Northwick Park, a Costin-built suburb

The Palaestra - the name for a wrestling school in ancient Greece - forms the main focus of the Northwick Park Estate. It is located within the central circle and dates from 1923. The architecture follows the then fashionable mixed Arts and Crafts style giving it the appearance of a medieval country seat. It used to house a community hall and sports centre with tennis courts to the side. It is now the seat of the Harrow Freemasons.

The use of black wood beams and whitewashed infill panels refer strongly to the ancient way of construction of timber framed houses. Originally these would be half timbered constructions with a lime washed infill in wattle and daub. Here the use is purely decorative and mostly restricted to the upper elevation. The ground floor is constructed in brick. The result can be best classified as mock Tudor.

Some streets have retained the narrow grass verges with a mixture of trees planted in them. These green verges with trees give the streets an appealing non-urban feel and firmly places the housing estate within the Unwinesk design principles that underpin the Garden City Movement.

In the original situation the front gardens, together with the planted grass verges, created a village-like atmosphere with the houses viewed within a green context. Modern car ownership has meant that most front garden have been paved over and are now used as car parks, which accommodate two but often three or even four cars. 

Northwick Park comprises of long rows of mainly semidetached houses. Only occasionally a detached house is used. Especially on the straight streets the closeness of the buildings make for a rather urban streetscape with seemingly continuous facades. 

Although the houses have been built in just a small number of types the exterior has been designed in a variety of types. This variety works better in the detached houses on the Northwick Park Circle than in the semidetached houses around it. Variety is aided by current home owners for instance painting the wooden shutters a bright blue.

 

 

The detached houses often have a garage on the side. In some cases this garage is original, most often it is a later addition. Some home owners have converted garages into extra living space. The result is always a sea of stone, cement and gravel between the road and the buildings.

The Tudorbethan style of the late nineteenth century transformed during the interwar years into an eclectic vernacular style. Although most houses in Northwick Park have the same floor plan the exterior shows some variety. Within the long rows of houses the decor is alternated to relieve the repetitiveness. These detached houses with a similar floor plan differ greatly in appearance through a clever use of different roof shapes, styles of bay, partially recessing the facade and the placement, colour and treatment of the front door.

 

Most houses are fitted with bays on the front. Some differ from this norm as this example shows to great effect with a jettied, joined double gable that is extended sideways to form a porch in front of the front door.