The erection of artisans' dwellings is certainly a prominent feature in
the progress of building in the metropolis, and speculative builders who
work on a smaller scale would do well not to ignore the fact. The
Artisans, Laborers, and General Dwellings Company (Limited) has been
conspicuously successful in rearing large blocks of dwellings for
artisans, clerks, and others whose means necessitates the renting of a
convenient house at as low a rental as it is possible to find it. We
give an illustration of a terrace of first-class houses built by the
above company, who deserve great praise for the spirited and liberal
manner in which they are going to work on this the third of their London
estates--the Noel Park Estate, at Hornsey. On the estates at Shaftesbury
and Queen's Parks they have already built about three thousand houses,
employing therein a capital of considerably over a million sterling,
while at Noel Park they are rapidly covering an estate of one hundred
acres, which will contain, when completed, no less than two thousand six
hundred houses, to be let at weekly rentals varying from 6s. to 11s.
6d., rates and taxes all included. The object has been to provide
separate cottages, each in itself complete, and in so doing they have
not made any marked departure from the ordinary type of suburban terrace
plan, but adopting this as most favorable to economy, have added many
improvements, including sanitary appliances of the latest and most
approved type.
The most important entrance to Noel Park is by Gladstone Avenue, a road
60 ft. wide leading from the Green Lanes to the center of the estate. On
either side of this road the houses are set back 15 ft., in front of
which, along the edge of the pavement, trees of a suitable growth are
being planted, as also on all other roads on the estate. About the
center of Gladstone Avenue an oval space has been reserved as a site for
a church, and a space of five acres in another portion of the estate has
been set apart to be laid out as a recreation ground, should the
development of the estate warrant such an outlay. The remaining streets
are from 40 ft. to 50 ft. in width, clear of the garden space in front
of the houses. Shops will be erected as may be required.
[Illustration: SUGGESTIONS IN ARCHITECTURE.--A ROW OF COMFORTABLE
DWELLINGS.]
The drainage of the estate has been arranged on the dual system, the
surface water being kept separate from the sewage drains. Nowhere have
these drains been carried through the houses, but they are taken
directly into drains at the back, having specially ventilated manholes
and being brought through at the ends of terraces into the road sewers;
the ventilating openings in the roads have been converted into inlet
ventilators by placing upcast shafts at short intervals, discharging
above the houses. This system of ventilation was adopted on the
recommendation of Mr. W.A. De Pape, the engineer and surveyor to the
Tottenham Local Board.
All the houses are constructed with a layer of concrete over the whole
area of the site, and a portion of the garden at back. Every room is
specially ventilated, and all party walls are hollow in order to prevent
the passage of sound. A constant water supply is laid on, there being no
cisterns but those to the water-waste preventers to closets. All water
pipes discharge over open trapped gullies outside.
The materials used are red and yellow bricks, with terracotta sills, the
roofs being slated over the greater part, and for the purpose of forming
an agreeable relief, the end houses, and in some cases the central
houses, have red tile roofs, the roofs over porches being similarly
treated. The houses are simply but effectively designed, and the general
appearance of the finished portion of the estate is bright and cheerful.
All end houses of terraces have been specially treated, and in some
cases having rather more accommodation than houses immediately
adjoining, a slightly increased rental is required. There are five
different classes of houses. The first class houses (which we illustrate
this week) are built on plats having 16 ft. frontage by 85 ft. depth,
and containing eight rooms, consisting of two sitting rooms, kitchen,
scullery, with washing copper, coal cellar, larder, and water-closet on
ground floor, and four bedrooms over. The water-closet is entered from
the outside, but in many first-class houses another water-closet has
been provided on the first floor, and one room on this floor is provided
with a small range, so that if two families live in the one house they
will be entirely separated. The rental of these houses is about 11s. to
11s. 6d. per week. Mr. Rowland Plumbe, F.R.I.B.A., of 13 Fitzroy Square,
W., is the architect.--_Building and Engineering Times_.
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