Pinner, formerly a small town in Middlesex, was
changed beyond recognition after the arrival of the railways, especially the
Metropolitan Railway. In 1880 the railway was driven through the middle of the
medieval town centre and a station was erected. It remained a rural halt until
1900 when the Metropolitan Railway Company started building houses on the
grounds of the former Rugby House Estate. The growth of Pinner as part of
Metro-land didn't kick off until after the Great War. Like most parts of
Metro-land the town expanded rapidly between 1923 and '39. Most of these houses
built, were the semidetached Mock Tudor buildings that dominate the
Middlesex-suburbs. Three housing projects consisting of up-market apartments in
their own grounds stand out. These are the Pinner Garden Courts: Pinner Court,
Capel Gardens and Elm Park Court.
The first two are located near Pinner New Cemetery.
Elm Park Court is located on Elm Park Road between Pinner town and Pinner
Green. This complex reminiscent of the German and Austrian Gartenhof comprises of three apartment blocks linked by elaborate
gates and lockup garages in the same style. All three complexes are
characterized by white rendered walls, hipped roofs with wide eaves, metal
windows in bottle green and green glazed roof tiles. Of the three Elm Park
Court has the most elaborate design. This complex was designed by H.V. Webb
around 1936 with eye-catching balconies and entrances and three gates modeled
on Japanese style Moon gates. The hipped roofs are also reminiscent of pagodas
and tea houses.
The Elm Park Court is clearly inspired by modernist Austrian
Garden Courts. It consists of three linked buildings with courtyard gardens and
garages as part of the complex. The main entrance is on Elm Park Road, with a
back entrance on West End Lane. Both have gates in an oriental style. On
Hazeldene Drive a service entrance with more garages is located. The building
on the street is very different from the complex and seems a later addition, or
it has been seriously altered.
The secluded inner world of this Garden Court combined
with the oriental design esthetic sets it apart from the other examples in
Pinner. The style is often described as Art Deco. It is very much American
Decorative Architecture and not so much Art Deco as this is understood in
continental Europe. There it is an eclectic style that is basically modernist,
combining expressionism, cubism, functionalism and geometric constructivism.
The design esthetic within Art Deco differs greatly, but is always a reaction
to the organic ornamentation of Austro-German Jugendstil and Franco-Belgian Art
Nouveau. The name is derived from the 1925 World Exhibition in Paris named: Exposition
Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (international exposition of modern
industrial and decorative art). In architecture Art Deco is mostly incorporated
into other styles, except for the Anglo-Saxon countries where all veins of
modernist architecture of the 1920s and 30s -especially the kind that doesn't
shy away from decorative elements- are lumped under "deco". In
continental Europe the distinctive style of Elm Park Court would be called expressionist
architecture.
Elm Park Court is in essence a glamorous Hollywood
dream of a secluded and private life in
exotic luxury. And what a magnificent dream it is! The whole complex is listed.
The same goes for the Garden Court complexes of Pinner Court and Capel Gardens.
My family knows Elm Park Court well. In the latter part of the 1930's my mother lived there and, after my father died in 1958, we went to live there for a few years. By then the large central island in the centre of the complex had been converted to space for car parking but originally it was a tennis court. It was very popular and my mother, a keen and very accomplished player, used it frequently. In our family records I have a 'Tennis Voucher' showing that the cost then was just one shilling (5p) for an hour.
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