Merton Park, suburban housing planned as an ensemble

The palette of building materials used for buildings of the garden suburb phase of the

Merton Park Estate is quite wide ranging, but is nevertheless highly distinctive, and  contributes considerably towards its special character. In general the selection of materials is characteristic of traditional building practice: bricks (yellow stock brick, red brick and blue brick), render or pebbledash, timber frame with infill panels, flints, clay hanging tiles and roof tiles and roof slates. The architecture is typical of neo-vernacular and Arts and Crafts design influences.

The housing in Merton Park was mixed on purpose. This is in great contrast to the segregated housing estates divided in classes that were built around the same time by model housing companies and dwellings companies. Here a semidetached type with a rendered first elevation above a brick-clad ground floor. Bay windows are a repeated feature of the middle-class housing.

A carved stone above the door commemorates the building date (AD 1875). The oldest houses were typically built in yellow stock brick with stone mouldings around the entrances and detailing in red brick or in wood (the weatherboards and the porch on the right). The building line is varied creating visual interest.

Trees were included from the onset in the planning of this estate. That is why is can be classed as the first true garden suburb. Here Plane trees line the streets in what were once wider grass verges. All the front gardens were lined by hedges. Here some original holly hedges remain. In other places these have been sacrificed to create car parking space.

As in most Victorian architecture the buildings often feature impressive chimneystacks. This semidetached cottage (left) clearly has an oversized chimney. The low bays in the front show this housing was intended for the upper working class. In contrast the large detached villas (right) have many protruding sections, including full-height bays. This example also features a balcony.

The housing is loosely placed along the curved roads; here again lined with Plane trees. The corners are often solved by abutting two rows of housing with a back garden along the first section of the side street (see the garden wall on the left). This is typical for 19th century planning and in sharp contrast with urban design on artistic principles.

Other materials then the yellow stock brick are used in the Merton Park Estate. On the right a combination of red stock brick and beige pebbledash. The pebbledashing in this estate is typically very fine. Overlapping hung clay tiles in red are used as an ornamental covering at gable ends. The roof is in cut slates. Render is also used. On the left an example of white render on a low brick plinth with hung red clay tiles on the upper sections.

In streets with terraced housing the rhythm provided by the high bays is very effective in creating visual interest Again the holly hedges and the tree-lined street create an overall effect that is less urban in character than contemporary developments in London. The trees are Red chestnuts here.

The architecture around 1900 is different from the earliest buildings and show more Arts and Crafts influences. The brick is mostly red and is combined with hung clay tiles and white render. Bays and floating bays are used to create visual interest and reference rural buildings - as is the norm in the vernacular architecture of the time.

These houses in Merton Hall Road actually are semidetached villas, but look like terraced housing due to the limited distance between the blocks. These large family houses have now all been converted into flats.