Tower Gardens Garden Suburb

On Sunday afternoon I went to see some more of the places that were taking part in Open House weekend, and got the tube to Wood Green to go and see the Tower Gardens Garden Suburb, which is one fo the first garden suburbs in the world, being much older than the more famous Hampstead Garden Suburb.

It arose out of an 1885 Act of Parliament, which gave the London County Council the right to puchase land to build houses for the poor.   At the time the land was purchased, it was farmland, and outside London, although the tube had reached it.

Started in 1901, and finished in 1904, the Tower Gardens Garden Suburb is laid out as a series of small streets of terrace houses, with an enclosed park at one end, and their own rather ornate primary school.

The hosues are two up two down, with small gardens at the front and larger ones at the back - the sort of little cottages that most of us would love to live in, although they're not really big enough for a family with children today.     Each street is different, where it is in the shape of the roofs, or the arches at the entrance, or the windows, or the doors - and this was deliberate.

No. 5 Tower Gardens Road was organising the open day, and their living room was being used to hand out leaflets for the self-guided tour of the estate, and also to serve tea or coffee and a cake to raise money for a thalassemia charity.    

Having mis-read the address as Tower Gardens, I wandered all along Tower Gardens Road as far as Tower Gardens, which is a delightful little square located behind iron gates.   Having failed to find any No. 5, I asked the young gentleman who was sitting on one of the benches and obviously had a copy of the guide, where it was, and he directed me back where I had come from.     Having done quite a bit of walking, I decided to have my cup of tea and a cake before I started the tour and learned quite a bit about the estate from the host - such things as the fact that if you didn't pay your rent on time, they just put your possessions out on the pavement.   Also, if a tenant married, they had to pay ten shillings extra for their wife, as she was regarded as a lodger.   While I was enjoying my cup of teac, who should come in but the young gentleman I had spoken to earlier, who it turned out lives only a few minutes' walk away from me - it's an awfully small world!

The tour took about an hour or so, and the notes provided were quite informative.   It was originally built to provide good quality healthy accommodation for the poor from East London - the working poor, that is.   You had to have a job and be able to pay the rent to get a house there.    The rent office was next to Tower Gardens, and I assume the rent officer knew personally every person who lived on the estate.

Now, many of the houses have been sold off, others have been taken over by housing associations and others still remain as Council property.

It is a very peaceful place to live, with very little traffic, and no sound of loud music, despite the very mixed population.