Description

787/0/10168 HARVARD ROAD
11-MAR-04 Chiswick
3-9

II
Pair of semi-detached houses. 1878-9. Based on a design by Richard Norman Shaw. Stock brick, tiled roof. Two storeys plus attic. Rectangular plan, with long rear extensions.
EXTERIOR: each pair is symmetrical, with a panelled door to the outside of a large canted bay with mullioned windows, the upper lights of which have centrally set square panes. The doors, with richly moulded panels (some now glazed) have overlights and are set within porches carried on slender consoles. At first floor balcony level are railings of painted wood, with turned balusters and orb-capped posts: behind are tripartite windows with square panes, the central French windows having a fan-glazed light over. The narrow single window over the doors comprises a 9/9-pane sash, with leaded lights with small square panes to the upper registers. The eaves have a deep cavetto moulding (or coving), of rendered plaster, stoppping short of either end and the centre. The segment-roofed dormer windows set within the tall roof slope have mullions and transoms, the lower lights being sash windows, the upper with more of the small square leaded panes. Very tall chimneystacks to the centre. Small windows to the side elevations, the upper parts of the gable being tile-hung. To the rear, large catslide roofs sweeping down to first floor height. Various velux windows have been inserted, as has a small conservatory to No 9 (other houses not seen to rear).
INTERIOR: not inspected apart from No 9. The front rooms were originally drawing rooms with dining rooms behind, served by kitchens and sculleries in the rear extension. The first floor had three bedrooms, and the attic four smaller rooms.
HISTORY: these houses correspond closely with houses designed for Bedford Park by the leading Victorian architect, Richard Norman Shaw: these designs were published in 'The Building News', Nov 16 1877 and can thus be regarded as Shaw designs. The date of the lease for No 9 (originally called No 4 Avenue Villas) is October 1878. The houses, then known as Queen Anne Villas, first appear in the rate books in 1883. They embody the principles of domestic architecture at its most fashionable, and their original name made explicit their place in the Queen Anne Revival. They are remarkably unaltered in terms of their frontage, and this small enclave in Gunnersbury forms an interesting continuation of the Bedford Park approach to house design amid ther altogether more conventional housing of the area.

SOURCES: rate books; information from owner; Andrew Saint, 'Richard Norman Shaw' (1975); T. Affleck Greeves, 'Bedford Park. The First Garden Suburb' (Bedford Park Society, rev ed. 1999).

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670369

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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