Belvoir Estate

A social housing scheme built between 1983 and 1987 by Islington Architect's Department under Chris Purslow, with Gerry Jury as job architect.

Construction

The buildings use load-bearing London stock and red bricks in cavity wall construction, with clay roof tiles and timber window and door frames.

Site Layout

The site forms an acute triangle bounded by Hornsey Rise to the west, Hillrise Road to the east, and Hornsey Rise Gardens to the north. It is divided by a drive called Marie Lloyd Gardens, which runs west from Hillrise Road before curving north to emerge at Hornsey Rise Gardens. A pedestrian close further south also leads west from Hillrise Road.

Housing Types and Distribution

The estate ranges from one to three storeys and comprises a mixture of sheltered flats, some designed for disabled people with mobility impairment, and three- and four-bedroom family houses. The sheltered accommodation occupies the south of the site and includes 20 flats and 4 bungalows, each with a single bedroom. The houses, arranged in short terraces, occupy the north of the site.

Sheltered Flats

The flats at 1-7a/b Hillrise Road, 11-15a/b Hillrise Road, and 34-38a/b Hornsey Rise are arranged in short terraces of two-storey buildings. Each unit contains two flats with separate access. The ground-floor flats are designed for disabled people with mobility impairment and feature a large, gated porch for a battery car or wheelchair. The turning circles required for residents' wheelchairs or mobility scooters influenced the broad curves of the terraces and stairs. The upper-floor flats, intended for able-bodied residents, have their own front doors reached via external stairs. The block at 34-38a/b Hornsey Rise sits on a retaining wall above street level and is accessed via gated steps and a pedestrian walkway. The block at 1-7a/b Hillrise Road is set within the estate boundary and accessed from a gated entrance on Hillrise Road. Number 9 Hillrise Road is a three-storey building with a south-facing, semi-circular common room.

Edith Cavell Close

This is a roughly symmetrical group of four L-plan bungalows. Each has one bedroom and a terrace and is designed for wheelchair access.

Family Houses

To the north are several terraced groups of housing for larger families. Numbers 1-6 and 9 Marie Lloyd Gardens are two-storey, three-bedroom houses, while numbers 6-7, recessed from the terrace line, each have one bedroom. Numbers 10-13 Marie Lloyd Gardens are four two-storey houses with three bedrooms and large terraces on both floors. Adjoining these are 14-15, two houses of three storeys and four bedrooms, with access to a flying freehold forming a carriageway arch into Hornsey Rise Gardens. East of the archway, 63-65 Hornsey Rise Gardens are two three-storey narrow-frontage houses with four bedrooms. Numbers 17-27 Hillrise Road form a crescent of six houses with three storeys and four bedrooms.

Exterior Details

The housing is mainly of London stock brick laid in stretcher bond, with contrasting sections in red brick and red brick details and dressings. Windows and the frameworks to sections of panelling are stained timber, and roofs are shallowly pitched and covered in clay tiles. Front doors are generally painted white and glazed with a grid of ten lights, or are solid timber painted royal blue. The grid is a recurrent device appearing in window arrangements, metal canopies and frameworks, gates, and panelling. Along with quadrant and semi-circular details elsewhere, and blocks and bands of contrasting brickwork, it creates a strong sense of geometry in the elevations.

1-7a/b Hillrise Road, 11-15a/b Hillrise Road and 34-38a/b Hornsey Rise

The front elevations of these two-storey groups of sheltered flats have square windows and bands of red brickwork. Prominent red-brick projections house the external stairs to the upper units with lockable bin stores below. A square trellis-like grid encloses the stairs while a porthole window provides a view out. The projection has one curved end of header bond, with a ramp leading to the ground-floor flat. The entrance is articulated by an oversized triangular lintel of pre-cast concrete, painted white. Above is a metal-framed porch-cum-conservatory to the upper-floor flat, painted bright yellow. The rear elevations have a similar treatment of banded brickwork and feature double-height triangular oriel windows with white gridded aprons.

1-9 Marie Lloyd Gardens

A concave crescent of nine two-storey, two-bay houses. Porches of rusticated, painted concrete project from the northern elevation and contain paired entrances beneath a triangular pediment. The remainder of the ground floor is glazed with metal-framed gridded windows. On the first floor there are two square windows, and the continuous pitched roof terminates in a shaped gable at either end. Numbers 6-7 Marie Lloyd Gardens are smaller, single-bedroom units recessed from the building line towards the west end of the terrace. On the southern, concave side of the crescent, each house has a symmetrical elevation with a central doorway on the ground floor with a square window to either side, and a pair of square windows to the first floor with a gridded panel beneath.

10-13 Marie Lloyd Gardens

A group of four houses, each with a wide three-storey bay with a monopitched roof and a large ground-floor gridded window, and an adjoining entrance bay set back behind a gateway and in contrasting red brick. The front door is recessed behind an oversized triangular lintel in white-painted pre-cast concrete. A boldly-curved parapet wall conceals the first-floor terrace; it is mirrored by a concave parapet in red brick to the monopitch roof of the main bay. The rear elevation has a similar treatment of bays, with a projecting semi-circular terrace at ground-floor level.

14-15 Marie Lloyd Gardens

A pair of three-storey houses with red-brick banding and a hipped roof. The west elevation has two oriel windows with a pediment and grid panelling beneath. There is a terrace projecting at first-floor level, shared by the two houses. To the east, adjoining 14-15 at first-floor level, is the flying freehold which forms a carriageway arch entrance to the north end of Marie Lloyd Gardens.

63-65 Hornsey Rise Gardens

A pair of narrow-frontage, three-storey houses stepping up the steep street. They are gabled and the ground- and first-floor windows are linked with a panelled grid to form a T-shape. Red brick edges and breaks up the facades.

17-27 Hillrise Road

A short crescent of three pairs of three-storey houses stepping up the hill. Each is of two bays and has paired entrance porches covered by a lead-covered semi-circular arch springing from rendered and rusticated piers. The larger first- and second-floor windows are joined with a gridded panel. The roofs have an uneven pitch, the rear being much deeper with skylights into the attic. The gable ends of the row are built up with a high parapet, cut out on one side and with blocks of red-brick detailing.

1-4 Edith Cavell Close

A row of four bungalows, each with two perpendicular, monopitched ranges with semi-circular balcony terraces. Access is via the gated, pedestrianized pathway to the north, which has a continuous boundary wall adjoining the four bungalows.

Interiors

Not inspected in 2017, but understood to be of standard specification: plastered and painted walls throughout, with wooden doorframes and skirting.

Ancillary Features

There are brick boundary and retaining walls with painted metal railings, detailed in red brick with semi-circular scoops echoing the geometry of the adjoining sheltered accommodation.