Harrow
Like its neighbour Brent, Harrow features a wealth of interwar modernist designs, and comparatively little from the post war period. The borough has a variety of interwar housing, with private houses, small estates and apartment blocks all represented. The best collection of private houses is on the former Warren Estate in Stanmore, with contrasting groups of houses by Gerald Lacoste and Douglas Wood Architects. Further west in Pinner are two Art Deco apartment blocks, Capel Gardens and Elm Park Court, both built in anticipation of the suburbs becoming a mini-Hollywood. Staying with the silver screen, Harrow has a number of Art Deco cinemas most prominently the former Rayners Lane Grosvenor, now a religious centre, designed by local architect F.E. Bromige.
Harrow also features a couple of modernist interwar churches just a short walk from each other, the Scandinavian influenced St Alban by A.W. Kenyon and the equally austere St. Paul’s Parish Church by N.F. Cachemaille-Day. Work by the influential W.T. Curtis and H.W. Burchett for Middlesex County Council abounds in the borough. The pair oversaw the building of schools, clinics and hospitals all over the now disappeared county, with Stanburn school in Stanmore and Kenton Library being among their best work. Post World War II, the most interesting buildings are the private houses around Stanmore, with two Gerd Kaufmann designs in particular, 16 Kerry Avenue and 3 Aylmer Close, the highlights. As in Brent, post war public housing is disappointing with a couple of better efforts by HKPA at Stanmore and borough architect G. J. Foxley in Pinner.
Harrow also features a couple of modernist interwar churches just a short walk from each other, the Scandinavian influenced St Alban by A.W. Kenyon and the equally austere St. Paul’s Parish Church by N.F. Cachemaille-Day. Work by the influential W.T. Curtis and H.W. Burchett for Middlesex County Council abounds in the borough. The pair oversaw the building of schools, clinics and hospitals all over the now disappeared county, with Stanburn school in Stanmore and Kenton Library being among their best work. Post World War II, the most interesting buildings are the private houses around Stanmore, with two Gerd Kaufmann designs in particular, 16 Kerry Avenue and 3 Aylmer Close, the highlights. As in Brent, post war public housing is disappointing with a couple of better efforts by HKPA at Stanmore and borough architect G. J. Foxley in Pinner.