Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Urban Design Study Featuring the Harringay Ladder
An interesting study looking at alternative housing models for cities including London, Shanghai and Sydney by Hassell, an international design practice. The London study centres on the Harringay Ladder's "row houses".
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Would you accept your fence coming down Nick, your garden becoming a shared space with neighbours and a public path going right through? Great opportunity for burglars. I bet those consultants wouldn't, wherever they themselves live!
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Not as unlikely as you think Matt. Originally a lot of the ladder houses had an access way which ran at the rear of the each garden, you can still see the remains from the passage on some roads. Public access was from a small alleyway (there is one at the Wightman end of my road) and bins were collected from there, so not from the front of the property as now.
The study is looking at possible ways of increasing urban density using existing properties and is interesting just for that, but as it is private property being looked at it in the Ladder study would be unlikely to happen.
Some properties were built with shared rear gardens. Next time there is a London squares open day try a visit to the west London squares in Notting Hill. A lot of them are just like this.
A bit closer to home there are similar shared rear garden squares in Somers Town
https://goo.gl/maps/UcCP5m5bVpN2
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Permalink Reply by Sean on
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I used to live on that exact rear square you flag, Michael - on the Charrington Street side. I really liked having a small private courtyard, but with access to a bigger green space for when I wanted to sit on the grass/ had friends round/ was feeling more sociable. It was gated and only residents and the council gardener had a key. The local kids loved it. Our current house backs onto a green space that is hardly ever used, but the council rejected our application to install a back gate so we could access it...A shame as if they allowed all of the houses to access, it has the potential to be a great community space.
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I think the Somers Town squares are also a good example of how mixed tenures can work. I was the estate manager for the area for a while in the late 80s.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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My Gran brought up her family here in Barnsley in a council estate. similarly to the example Michael gives below this was originally all open and shared space until someone put up a fence in the 1960s, and the rest followed.
I like how they describe the fact they have created so much new space (x number of new allotments created). Great, but the space is not new, they are our gardens, and already being used... I love architects.
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"One terrace house could be split into two single dwellings of similar size. Each unit could accommodate two bedrooms and be appropriate for a small, or single parent family."
Amazing.
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I agree that those "dwellings" look small, but that is what often happens anyway as houses are split into two flats. The advantage of the Somers Town Square I lived on was that although we all lived in smallish two bedroom flats, we all had access to a decent outside space. Too small for large families, but there were small families who loved living there because they could just let their children play outside in the square all day. So provided good housing for certain groups, but clearly not suitable for all. I think it's unlikely that enough people would agree to such a change on an existing street, but interesting for new developments and allowing better shared access to existing spaces.
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