The Shrubbery

The Shrubbery is a group of three apartment blocks built around 1935 by Cockett, Henderson & Gillow Ltd for the North-East London Property Company Ltd. The design draws on Art Deco and Moderne styling, creating a distinctive inter-war residential development.

The three blocks are arranged in a U-shape around a central courtyard garden and drive. Block 1 to the west contains flats 1 to 18, Block 2 to the south houses flats 19 to 24, and Block 3 to the east accommodates flats 25 to 42, making 42 flats in total. Each block is three storeys high with flat roofs hidden behind red brick parapets.

The exterior is constructed of red brick with significant rendered areas. The street-facing elevations feature projecting rendered balconies, projecting stairwells with raised roof canopies, and curved corner windows to projecting and receding bays. Alternating wide horizontal cream-rendered bands contrast with exposed brickwork, interrupted by broad green Crittall steel-framed windows. The rear elevations facing away from the courtyard are largely covered in plain render but still feature projecting paired balconies with dwarf walls. Grouped rendered chimney stacks with clay pots continue the red and cream colour scheme. Entrance porches have semi-circular rendered canopies and shallow semi-circular steps leading to timber-framed glazed double doors flanked by tiled rectangular columns. Remarkably, the majority of original Crittall window frames survive, with only a small number of rear windows and back doors having been altered.

The communal interior spaces employ a cream and maroon colour scheme with cherry-coloured wood banisters, dado rails, door frames and front doors. Flats are identified by original wooden numbers on the doors, which feature diagonal external metal handles. Original metal-framed vertical letterboxes survive adjacent to most flat doors, though some have been replaced with modern versions fitted through the doors.

Original internal features vary by flat but include wood block and board flooring, picture rails, curved window ledges, wooden doors with bakelite and metal handles, small wall-mounted electric fires with tile surrounds, Art Deco fireplaces with geometric tiling, bathroom suites with contemporary taps and tiling, and kitchens with built-in cupboards with panelled and glazed doors and fold-down tables. Block 1, being the first constructed, features more elaborate internal fittings than Blocks 2 and 3, where budgetary constraints affected the interior finish. Each flat has a unique repertoire of detailing.

Most flats follow a standard layout with a living room, two bedrooms, bathroom and kitchenette opening from a central hallway. Corner flats at the northern end of Block 3 are larger, with three bedrooms and rendered cantilevered balconies with dwarf walls wrapping around the north-west corner. Matching balconies appear at the north-east corner of Block 1 for compositional symmetry.

The development is accessed from the north by a drive flanked by two free-standing pedestrian arches in Art Deco style. Two further catenary arches link the three blocks at the south of the site. The central garden area contains a cream and brick stepped lamp column, restored in the late 20th century but appearing to be part of the original design.

Cockett, Henderson & Gillow Ltd was a firm of land and estate agents, auctioneers, surveyors and valuers established in the 1890s with offices at 167 High Road, Loughton, 57 High Street, Wanstead, and in Leyton, Leytonstone and Chingford. A notice of intention to build Block 3 is dated 2 July 1935, with plans from June 1935. Blocks 1 and 2 had already been approved at this date. Block 2 was damaged during the Second World War and was repaired and rebuilt; plans for flats 19 to 24 were approved on 22 April 1948. Some flats have experienced considerable modernisation, but others retain remarkable original detail and are virtually complete.