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| Redington Road/Templewood Avenue |
This final entry on the Frognal area of Hampstead focuses on Redington Road and Templewood Avenue, both part of the Redington/Frognal Conservation Area. Redington Road is one of the longest streets in the area, curving generally westward from Frognal past Heath Drive, then turning back to the northwest to terminate at the Heath. Templewood Avenue branches off from Redington, just west of Heath Drive, then parallels Redington’s path up to the Heath.
The Frognal end of Redington Road was among the earliest developments in the area, dating from the mid-1870s. The Heath end of Redington and Templewood Avenue contain some of the grandest and most expensive homes in the Frognal area, many worth substantially more than £10 million.
1 Templewood Gardens
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| 1 Templewood Gardens |
As far as I know, there is nothing architecturally or historically significant about this home; I just like it. Unlike most of the homes in the area, this is on a large, open corner lot—two corners, in fact, one on either side. There are no walls, hedges or trees to block your view. This is now the residence of the Malaysian ambassador to the U.K., one of three ambassadorial residences that I know of in the Frognal area.
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| 15 Templewood Avenue |
15 Templewood Avenue
Looking at the photograph, you might think this a charming house built of pretty plum-colored brick with a nice tiled roof and attractive rusticated quoins, perhaps worthy of its Grade II listing. You’d be right, but you’d also be missing most of the story.
Take a look at the bird’s eye view below (from Bing.com). Yep, that enormous mansion is the same house, most of it invisible from the street because the house was built at a right angle to, rather than facing, the road. Two of the other houses featured in this post are similarly configured (St. John’s Vicarage at No. 6 and The Wabe at No. 66, Redington Road). I guess architect C.H.B. Quennell hadn’t heard the term “curb appeal” when he designed this house in 1905.
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| Bird's Eye View, 15 Templewood Avenue |
The original house has been modified and expanded, of course—for example, I rather doubt that the massive two-level solarium running along the back wall was an original feature. A 2001 newspaper article described the house as “a four-storey, 8,200 sq ft home on a double plot, with 9/10 bedrooms . . . .” Not mentioned, and not visible in the photograph (but visible from the street, if you peek over the wall and through the hedges) is a children’s playhouse that some less fortunate might consider a fine family home.
2-4 Redington Road
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| 2-4 Redington Road |
Development of Redington Road began in 1876 at the Frognal end with, among others, this “wonderfully subtle” pair of semi-detached houses by architect Philip Webb. Both are listed Grade II*, indicating that they are considered “particularly important buildings of more than special interest.”
At present, No. 2 is covered by scaffolding, so I have not seen it. The street view to No. 4 is obscured by foliage, but you can see it angle-on from the driveway. It is a lovely Arts and Crafts-style house of yellow brick, with a vine-covered brick arch over the entry. (The photograph is another bird’s eye view from taken from Bing.com.)
6 (“St. John’s Vicarage”) and 6½ (“The Cottage”) Redington Road
A study in contrasts. The “unrepentantly Gothic” No. 6—to the left in the photo—was built in 1876 by T.K. Green as the vicarage of St. John-at-Hampstead Church. The ground floor used to have stained glass showing John the Baptist and a picture of the church. Although the stained glass is gone, the house still has a distinctly ecclesiastical tone, from the turret to the peaked entryway to the leaded glass.
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| 6 (St. John's Vicarage) & 6 1/2 (The Cottage) Redington Road |
No. 6 1/2—the modern house to the right—is called “The Cottage.” It was built in 2007 and designed by architect John McAslan. When the developer put it on the market for £6 million in 2008, the sales agent pitched it not as a primary residence, but merely as the buyer’s “place in London” that he or she could “just lock up and leave.” A newspaper article about the house is available here.
16 Redington Road (“One Oak”)
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| 16 Redington Road (One Oak) |
This lovely listed home was designed in 1889 by a founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement, A.H. Mackmurdo, and according to British Heritage, was “designed in an innovative style for its date.” The interior is “noted to retain many of Mackmurdo's stylized and richly molded doorways, skirting boards, cornices and fireplaces.” I haven’t seen the interior, obviously, but even viewed from the street, the house exudes a palpable, country tranquility.
27a Redington Road
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| 27a Redington Road |
39 Redington Road
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| 39 Redington Road |
Another house with a copper-domed turret, and a pretty fancy one, too—the house was aptly described as “well-embellished” in the Redington/Frognal Conservation Area statement. The house is on a corner lot at Redington and Oak Hill Avenue, so there are good views from two sides. This is the front view, showing the plaster panels in the eaves and a large plaque bearing the house number. The Oak Hill side offers a view of a balcony to the rear of the house, a two-storey bay window and a plaque bearing the date of construction, 1903.
54 Redington Road
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| 54 Redington Road |
66 Redington Road (“The Wabe”)
This is another house that doesn’t present its best face to the road, but is well worth a look all the same. The house was designed and built in 1910 by William Garnett, an educator and an ardent fan of Lewis Carroll, for himself. The name, “The Wabe,” is derived from Jabberwocky:
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
The design of the house strives to be similarly fanciful, consisting of an eclectic mix of styles and elements. You can get some sense of this from the street view, from the juxtaposition of the country-cottage entry, the sharply angled extension to the right ending in an six-light bay window, and what appears to be a crenellated tower rising from the middle of the house. The Google Maps view from above shows an irregular polygonal house, roughly arranged around the south-facing views. If any of the original interior features are intact, this is one house I’d love to tour.
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This imposing Neo-Georgian structure is described by Wade as “architecturally significant,” although it is not listed. The house was built sometime between 1920 and 1927, and was designed by architect Sir Edward Maufe, most famous as the architect of Guildford Cathedral. Although situated among houses of similar size, this one conveys a gravitas its neighbors fail to muster.
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| 81 Redington Road |
For references, see Part 1 here.
Additional reference: Anderson, Modern London Houses: Camden: Hampstead, available at http://homepage.mac.com/doive/houses/hampstead.html (accessed 22 January 2011).
Great blog!
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