Hampstead Garden Suburb history

Henrietta Barnett bought Wylde’s Farm and turned 243 acres of it into a new residential area. She had a philanthropic plan for people from different walks of life to live together in nice surroundings. She used Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker who had already designed Letchworth Garden City which had been completed three years earlier. Work began in 1907. Other architects, such as Sir Edwin Lutyens designed some of the houses and flats in the central area, as well as St Jude’s Church. There was some segregation of folk, despite the purported aims of the development. Artisan flats were generally built in the north part of the estate, with the middle-classes living in houses in the West, and the richer residents having large houses adjoining Hampstead Heath in the south. The Orchard was intended for old people and Waterlow Court for working women. Unwin stayed at the Wylde’s farmhouse while he worked on the Suburb and then stayed on there till 1940.