schemes designed by the London County Council Housing and Valuation Department rather than the Architect’s department. This can also explain the distinct retro 1930s feel of the buildings, that clearly reference continental brick modernism. The whole development is a triumph of situational design. Careful consideration was given to preserving a large number of the existing trees and the generously spaced layout was planned around them. The placements of the blocks of flats within the green space of the former park also reveals continental influences. The often L-shaped blocks are placed along the lines of New Objectivity principles besides footpaths maximising long vistas between the buildings, thus creating the sense of space and enveloping greenery. The former mansion house was transformed into a library and community centre. It stands central in the new layout with many lines of sight focussing on this castellated pile. Especially the central part should be a textbook example of how to developed housing within an existing park.

The Kingswood Estate as it now exists with at its heart Kingswood House (1). Opposite the house near the planned centre with shops (3), some garden features remain such as a large lion head fountain (2).Sydenham Hill Station (4) is a short walk from the housing estate.

Kingswood, as council estates go, is something of a paradox. Especially the schemes designed and developed under the auspice of the London County Council Housing and Valuation Department were heavily criticised for their architecture and sparse layout. None of this is applicable to Kingswood however. The LCC should be credited for making huge efforts to provide as an attractive estate as the money available would allow. Especially the cottages are low quality. Most disappointing at present are the two neat rows of largely shuttered-up shops that stand at the site of the former garden folly and where planned as the focus of the estate. A sensitive intervention with change of use is urgently needed in an otherwise pleasant council estate.

A tram is a tram is a tram... Tramlink

Mai 2000 saw the opening of the first new tram service in the London area for 65 years. Plans to build a tram network south of the Thames were first presented to parliament in 1990. It took 4 years before these plans were approved. This approval meant that the Surrey side of London would finally get the desperately needed improvements to public transport. The tram links the London Borough of Merton with the London Borough of Croydon.

Up to 2012 the Tramlink network consisted of three tram lines: (1) Wimbledon - Elmers End, (2) Croydon - Beckenham Junction and (3) Croydon - New Addington. In 2012 the routes where changed with a new line 4 running from Therapia Lane to Elmers End and back and New Addington and Wimbledon now on either end of the main through line. The trams make use of old railway tracks, new tracks and some run in streets.

The most recent running stock also has a green colour. The Line colour and the logo was changed to Tram Green with the take-over of the tram service by TfL. The Tram running through a street in Croydon.

New Addington, or the changing face of social housing

Although generally viewed as an unattractive place, New Addington has been well-designed by making the most of the hilly terrain with long vistas and ample space for greenery. One of the residents even described his part of the Castle Hill Estate as "like living in the countryside but without them pesky cows or slow tractors". Even the notorious Fieldway Estate isn't the worst of such Council Estates that I've seen. That is not to say that it isn't visible that the area looks unloved and neglected.

The Central Parade with the shops along the northside of this "parkway". This central area is very clear on the street plan due to its specific shape that is reminiscent of park design from the same period that New Addington was first designed.

The existing valley snakes through the middle of the old garden village. This creates a great sensation of space and creates the illusion of a much smaller development as one only sees one of the estates around the valley at one time.

The buildings (here from the post-war section) are perched high on the edge of Addington Vale creating both lovely views towards and from the housing.

From a distance the houses of the garden village (here the Boots Estate) could be mistaken for a "proper village". The disadvantage of the site has been transformed into its biggest asset (left). The post-war housing is often less detailed and also built with cheaper materials than the 1930's housing of the so-called Boots Estate.

Wide green verges and a continuation of the use of Unwinesque design principles make the sections of the garden village developed by Croydon Council directly after WW2 blend in well with both the original scheme and the earlier housing.

The council housing in the garden village present a modern take on vernacular types that are so often found in garden villages. On the left a simple brick built house with a hipped roof. On the right a row of terraced house with a modernist treatment of the building line and a vernacular treatment of the facade with hung tiles, ribbon windows and bay windows.

In part the Caste Hill Estate -developed in the 1950s and early 1960s- still adheres to Unwinesque placement of terraced housing along streets and open green spaces. The housing here is also similar to that of the second  building phase of the garden village.

In other places the terraced housing takes on a more modernism-inspired shape with building lines running at an angle instead of parallel to the street or by staggering the building line.

Middle-rise apartment blocks are not uncommon in continental variations on the garden village theme, but are rarely seen in Britain. The placement of these blocks still loosely follows the street, but the blocks have been designed as standing freely with an urban field of public green space.

High-rise apartment buildings (left) and middle-rise apartment blocks create a totally different feel in the part of the Castle Hill Estate directly next to the Boots Estate of the garden village. This affirms the changing ideas on social housing and urban design after 1950.

A totally different world presents itself on the Fieldway Estate. Here cul-de-sacs connect to footpaths running between the long rows of terraced housing, that all have building lines or parts of the facade set at an angle to the path. The open space direct the view towards Rowdown Wood in the background, without integrating both areas (be it functionally, spatially or emotionally).

The little cul-de-sacs, that run of the main loop road, give access to a world of small front gardens along narrow footpaths (left) or connect to through-paths that run in between the cul-de-sacs much like back alleys (on the right). This makes orientation very difficult and hinders a clear perception of the spatial layout of the estate.

The Fieldway Estate not only consists of terraced housing along cul-de-sacs, in some placed middle-rise and high-rise blocks are placed in enveloping urban space. This is the urban field approach of CIAM translated into a spill-over estate with social housing.

