11, 12 and 13, Gainsborough Gardens, Camden

Terrace of three houses built 1893-5 by the architect Horace Field for Sir Alfred Baring Garrod, MD, as part of the Gainsborough Gardens development which extended from 1882 to 1895.

The terrace follows a symmetrical composition with two identical outer houses, Nos. 11 and 13, flanking a central gabled three-bay element at No. 12, which has an asymmetrical facade with its entrance positioned to the right. The buildings are constructed in red-brown brick in English bond with flush red brick dressings that form a chequer-work pattern at the angles of the canted bays. The roofs are plain tile mansards. Windows throughout are small-paned horned timber sashes in exposed boxes with flush red brick surrounds under cambered gauged brick arches; attic storey windows are small-paned timber casements.

Tall brick chimney stacks articulate each house. Those framing No. 12 are enriched with angle shafts and straddle pronounced gable parapets. The entrances to Nos. 11 and 13 are set back in narrow two-storey outer bays. The main elevation comprises two storeys, attics and basement, with two-storey and basement canted bays to the outer wings. At the rear, the basement sits at ground level.

Nos. 11 and 13 each have a four-panelled door under an overlight, almost a fanlight. No. 11 retains small-paned sashes throughout, while No. 13 has a central small-paned doorway at ground floor level of the canted bay. Each possesses a dormer extending from the mansard under a sloping roof with exposed rafter feet, containing five small-paned casements.

No. 12 features a fine enriched rubbed-brick doorcase with an eared architrave beneath a flat moulded rubbed-brick cornice. The frieze contains short moulded panels or pilaster strips at the angles and centrally acting as a keystone. The door itself has three horizontal panels with the upper section glazed and is flanked by small-paned margin lights. The entrance is reached by broad stone steps. To the left is a tripartite sash with a cambered arch carrying a flat red brick keystone. Above are three closely spaced sashes set in from the corner. Upper-floor windows sit tightly beneath a deep moulded eaves cornice that continues to the return elevations and rear. A small lunette fills the gable.

At the rear, the central section has a full-height canted bay flanked by a single sash. The outer bays have paired windows above basement-level doorways; No. 11 retains its margin-glazed door. At half-landing level are part-glazed doors with fixed margin lights; No. 11 retains its balcony, while No. 13 has an altered doorway leading to a late 20th-century extension of no special interest. The rear dormers resemble those at the front, with those to Nos. 11 and 13 containing five small-paned casements and that to No. 12 containing seven.

Internally, Nos. 11 and 13 each contain a close-string stair running from basement to first floor with square newels, drop finials, robust turned balusters and a moulded oak rail. The upper-floor stairs are simpler with stick balusters, square newels with ball finials and a simple oak rail. No. 11 has a dado-panelled hall and staircase with cyma-moulded cornices. Ground-floor doors are three-panelled in deep moulded architraves; upper-floor doors are two-panelled. No. 11 has lost its chimneypieces. No. 13 retains marble chimneypieces, some with moulded brackets, others with moulded rondels. Cast-iron fireplaces and grates feature floral tiled slips, notably one depicting raspberries and another at first-floor level depicting Aesop's fables. Some fireplaces have been restored with elements reintroduced.

No. 12 was refurbished around 1937 to simplify the running of the house with reduced staff. The stair is close-string with square newels and turned balusters, featuring a panelled dado using the same mouldings as Nos. 11 and 13. Ground-floor doors are three-panelled, upper-floor doors two-panelled. The rear drawing room is fully panelled and contains a fine pedimented chimneypiece with a panelled overmantel. The dining room features a marble chimneypiece with cast-iron fittings. The first floor has no chimneypieces. The basement contains a robust cast-iron chimneypiece, possibly introduced, in what was formerly used as a garage. The 1937 drawings show plans for a dumb waiter and other modifications but provide no details of the chimneypieces.

Gainsborough Gardens was laid out between 1882 and 1895 on land belonging to the Wells and Campden Charity Trust. Plots were developed speculatively under close scrutiny by the Trust and their surveyor H.S. Legg. The development adopted the newly heralded ethos shown at Bedford Park in Chiswick, developed from 1875, where different architectural styles cohere informally within a planned leafy environment. E.J. May, recently appointed as principal architect at Bedford Park, designed the first building at Nos. 3 and 4 Gainsborough Gardens—a significant step both architecturally and historically in changing attitudes towards the emerging suburbs.

This context includes steps taken to limit expansion onto Hampstead Heath and the preservation of Parliament Hill Fields. This achievement is attributed to C.E. Maurice, who built and lived at No. 9A and was married to the sister of Octavia Hill, philanthropist and founder of the National Trust.

Horace Field was among the most accomplished and well-known architects working in Gainsborough Gardens, renowned for his work in the emerging neo-Georgian manner. He was a pupil of the eminent architect Sir John Burnet in Glasgow and London. Most of his work was commercial, including banks such as Lloyds Bank in Hampstead (listed Grade II) and railway company offices for the North Eastern Railway in London and York (the York building also listed Grade II). His Hampstead work included No. 14 Gainsborough Gardens, known as The Small House, completed in 1893 for his mother, and Wellside, the house on Well Walk at the entrance to Gainsborough Gardens, also completed in 1893. The designs for Nos. 11-13 were exhibited and published by the Royal Academy in 1894.