Wood Field

Wood Field is a block of 46 flats and maisonettes built between 1947 and 1949 by architect Donald Hanks McMorran of the practice Farquharson and McMorran. It was commissioned by Hampstead Borough Council and constructed in response to housing shortages following the Second World War, specifically to replace houses destroyed by bombing on 9 September 1940.

The building is constructed in brown Leicestershire brick with concrete floors, tiled and asphalted roofs, and brick stacks. It is arranged as a tripartite terrace of three and four-storey blocks set over basements on sloping sites. The three four-storey blocks have white rendered gable ends. The layout places maisonettes on the upper floors, with small flats and bedsits for elderly residents at the end of each block. A distinctive feature of the design is that all living rooms and kitchens face west, set behind balconies, while all bedrooms face east, positioned over basement stores and a covered arcaded play area. Seven staircases and five lifts were incorporated—the inclusion of lifts in a four-storey residential block was exceptional for the period—eliminating the need for galleries.

The architecture exemplifies McMorran's distinctive neo-classical style, combining Soanic and Scandinavian design principles. The five main staircases with lifts are accessed through doors set in stone architrave surrounds beneath flat hoods with square entablatures, supported on curved console brackets, with large staircase windows above. Balconies are set within the building line and supported on openwork steel girders with steel balustrades. All windows are timber sashes with small regular panes; those serving living rooms feature margin lights and are supported on steel chains, while fourth-floor windows have keystones. The smaller flats have their own separate entrances and staircases in the end returns. The east elevation overlooks the arcaded play area, with projecting balconies to the living rooms of the upper small flats at the ends and to the bedrooms in the centre of each third-floor penthouse section.

Internally, the staircases feature steel balustrading. Many living rooms retain their original corner tiled fireplaces. Built-in cupboards and heated airing cupboards were incorporated throughout from the outset. The dwellings were exceptionally well-equipped for their date.

The building was officially opened on St George's Day, 23 April 1949, by the Honourable John Fremantle, Chairman of the Housing Committee of Hampstead Borough Council. A plaque carved by Sidney Pool commemorates this opening. The scheme had been conceived in 1943 and was regarded as "a potent symbol of regeneration and hope". The Borough Council specified that the new housing should have a traditional character reflecting the eighteenth-century architecture for which Hampstead is noted. The names Barn Field and Wood Field derive from old field names on the site.

The scheme was exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition of May 1946 with perspectives showing it much as built. It was awarded the RIBA's London Architecture Medal for the best building of 1948. This represents one of McMorran's first and arguably most lavish residential blocks, demonstrating his characteristic lean, spare but exceptionally well-proportioned classicism at its finest.