Tag Archives: half-timbering

The Virgin Queen visited here to watch the hunt in Epping Forest

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IT HAS BEEN STANDING for many centuries, but until we saw something about the place in a recent (March 2024) issue of the free Metro newspaper, we did not know it existed. The place is located in Epping Forest on Rangers Road, which runs eastwards from Chingford (on the edge of northeast London). I am referring to a well-preserved, whitewashed, half-timbered Tudor building, which was constructed in 1543 for King Henry VIII, and renovated by his daughter Queen Elizabeth I in 1589.

This edifice, which is 481 years old, is aptly known as ‘Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge’, and is open to the public to explore. It is a timber-framed three-storey ‘standing’. That is to say that it was constructed to be used as a place from which the hunt could be observed. And Epping Forest, where it stands, was, from the 12th century until the 19th century a Royal Forest, where only the monarch had the right to hunt deer. Although now fully glazed, originally the window apertures on the two upper floors were without glass. Visitors to the lodge would have been able to watch the hunt and, maybe also, shoot animals from these raised vantage points.

Throughout the building, one can see unpainted oak beams – supporting the floors, the walls, the ceilings, and the roof. The ground floor consists of an entrance hall and a larger room (with a fireplace), which served as a kitchen. A wooden staircase leads to the upper floors. It is wrapped around a square hollow newel, which supports the stair treads. There is a glass pyramid (not Tudor) above this space, which allows visitors to see the original lath and plaster work that makes up the newel.

Much of the first floor is occupied by a large hall with windows overlooking the forest. The second floor is similar, but it has a fine hammer-beam ceiling. Another such ceiling is high above the top of the staircase.

During the reign of Queen Victoria, the first floor of the lodge was divided into small bedrooms by partitions, which have long since been removed. It was then used as accommodation by the bailiff of the local lord of the manor. The Watkins family were residents for a period. It was Mrs Harriet Watkins, who used the Lodge and its garden for providing refreshments until 1897, when she took over the adjacent barn – now known as Butler’s Retreat – for the provision of teas. Writing about the lodge in 1876, James Thorne noted:

“The open space in front of the lodge has always been a favourite resort of the East-end holiday folk, for whom ‘tea and refreshments’ are provided at the lodge. On a fine summer’s day, on Monday especially, numerous picnic and ‘van’ parties may be seen, with swings improvised between the oaks, and gipsies with their donkeys in attendance.”

Regarding the suitability of the position of the lodge, he wrote:

“The ground, sloping gently from the lodge on all sides, used to be everywhere unenclosed, the tract beyond being open forest, with some famous unlopped trees, but chiefly, as in other parts of Epping Forest, of pollard oak.”

Today, standing on the second floor, or even on the first, one gets a good panoramic view of the surrounding land.

Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge is not as grand as some other surviving Tudor buildings (e.g., Hatfield House), but it has been well looked after and it is a remarkable survivor, which is well worth a visit. But before you go, please check the current opening tomes if you wish to explore its interesting interior.

Black and white housing

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WHEN DRIVING HOME after leaving our vacuum cleaner for repair at a small shop in Ealing, we passed a tidy estate consisting of houses and blocks of flats, all decorated with mock half-timbering painted in black and white. Near to West Ealing Underground station, this housing colony is called Hanger Hill Garden Estate.

During the period between the two World Wars, much residential building work was undertaken in London’s suburbs. Often, estates were built with features that mimicked rusticity. The idea was that the commuters, who lived there, might imagine that they were enjoying a village atmosphere, without being far away from the inner city, where many of them worked. To create this illusion, house builders adorned their constructions with decorative features that were supposed to make them seem older and more traditional than they were. The use of mock half-timbering on external walls was a commonly used decorative trick designed to evoke suggestions of ‘ye olde England’.

At Hanger Hill Garden Estate, there is a uniformity of style, which makes the use of half-timbering eye-catching rather than suggestive of rustic traditions. Interestingly, the mock half-timbering does not extend to cover the dull, pebble-dashed rear walls of some of the blocks of flats. These surfaces are less easy to see from the roads than the mock half-timbering. Overall, the result is attractive. When I first saw this well-maintained estate with neat gardens, I thought of early 20th century garden suburbs rather than old country villages, which are often delightful because they lack uniformity in their layouts.

The opening of the branch of the Central Line, which runs from Shepherds Bush to Ealing Broadway, in 1920, and especially the opening of West Acton Station three years later, were the stimuli for the construction of residential estates in the area. In 1925, the first bit of land was acquired by Hanger Hill Garden Estate Ealing Limited. The estate was built between 1928 and about 1932. The buildings, flats and houses, were all designed by the architectural practice of Douglas Smith & Barley. The resulting layout has considerable uniformity, and is attractive without being monotonous. A good feature in the estate’s design is that the blocks of flats stand in spacious lawns.

The Residents Association’s website has a good history of the place (www.hhgera.com). It noted that in the 1930s:

“…times were clearly pleasant and peaceful ones for all the tenants on the Estate. Occupiers of some of the four-bedroomed houses employed a maid, the fourth bedroom having been designed with this in mind. Whilst all the houses and many of the flats had garages, only a small number of people on the Estate owned cars … These were the days when goods were delivered to the home. Tradesmen were not allowed to call at the front doors of the houses or flats, but had to call at back doors using the service roads. Bakers, butchers, fish salesmen and greengrocers all called weekly, some attending earlier in the day or week to take orders. In the parking bays behind the flats, vans from Harrods, Dickens & Jones and the like, were to be seen drawing up.”

However, life on the estate was not free from regulations:

“Tenancies of flats were refused to people who had young children. No animals were allowed to be kept in the flats … House tenants were allowed to hang out washing only on Mondays and Tuesdays; flat tenants were not permitted to hang out washing at all.”

Currently, so two friendly residents informed us, the estate is subject to strict conservation regulations. This is a good thing because it would be a shame to spoil the appearance of this charming and unusual enclave of residential accommodation in this part of west London.

READ more about west London in Adam Yamey’s book “BEYOND MARYLEBONE AND MAYFAIR: EXPLORING WEST LONDON”, which can be bought from Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/BEYOND-MARYLEBONE-MAYFAIR-EXPLORING-LONDON/dp/B0B7CR679W/