Description

TQ 07 SE FAIRHOLME

787/43/10039 Nos. 1-72 and community hall

GV II

Development of 72 charitable houses and bungalows 'for the poor' with community hall, 1934 by T Cecil Howitt at the bequest of Elizabeth J Jones of Fulham. Two-inch Berkshire bricks with thick joints, Staffordshire tile roofs and tile hanging, tall stacks. Formal and symmetrical layout around a quadrangle, with the central community hall opposite the entrance between Nos. 36 and 37, and with wings along Staines Road.
All the houses are paired or in groups of three, linked by arches to the next group. Nos. 1-8 and Nos. 65-72 are symmetrical compositions of 2 storeys facing the Staines Road, Nos. 3-6 and Nos. 67-70 a single unit with tile-hung upper floors, flanked by pairs of brick houses. Nos. 7-8 and Nos 65-66 mark the entrance to Fairholme with Dutch gables, diapering and 2 stacks. Their Arts and Crafts form is repeated in Nos. 13-14 and Nos 59-60, These houses have lead torcheres formerly holding window boxes. Nos. 9-12 and Nos 61-64 are a each a symmetrical pair of2-storey houses with hipped roofs and central stacks, flanked by deeper roofs which fall to single storey to either side and continue over archways linking adjoining houses. Doors in centre and in reveals. Nos. 15 and 16, and Nos. 57 and 58 are paired bungalows, as are Nos.20-21, Nos 26-27,46-7 and Nos. 52-3, with side entrances, projecting windows and central stack over steep hipped roof. Nos. 17-19,28-30,43-45, and 54-56 are 3-unit houses with a central door and one either side, 2 Dutch gables and 2 stacks, which are important as marking the corners of the quadrangle. Nos. 22-25 and Nos. 48-51 are similar to Nos. 3-6 and Nos. 67-70, with tile-hung first floors set in stepped rootline which rises from one storey on either side to 2-storey centrepiece with central moulded stack. Nos. 31-34 and Nos. 39-42 are similar but plainer, without the tile hanging. Nos. 35 and 38 (single-storey) with respectively Nos. 36 and 37 (2 storeys with Dutch gables) form 'bookends' to the central community hall. All these units are linked by single storey archways leading to side doors and private rear gardens. Original windows survive in part, with thick white mullions and black leaded casements. Some houses have scroll-moulded door cases. Deep eaves with rosette mouldings.
INTERIORS: not inspected, but were built with oak floors and many fitted cupboards.
COMMUNITY HALL: 7-bay arcade with timber columns and lintel. Cupola with copper cladding and seagull weathervane and clock.
INTERIOR: a panelled reading room or meeting hall, with a decorative plaster barrel vault in an early seventeenth century style, and an octagonal 'rest room' as well as a kitchen and service facilities. The estate was remarkable for its date in having a communal hot water system.
Fairholme was built on the site of a market garden, in accordance with the will of Mrs Elizabeth J Jones of Fulham, who left a sum of money for building homes for people in needy circumstances, whether through age or ill health. It was admired at the time for its 'artistic layout and the pleasing design of the homes' - Middlesex Chronicle 15 February 1936- and its combination of Arts and Crafts detailing with a very formal, symmetrical layout and excellent materials still fOn11S a dramatic contrast to the unimaginative quality of most 1930s domestic building. T Cecil Howitt (1889-1968) was Nottingham's leading architect of the twentieth century. He designed a remarkable amount of low-cost public housing in the 1920s for the City Council before entering private practice and becoming a noted designer of commercial offices and civic buildings. This is his only work in the south of England.
(Sources: Middlesex Chronicle: 15 February 1936: 13-14; Pevsner N and Cherry B: The Buildings of England: London 3: North West: 1992: 415; Scoffi1am E: A Vision of the City, The Architecture of TC Howitt: Nottinghamshire County Council: 1992: 38-9).

Listing NGR: TQ0904373625

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26657304

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