{"id":12760,"date":"2021-11-28T09:10:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-28T09:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=12760"},"modified":"2021-11-25T12:11:21","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T12:11:21","slug":"abbey-rd-south-west-hampstead-1988","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=12760","title":{"rendered":"Abbey Rd, South & West Hampstead – 1988"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\"Rowley<\/a>\n<\/div>
Rowley Way, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-54<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Camden council bought the Alexandra Road estate, part of the Eyre estate in North London and their architect Neave Browne designed this ziggurat style terrace in 1968, but construction only began in 1972. Browne saw the design, with vehicles restricted to the basement level as a better solution than tower blocks, which had been discredited by the Ronan point collapse and other problems. Family flats with small gardens opened onto the walkway at ground level, with smaller flats stepped back above them, so all got good light and air. The height of the 8 storey block at left gave some protection to the rest of the estate from the noise of the main West Coast railway line from Euston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had wrongly titled this Langtry Walk, which runs at the south of this estate a few yards away with a single lower row of flats by Browne built on similar principles. The name Langtry walk refers to royal mistress Lily Langtree, nicknamed “The Jersey Lily”, who, as local historians Dick Weindling and Marianne Colloms have shown<\/a> had no connection with the area but was co-opted by a resident whose house in Alexandra Road was to be demolished for the new estate.

The estate was Grade II* listed in 1993, remarkably early in its life and the first post-Second World War council estate and one of very few public housing schemes to acheive this status. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Snowman<\/a>\n<\/div>
Snowman House, Casterbridge, Abbey Rd, Camden, 1988 88-6d-55<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This photograph was made from Abbey Road, with the back of Rowley Way at the right of the picture. Snowman House at left is on Abbey Road and Casterbridge at the corner of this and Belsize Rd and both are in Camden Council’s Abbey Estate. Both were approved in 1965 and building completed in 1967. They have 20 storeys above ground and are 59.4m tall – about 195 feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Snowman<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A bridge across Abbey Road connects the Casterbridge tower with another Abbey estate building, Emminster, which has a parade of shops at ground level. Both the 8 storey Emminster and another block, Hinstock, are scheduled for demolition to make way for new affordable homes to be built, and improvements to the road layout. This bridge was still there in April 2021, but will presumably soon be gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Finchley<\/a>\n<\/div>
Finchley Rd, Camden, 1988 88-6d-35<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I walked back towards Kilburn Grange Park and then to West End Lane, and then across to FInchley Road. On my contact sheet this row of heraldic figures on the front garden wall of a house is labelled ‘Finchley Rod’, but it may have been a few yards down a side turning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"The<\/a>\n<\/div>
The Alcove Cafe, Finchley Rd, Camden, 1988 88-6d-36<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Alcove Cafe was in a part of the former station entrance for the Finchley Road (Midland) station which first opened as Finchley Rd & St John’s Wood in 1868. Around 1905 a row of seven shops and offices named Midland Crescent was added to the entrance on the west side of FInchley Road. The station closed in 1927 but the shops remained, being demolished in the early 1990s for the building of the O2 Centre here. Various planning, finanacial and other problems held up the new building which finally opened in 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Neasden<\/a>\n<\/div>
Neasden Electronics, Tandoori Cottage, Finchley Rd, Camden, 1988 88-6d-21<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Neasden Electronics was roughly opposite the former station, and these buildings have now been replaced by a hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Broadhurst<\/a>\n<\/div>
Broadhurst Gardens, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-22<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I walked down towards Swiss Cottage turning briefly into Broadhurst Gardens to make a picture of the rear of the St John’s Court flats on FInchley Rd, built in 1937-8, architect T P Bennett, with the lower three floors for the department store John Barnes, with five floors above housing 96 flats. In 1940 the store became part of the John Lewis Partnership. It closed as a department store in 1981 and the ground floor are now occupied by Waitrose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Swiss<\/a>\n<\/div>
Swiss Cottage, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-24<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I made a couple of photographs of new office buildings at Swiss Cottage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Swiss<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Swiss<\/a>\n<\/div>
Swiss Cottage, South Hampstead, Camden, 1988 88-6d-25<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And then went on the photograph Ye Olde Swiss Cottage, a Grade II listed Samuel Smiths pub originally built as an alpine-style chalet and called The Swiss Tavern. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Ye<\/a>\n<\/div>
Ye Olde Swiss Cottage, Finchley Rd, Camden, 1988 88-6d-26<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Various dates for the building of the chalet can be found on the web, including both 1804 and 1840. Possibly CAMRA<\/a> may be more reliable given the nature of the building, which they state “was built in 1830 by T Redmond and it stood next to a toll gate; travellers would stop at the tavern while waiting to pay their fees. There had been a gabled building on the site called Lausanne Cottage said to have been used by Charles II as a hunting lodge and their may have been an earlier pub called the Swiss Tavern.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t pop in for a pint of ‘Old Brewery Bitter’ (and probably it wasn’t then on tap) but continued my walk – and will do so in a later post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Click on any of the pictures to go to a larger version on the album 1988 London Photos from where you can browse the whole album. Pictures there are usually in file name order which differs from the order in which they were taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camden council bought the Alexandra Road estate, part of the Eyre estate in North London and their architect Neave Browne designed this ziggurat style terrace in 1968, but construction only began in 1972. Browne saw the design, with vehicles restricted to the basement level as a better solution than tower blocks, which had been discredited … Continue reading Abbey Rd, South & West Hampstead – 1988<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2867,298,6140,6141,6144,1596,4487,6133,6138,17,1343,6149,6145,6136,6147,3727,83,943,6137,6139,6134,6148,6143,6146,6142,6135,6150],"class_list":["post-12760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-own-work","tag-2867","tag-camden","tag-casterbridge","tag-finchley-rd","tag-finchley-rd-midland","tag-flats","tag-june","tag-kiloburn","tag-langtry-walk","tag-london","tag-london-photos","tag-moderne","tag-neasden-electronics","tag-neave-browne","tag-o2-centre","tag-offices","tag-peter-marshall","tag-pub","tag-rowley-way","tag-snowman-house","tag-south-hampstead","tag-st-johns-court","tag-station-entrance","tag-tandoori-cottage","tag-the-alcove-cafe","tag-west-hampstead","tag-ye-olde-swiss-cottage"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12760"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12775,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12760\/revisions\/12775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}