Holly Lodge Estate
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The Holly Lodge Estate is a housing estate in Highgate, north London.
Early history
Holly Lodge Estate is located on the
Character of the Estate
Initially, the plan was to build houses on the entire
The local alderman and others involved in the project are commemorated in an inscription on the ornamental pond in the central garden area.
The estate now lies in a
Private roads
Built as an early gated community, the estate currently has two main access roads, the upper one to Highgate West Hill closing every night until mid-morning, the lower one to Swains Lane being closed randomly with access then controlled by estate staff. This maintains the private status of the estate roads and stops a right of way being created.
Acquisition as social housing
Ownership of the
As the bedsitting rooms and flats in the Makepeace Avenue and Oakeshott Avenue mansion blocks were built without kitchens, a block was built at 30 Makepeace Avenue to serve as a centre for the community and included a restaurant, reading and meeting rooms and a small theatre. Behind it were three lawn tennis courts (with another two below Langbourne Avenue) where annual tennis tournaments were held.
Towards the late 1950s this community block fell into decline and by the time Camden bought their lease on the mansion blocks it was derelict. After a Lands Tribunal, the block with its unique facilities was demolished and a new building with 25 one-person flats for the elderly, together with some communal facilities, was constructed on the site. Minutes of the Council at the time state that the community facilities would be replaced in the new building; however, this failed to materialise and only a small community centre on the ground floor now serves the estate.
For many years Camden retained the policy of only placing women on the estate but that has since lapsed. The only known other estate built for single women was in Wandsworth but has since been demolished.
Design
Langbourne Mansions was built first and provided 88 self-contained flats which have changed little in the intervening years. The mansion blocks on Makepeace Avenue and Oakeshott Avenue though were designed from the outset as bed-sitting rooms, sometimes with bedroom or kitchen alcoves, and offered an acceptable way for single women to live near to London on their own. Only three flats in the whole of Makepeace Mansions and Holly Lodge Mansions had their own bathroom (one for a particular tenant, one for the caretaker and the remaining one for the stoker for the central boiler). The remainder all had shared bathroom and toilet facilities, which is still the case for seven of the blocks even today. Makepeace Mansions originally provided 269 rooms and Holly Lodge Mansions on Oakeshott Avenue had 408 flats but later conversions have seen this number reduced as bedsits have given way to self-contained flats. New regulations have seen a start on the conversion of the remaining bedsits to self-contained accommodation during 2005.
The design of the mansion blocks on each avenue follow the same design concept with variations from group to group. From a distance they appear as 'Tudor Cliffs' as they tower above the adjoining houses and which is aided by the topography with not only the fall of the hill to the south but also to the east adjoining Highgate Cemetery.
The blocks are four or five stories in height and are united by timber details, gable roofs with finials, red tiles and casement windows usually with south-facing balconies. The rear and side elevations are in a very different plain and minimal style and overall reflect the modern design of the 1920s rather than the use of the vernacular.
In fiction
The original house and estate are used as a location in Kristen Callihan's book Moonglow.
References
- ^ "Holly Lodge Estate - Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy" (PDF). London Borough of Camden. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
- ^ "HOLLY LODGE ESTATE: CONS ERVATION AREA STATEMENT". London Borough of Camden. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
- ^ "Holly Lodge Regeneration". McBains. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
External links
- hle.org.uk, Residents' web site with news, events and future plans.
See also
- The Buildings of England London 4: North. Bridget Cherry and ISBN 0-300-09653-4.