14, Gainsborough Gardens

798-1/0/10251 GAINSBOROUGH GARDENS 28-APR-03 14

GV II

Detached house. 1894-95 by Horace Field. Red brick, tiled roof. Two storeys and attic; L-shaped plan with extension to rear. EXTERIOR: irregular seven-window front, with five bays to main part of elevation and a projecting two-bay section to the right. Tall brick chimney stack to right return. Four sash windows to ground floor of main elevation, three to first, all are 6/6-pane sashes within segmental arches and exposed boxing. Over entrance is a pair of oval lights. Cavetto cornice at eaves level. Single triple-light dormer to main stretch of roof. Projecting bay has a canted bay window at ground floor with triple mullion and transom windows; two sash windows above at first floor level, and a leaded casement window within the shaped gable at attic level. INTERIOR: not inspected. HISTORY: this was the last of the houses in Gainsborough Gardens to be built. Originally called 'The Small House', it was designed by Horace Field (1861-1948) for his mother's use. A drawing of this house together with the adjoining Nos 11-13 Gainsborough Gardens was exhibited at the 1894 Royal Academy. Field was a noted practitioner of the emerging Neo-Georgian style, and this subtle, restrained design shows the move away from the more decorated Arts and Crafts style as displayed elsewhere in Gainsborough Gardens. This private enclave, laid out on ground belonging to the Wells & Campden Charity Estate from 1882 onwards, possesses a fine collection of Late Victorian houses and is of considerable architectural interest.

SOURCES: David A.L. Saunders, 'Gainsborough Gardens, Hampstead, and the Estate of the Wells and Campden Charity Trust' (1975 typescript); Academy Architecture (1894), 50.