The
Holly Lodge Estate is an
estateA housing estate is a group of buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Accordingly, a housing estate is usually built by a single contractor, with only a few styles of house or building design, so they tend to be uniform in appearance...
located on the site and
groundsAn estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is an "estate" because the profits from its produce and rents are sufficient to support the household in the house...
of a
villaA villa was originally an upper-class country house, though since its origins in Roman times the idea and function of a villa has evolved considerably. After the fall of the Republic, a villa became a small, fortified farming compound, gradually re-evolving through the Middle Ages into luxurious,...
built in 1798 by Sir Henry Tempest on the south-facing slopes of
HighgateHighgate is a village in North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath. Highgate rises to an altitude of at Highgate Wood and at North Hill.-Overview:...
,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
adjacent to Highgate Rise, now known as Highgate West Hill. The estate lands included Traitor's Hill, reputedly where members of the gunpowder plot had met to watch the Palace of Westminster blow up although since known to be false. This villa was later to be known as
The Holly Lodge and in 1809 a young actress, Harriot Mellon, took over the lease on the property.
The
Holly Lodge Estate is an
estateA housing estate is a group of buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Accordingly, a housing estate is usually built by a single contractor, with only a few styles of house or building design, so they tend to be uniform in appearance...
located on the site and
groundsAn estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is an "estate" because the profits from its produce and rents are sufficient to support the household in the house...
of a
villaA villa was originally an upper-class country house, though since its origins in Roman times the idea and function of a villa has evolved considerably. After the fall of the Republic, a villa became a small, fortified farming compound, gradually re-evolving through the Middle Ages into luxurious,...
built in 1798 by Sir Henry Tempest on the south-facing slopes of
HighgateHighgate is a village in North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath. Highgate rises to an altitude of at Highgate Wood and at North Hill.-Overview:...
,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
adjacent to Highgate Rise, now known as Highgate West Hill. The estate lands included Traitor's Hill, reputedly where members of the gunpowder plot had met to watch the Palace of Westminster blow up although since known to be false. This villa was later to be known as
The Holly Lodge and in 1809 a young actress, Harriot Mellon, took over the lease on the property. She married the banker
Thomas CouttsThomas Coutts was an Anglo-Scottish banker who was the founder of the banking house of Coutts & Co.He was the fourth son of John Coutts , who carried on business in Edinburgh as a corn factor and negotiator of bills of exchange, and who in 1742 was elected lord provost of the city...
in 1815 and enlarged the house and grounds by buying adjacent properties. The grounds were landscaped by
John Buonarotti PapworthJohn Buonarotti Papworth was a prolific architect, artist and a founder member of the Royal Institute of British Architects....
in 1825. When Harriot Mellon died in 1837 she left the house and her fortune to Mr Coutts' granddaughter, Angela Burdett.
Between 1849 and 1906 Holly Lodge became world famous as the rural retreat of one of the most remarkable women of the 19th century with grand galas and festivities taking place in the house and the meadows.
Queen VictoriaVictoria was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India of the British Raj from 1 May 1876, until her death...
and
Charles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens FRSA , pen-name "Boz", was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era and one of the most popular of all time. He created some of literature's most memorable characters. His novels and short stories have never gone out of print...
were both regular visitors to the estate.
Angela Burdett-Coutts had married in 1881 and after her death her husband put the property on the market. Being four miles (6 km) from the
CityThe City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
it failed to sell and in 1907 was put on the market again, divided into several lots. It still failed to sell and it was not until 1922, after the death of her husband, that even outlying parts of the estate were sold: South Grove House and Holly Terrace to the North (the latter mostly unchanged in appearance since then) and Brookfield Stud to the south (now replaced by housing). Eventually, in March 1923, the remainder of the estate, advertised as and subsequently always referred to as the Holly Lodge Estate, was sold for £45,000 and resold at the same price later that year to London Garden Suburbs Limited with the building of the first road of houses, on Bromwich Avenue, being started by the Central London Building Company Limited later that same year. The former 'lodge' was demolished during the building of the new roads of houses and no trace of the building now remains, apart from a plaque at the entrance to the gardens taken from the north wall.
Initially, the plan was to build houses on the entire
estateAn estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is an "estate" because the profits from its produce and rents are sufficient to support the household in the house...
, creating a new
housing estateA housing estate is a group of buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Accordingly, a housing estate is usually built by a single contractor, with only a few styles of house or building design, so they tend to be uniform in appearance...
, but due to slow sales and the need for drainage from the higher ground the land to the east of the new central road was instead acquired by the Lady Workers' Homes Limited to build blocks of rooms for single women moving to London in order to work as secretaries and clerks in the city on the Eastern side of the estate. The local
AldermanAn alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions. Historically the term could also refer to local municipal judges in small legal proceedings...
and others involved in the project are commemorated in an inscription on the ornamental pond in the central garden area. Built as an early
gated communityIn its modern form, a gated community is a form of residential community containing strictly controlled entrances for pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles, and sometimes characterised by a closed perimeter of walls and fences. Gated communities usually consist of small residential streets and...
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 roadsA private road is a road owned and maintained by a private individual, organization, or company rather than by a government. Consequently, unauthorized use of the road may be considered trespassing, and some of the usual rules of the road may not apply...
and stops a right of way being created.
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 CemeteryHighgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in Highgate, London, England. It is designated Grade II* on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.-History and setting:...
.
The blocks are four of five stories in height and are united by timber details, gable roofs with finials, red tiles and
casement windowA casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges. Casement windows typically are hinged at the side, sometimes at the top or bottom...
s 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.
Ownership of the mansion blocks was transferred a number of times and, by the early 1960s under the ownership of Peachey Properties, many of the blocks were in a state of disrepair. The
Metropolitan Borough of St PancrasThe Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras was a Metropolitan borough of the County of London between 1900 and 1965, when it was amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead and the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn to form the London Borough of Camden...
took them over on a 150-year lease in 1964 which devolved to the
London Borough of CamdenThe London Borough of Camden is a borough of London, England, which forms part of Inner London. The southern reaches of Camden form part of Central London.-History:...
the following year. Whilst Camden looks after the mansion blocks and the gardens in between the blocks, the remainder of the estate is managed and maintained by the Holly Lodge Estate Committee. The whole area remains a private estate and has been a
Conservation AreaA conservation area is a tract of land that has been awarded protected status in order to ensure that natural features, cultural heritage or biota are safeguarded...
since June 1992. Between 2004 and 2006 the exteriors of all the mansion blocks were renovated.
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 sadly 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
WandsworthWandsworth is an inner suburb of London on the south bank of the River Thames in south-west London. Wandsworth takes its name from the River Wandle, which enters the Thames at Wandsworth. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.Wandsworth appears in...
but has since been demolished.
External links
- hle.org.uk, Residents' web site with news, events and future plans.