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.
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