To visit parents and then……

…… to collect two friends so that we could celebrate the birthday of our mutual pal, Henry and catch up with those we only see at these annual get togethers.  This year we met with B and P who we had not seen for several years.  We have promised to meet again in 2017.

This morning, as I waited for Jeremy on the beautiful Central Square of Hampstead Garden Suburb, I used my ipad to do some quick research on the origins of the district.

This planned residential area, close to Hampstead Heath, was the project of Dame Henrietta Barnett at the turn of the last century.  She and her husband Canon Samuel Barnett were prominent and committed Christian social reformers who lived and worked for some time in the poor and overcrowded  parish of St Judes in Whitechapel, East London.  It is worth googling Samuel Barnett to see the breadth of his work especially in establishing the Toynbee Hall Settlement.  He worked to give the poor educational opportunities and improved housing and he and his wife published a book in 1888 called Practicable Socialism.

From 1903 Henrietta concentrated on saving land near Hampstead Heath from urban development and she raised money to buy 243 acres from Eton College which were then used in the following way.  75 acres for homes ranging from artisan cottages to grand houses, 5 acres for the Central Square and the rest of the land to be left wild for the residents and others to enjoy.  She imagined a mixed community living in the Garden Suburb and initially this was true but as house prices in London have soared and gentrification has occurred all over the capital, The Suburb has become a middle class and upper middle class enclave.  On the square are two magnificent churches – both appearing to compete for congregants in an age of diminishing church attendance.  St Judes was commissioned by Henrietta using the design of the famous architect Edwin Lutyens. There was a “stand off” between Lutyens and Barnett.  He wished it to have a dome and not a spire.  Henrietta was of a different opinion and, being a strong willed and determined woman, she succeeded in getting her way. Jeremy’s university contemporary and friend is the Church of England vicar of St Judes and lives in the magnificent vicarage on the far side of the church.

On the other side of the square was built the Free Church (Baptist and United Reformed) also designed by Lutyens, where he ensured that a dome and not a spire was erected on the top of the building.

Opposite the square is the girls school established by Henrietta Barnett and still bearing her name.  This is selective state grammar school where, these days, over 1000 girls compete (at age 11) for 90 entry places. Dame Henrietta was an advocate of education for women alongside other progressives of her day including Frances Mary Buss who was the founder of my school, Camden School for Girls and also North London Collegiate School.  Our daughter was lucky enough to attend the The Henrietta Barnett School. We both, in part,  owe our confidence and sense of self worth to these institutions.

As I stood in the drizzle, admiring the school and the churches, I heard and saw Jays flying from tree to tree and then the sound that I hope never to hear at The Gables….  the screech of parakeets.  These pale green birds (occasionally I have seen pale blue parakeets) have colonised the tall trees of Hampstead Heath and back gardens and other parkland.  They are squeezing out native birds and, like many, I was entranced when I first saw them but then became alarmed at their numbers and now I just hope that they stay in the city and do not migrate to the countryside.