New Addington, or the changing idea(l)s of social housing

The manor of Addington was first attested in the Doomsday Book (1086) and included several farms and woodland. It lay south of the village of Addington in Surrey. Historically the parish of Addington was part of the Wallington Hundred. It is now part of Croydon, a former market town that became part of Greater London in 1965 as the London Borough of Croydon.

In 1935, as part of the push for suburbanisation inspired by the principles of the Garden City Movement, the First National Housing Trust (FNHT) acquired over 142 hectares of land known as Fisher's Farm to lay out an new garden village. This idea was fiercely supported by Croydon Council who saw the new garden village as an ideal way to resolve bad living conditions and overcrowding in its inner-city areas. The FNHT was a subsidiary of Henry Boot PLC a large construction company that constructed more houses in the inter-war years than any other company or developer. Charles boot (son of Henry) imagined well-built affordable houses away from the overcrowded cities in new garden village satellites and new garden cities. The garden cities he proposed in Dagenham and Waltham Abby never came to be, but several garden village satellites were completed. One of these was New Addington.

The layout of present-day New Addington clearly shows three spatial ideas expressed in the pattern of streets. This is matched by the way the buildings are placed, but these have not been included for clarity. The initial garden village stands out by its layout of streets but also inclusion of a central green zone. The two subsequent expansions of the garden village become more and more removed from the characteristics of the garden village culminating in the northern council estate planned along the lines of CIAM principles.

The site of the new garden village consisted of a deep valley with steep hillsides on either side. Fisher's Farm stood on the edge of the North Downs, hence the uneven terrain. Work on New Addington started in 1936 and came to an abrupt halt in 1940 after the outbreak of war. By this time 1.024 houses and 23 shops had been constructed in a fan of streets in between the central access road and Addington Vale. This part of the garden village is also known as the Boots Estate. Although the spacious layout and good quality housing provided proved popular with residents, the pace of house building didn't match the development of amenities. So most residents had to travel to find, for instance, employment, entertainment, leisure and schooling.

After the end of the war building work resumed. Croyden now had 55,000 people on the waiting list for housing. At the same time planners tried to curb and direct the growth of the metropolis by designating development areas and green belts. Croydon Council bought the unused land off the FNHT and quickly developed council housing here (more or less along the lines of the original layout for the garden village with a central open space) and expanded the facilities by finishing Central Parade with its shops. Also schools were built to cope with the exploding birth rate. What was neglected in this frenzy to provide housing was to better connect New Addington to the rest of the Borough. The nearest train station still lay 2,5 miles away. A small industrial estate was included though, but this wasn't enough to provide for the majority of residents. The result was a suburban satellite comprising of four housing estates and an eccentrically placed centre that followed the spatial conventions of the Garden City Movement.

Croydon Council had great ambitions in providing social and affordable housing. It therefore acquired 100 hectares of the Castle Hill Farm directly adjacent to the garden village planned by the FNHT with the aim to develop more housing here. The first housing built on site took the shape of 230 prefabs for homeless families. This temporary accommodation stood on Castle Hill Avenue and was finished in 1948. The layout of this Castle Hill Estate was a slight break from the spatial conventions of the garden village as it basically consists of two loop roads with an infill of curved and straight streets. In de 1950s building work started in earnest with the erection of terraced housing and some apartment blocks. The closes and cul-de-sacs that formed an integral part of the garden village where abandoned in this new section of New Addington. There was however  great care taken to provide schools and churches. Development of the Castle Hill Estate was completed by 1963.

At that time there was still a housing shortage in Croydon, so the Council sought permission to expand New Addington even further towards the village of Addington. On 22 hectares the Fieldway Estate was developed. This housing estate was a clear break from garden city ideals in both layout, type of housing and amenities to be included. By 1968 1412 houses had been completed along cul-de-sacs that ran off a winding, wide loop road. Most of these houses where terraces, but middle-rise and high-rise apartment building were also included. The buildings are placed with no spatial relation to the main access road in a so-called "urban field" comprising of gardens and public green spaces with footpaths connecting the short side streets. At the heart of the development a small concentration of shops was provided with a pub included for good measure. The whole is a typical example of a spill-over estate.

New Addington comprises of the old garden village with the oldest housing located n the Boots Estate (1) next to the Central Parade (2) with shops and amenities. Addington Vale (3) separates this area from the Rowdown Estate (4) which itself connects to the Milne Park East Estate (6). Milne Park (7) separates this estate from the Milne Park West Estate (8). A small industrial estate (5) has been inserted on the edge of the garden village. Along Hutchinson's Bank a small-scale addition (9) was made with housing similar to the large Castle Hill Estate (10). The Fieldway Estate (11) forms the edge of New Addington towards the village of Addington.

The residents became more isolated with the expansion of New Addington as the facilities provided didn't keep pace with the number of residents. So all who had the opportunity left and were replaced by less well-off people and immigrants, both with little opportunities or prospects. This meant that New Addington, and the Fieldway Estate in particular, gained notoriety as a place of systemic unemployment, low education, drug abuse, domestic violence, teenage pregnancies and high crime rates. The opening of the Tramlink to Croydon in 2000 - finally - lifted the longstanding isolation of New Addington, thus addressing the single biggest failure in the planning of this suburban satellite.