A Ruckus in Ruislip: The Parkwood Estate

Some publicity materials produced for the Parkwood Estate. Image from Paul Mellon Centre.

The mid 1930s saw the leafy streets of Ruislip become the centre of a clash between tradition and modernity, as Ruislip Northwood Urban District Council battled against a development by Walter Taylor Builders and the partnership of ​Connell Ward and Lucas. Walter Taylor had built three houses designed by the practice before they decided to team up and build a speculative project together. A piece of land for sale in Ruislip, belonging to Kings College Cambridge, (originally bequeathed to them by Henry VIII) was identified, and the architect met with the bursar of the college, who happened to the economist John Maynard Keynes, and a deal was agreed. This first parcel of land was large enough for six houses, with the idea that if they sold successfully more land would be purchased to extend the development.

97-101 Park Avenue. Image from RIBApix.

The architects Amyas Connell and Basil Ward, (Colin Lucas would join the partnership in 1934), produced a design straight out of the European modernist tradition, influenced by Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius. They initially planned to build three semi detached houses, which would be arranged in C-plans, with the projecting parts to include the garage and entrance, with the living space centered along a three storey range. The houses would be constructed of reinforced concrete and finished in white render, emphasizing the stark right angles of its design. The end of the ranges would contain a glazed staircase, a feature that would project openness and cleanliness, a central tenet of the modernist project. 

The floor plans for the ground and first floors of the semi detached houses. Image from conway.

Plans were submitted to the authorities in September 1933, and the scheme was turned down, with the council citing the breaking of various byelaws, statues and regulations. The case was referred to a local advisory panel of the Royal Institute of British Architects, which upheld the council's decision, mentioning in their report the use of concrete, which they considered “cold, noisy..” and the extensive use of glass in the staircase sections. The builders decided to appeal both of these decisions and the case went to arbitration. Various witnesses were called, with the scheme getting support from Kings College and architecture critic P. Morton Shand. One of the members of the RIBA panel expanded on their opinion stating that the extensive glass used could cause the public to see the occupiers in their pajamas! 

The suggested amendemants to the design for 97-99 Park Avenue, with the glazing reduced. Image from Conway.

Of course Amyas Connell was no stranger to this kind of conflict between the planning authorities and those looking to build modernist homes. He had designed High and Over in Amersham for Prof. Bernard Ashmole in 1929, which the local council had only passed the design with “the greatest reluctance", having been unable to find a legal reason to turn it down. The Ruislip appeal was granted, with the council directed to give the architects a list of alterations to consider. These changes included reducing the amount of glazing and adding decorative elements to soften the hard modernist edge, making it more like the other speculative moderne houses found in the area, such as this along Norwich Road and Northwood Way.

High and Over, Amersham designed by Amyas Connell. Image from RIBApix.

The architects did reduce the amount of glazing, but did not add any other elements and their new designs were passed in August 1934. Construction began shortly afterwards on the first semi detached pair and another set of plans were submitted in September for another pair. However due to the various delays, the clamour in the housing market for modernist designs had cooled, with hundreds of speculative Sun Trap houses having been built in the meantime around suburban London. This design, pioneered by the altogether more pragmatic firm of Welch, Cachemaille-Day and Lander, mixed traditional and modern elements to create a more palatable form of modernity for the British house buyer. This lack of interest meant the projected Parkwood Estate, petered out with just three houses built, with the second semi detached pair abandoned with only one house completed. 

97 Park Avenue in the 1970s, with its blue painted window frames. Image from RIBApix,

The builders, Walter Taylor, had prepared a brochure to sell the anticipated development, with heavy emphasis on its modern features. It mentioned the "maximum light and air” that the houses would admit, and that their concrete construction would offer “warm, quiet, damp -free rooms”, a rejoinder to the council's opinion on the material. The brochure also called the area's existing housing stock, largely built up over the past 30 years, “imitative, conventional, bad copies of bygone styles..” Despite this rousing call to modernity, the shock of the new was obviously too shocking and Kings College ended buying back some of the land it had sold the builders for the development. ​

66 Frognal, Hampstead. Image from RIBApix.

Connell, Ward and Lucas continued designing houses until the outbreak of World War II, with another prominent planning dispute of the building of a house for Geoffrey Walford at Frognal in Hampstead, which Reginald Blomfield, called "one of the greatest acts of vandalism ever perpetrated in London". The house was eventually built in 1938, but Walford only lived there for a couple of years. The partnership broke up after the outbreak of World War II, and went their separate ways.The ensuing 90 years has seen the Ruislip houses taken somewhat into the heart of the local population, with them nicknamed variously “the glass houses”, “Casa Blanca” and even “Blue Peter”, (due to their previously blue painted window frames). The houses did sustain some damage during World War II from a nearby bomb hit, but were repaired. In 1989 they were awarded listed status by English Heritage, and well cared for by their current inhabitants, true examples of modernism in metro-land.