EPW049464 ENGLAND (1935). Frithwood Avenue, Northwood, 1935

This set of photos EPW049462, EPW049463, EPW049464 and EPW049466 have similarly been bothering me for a while! Thanks to Maurice and everyone who has taken the time to try and track them down. However, think I may have had one of those eureka moments and finally found these in Northwood at around the TQ096917 area. What does anyone else think, shall we pin them?



Angharad

Having spent some time 'wondering' around modern aerial images of various possible locations, mostly around outer areas of southwest London and Surrey, I have come up with nothing. These houses stand on a broad grid of roads (avenues) which seems to suggest somewhere that was developed in a rather structure way.



The pictures EPW049462, EPW049463, EPW049464 are followed by a space and then EPW049466 all show different aspects of the same collection of buildings. Before them EPW049461 is a shot of Longbenton near Newcastle while those from EPW049467 onwards are of the Brentford - Great West Road area of west London. Neither neighbour seems to suggest glue to a possible location.



These houses are on large plots and well spaced out. I agree with comments that suggest the work of Lutyens and his contemporaries - it all looks very 'Homes and Gardens'... indeed housekeepers and gardeners. Several of the groups of buildings not only contain the main house but also garages, out houses and possible 'cottages' or flats for the servants. We could not tell if it was a Monday as the washing would not be out to dry anyway!! However, compared with somewhat small suburban developments (for example that in EPW049509), these gardens have generous portions given over to the production of vegetables and fruit, in addition to extensive areas of grass and herbaceous borders. There is just one tennis court …. I suspect there would be more today along with swimming pools!



There is an interesting relationship between the grid of roads and the relatively parallel arrangement of the houses and the size of plots. As the plots get bigger there is normally less relationship between the orientation of the houses to the road and the houses to other houses. For example in Virginia Water (average house price now £1M - 2013) the large plots have a much more random pattern of houses and irregular shaped boundaries. The rectangular plots seen here are much more like those in such places as Hutton or St John's Hill, Woking but are not big enough.



There are several problems searching for such features as these houses in the modern landscape. These include the growth of tree cover that obscurers the view of the gardens, the changes made to many houses over time and the development of back gardens into new housing often on new cul-de-sac roads. While they offer a distinctive, if difficult to track down pattern, these houses may offer a very different aspect nearly eighty years after the picture was taken.



It remains a mystery to me.

This and the next one look as though they should be in Oxford.

I've had a look at the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens who designed very grand houses which might be found in a location such as this but I can't recognise any of his work here.