Imagine a Hampstead Garden Suburb built for working people. Better still, if you’re in London take the Tube and get off at Acton East and visit the Old Oak Estate where you’ll find just such an estate.
We’ve looked at the work of the LCC’s Architects’ Department Housing of the Working Classes branch before – at the Millbank Estate, at Totterdown Fields, and at the White Hart Lane Estate. These are all fine arts and crafts-inspired estates but to Susan Beattie, Old Oak stands as ‘the culminating achievement of the Council’s venture into garden suburb planning before the first world war’ – a work of ‘splendid maturity’. (1)
Rising costs of land and labour were forcing the LCC to look to what were then the London fringes. In 1905, the Council purchased 54 acres in Hammersmith from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners at a cost of £29,858. Eight acres…
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Old School Garden 
You can take the boy out of planning, but you can’t take planning out of the boy’s boy! Jen
Ha ha 🙂 How’s the house hunting?
Still looking! It’s hard to find something not too big or too small, with a bit of character and a garden, in a location near shops, library etc and transport links that we both agree on! Plus there’s really very few properties coming on the market. We lost original buyers but got another the same day with more money! Hey ho, love to Deb x