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  1. #1
    Creator & Administrator Kev's Avatar
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    Default LIVERPOOL GARDEN SUBURB (WAVERTREE)

    LIVERPOOL GARDEN SUBURB (WAVERTREE)

    Garden Suburbs, Garden Cities and Garden Villages were being developed around Britain in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. What were they? Why were they being built? Who were they for?

    Even more interesting for us in Liverpool is to find out why one such Garden Suburb was to develop in Wavertree. Let’s read on and find out……

    The idea came from a Victorian belief in progress and to foster equality between the classes. Evil slums and overcrowded working-class terraces needed to be replaced by new suburbs, built in a new way. Building on cheaper land meant housing costs could be kept lower. Also, technological advances in the use of gas, electricity and electric appliances meant fewer servants were needed and the Tenants would have more time for club activities, hobbies, sport and education.

    Liverpool Garden Suburb develop on the lines made familiar by examples of
    Co-partnership Housing at Ealing, Hampstead and elsewhere. In 1982, Bedford Park was the site for the first Garden Suburb. Then in 1901, Co-partnership in Housing was launched in Ealing (Near Bedford Park) and the Garden Suburb idea was established further.

    This extended throughout the country and of which Liverpool Garden Suburb affords a most conspicuous example.

    9 February 1910, the Liverpool Garden Suburb Tenants (Ltd) were registered to help plan a future for suburban housing for people of Liverpool. Their aim was to meet the needs arising out of the housing problem within Liverpool and to provide attractive houses on the outskirts of Liverpool, with gardens and open spaces. The land area selected was between Broad Green, Wavertree, Childwall and Woolton. The land was part of the Marquis of Salisbury’s Lancashire Estate. 185 acres were leased from the Marquis of Salisbury for a term of 999 years. On 20 July 1910, the Marchioness of Salisbury laid the foundation stone of the first house in Wavertree Nook Road. The first phase was built by 6 November 1911. 126 houses were laid, with 100 completed and inhabited.

    SPONSORS/BUILDERS

    The sponsor of Liverpool Garden Suburb was Henry Vivian (Politician). He applied ideas of the co-operative moment to the provision of housing and was linked to the Ealing and Hampstead Garden Suburb projects.

    The architects were Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin. The first area of the Wavertree Suburb was laid out by Raymond Unwin. He had earlier discussions with Lord Leverhulme, George Cadbury and Lutyen about housing and street plans. Between 1906-1911, Unwin and Lutyen collaborated on Hampstead Garden Suburb.
    Sutcliffe completed Luyten’s buildings in Hampstead after he was called away to build New Delhi. Sutcliffe took over the Co-partnership Tenants Housing Society in 1910. He laid out the rest of the Liverpool Garden Suburb Estate and was responsible for the design of ALL the houses.

    Many planners presented their plans and ideas to a competition held in 1911 (set up by Lord Leverhulme’s finances). The judge was Unwin. Henry Vivian presented the prizes to the young planners.

    Unwin and Vivian brought the ideas to Liverpool. Unwin himself went on as consultant to similar schemes in Chester, Cardiff, Manchester and Leicester.

    Aims

    These important aims were considered for construction of the Liverpool Garden Suburb, Wavertree and to make living there advantageous.

    To provide attractive and spaced out housing accommodation on the outskirts of Liverpool, amid surroundings which conduce to both health and pleasure for people with ‘moderate’ means.

    To build 1800 houses within a satisfying environment (though only managed quarter of that total in the end).

    To secure a higher type of social life among the members of such communities.

    To prevent the deterioration of the districts in which they are placed.

    Enhance a “fresh-air” lifestyle.

    As far as possible existing trees and hedgerows would be persevered. Many new trees would be planted.

    Each house would have a good sized garden which the Tenants would be encouraged to keep in very good order and bright with flowers.

    On the estate, every road would have its own characteristics with open spaces within reach of all.

    Introduction of many up-dated labour saving arrangements to solve the question of a servant (e.g. electrical appliances).

    Convenience of commuting to and from Liverpool City Centre.

    AIMS FULFILLED?

    EVIDENCE FROM CONSTRUCTIONS

    Open Spaces:

    They included children’s playgrounds, football pitches, cricket fields, bowling and tennis lawns, recreation greens e.g. Fieldway Square, organised games e.g. hockey.

    All were very well used by the Tenants.

    Houses:

    Attractive. Many with different features. Tenants were able to consult on decorations, interior colours, fittings. The houses were well spaced out with only 10 to 12 houses to each acre of land against 40 per acre in many parts of Liverpool. Attached cycle sheds and coal bunker. Indoor parlour, living room, scullery, larder, upstairs bathroom and toilet (unusual in 1912!) with hot water tank, at least three bedrooms. More privacy. Labour saving electrical appliances. Gas and electric. Back boilers to heat water tanks.

    First two houses built were semi-detached, Wavertree Nook Road.
    Mixture of styles: Cotswold: Medieval, Queen Anne, Wealden.
    Materials: roughcast, brick, half timbering, tile hanging, chimney stacks, dormer, bay, casement windows.
    Insistence that external paintwork be either black or white.
    Sutcliffe attempted to design each house differently. Maybe an extra door, skylight, keystones, feature gables.
    Unwin popularised Cul-de-Sacs because less road meant less money to be paid.

    Gardens:

    Many front gardens are now parking spaces for cars. Gardens separate houses from roads. Attractive. Trees encourage birds to rest. Terms of lease Õ all privet hedges must be trimmed to a height of three feet! Back garden to grow vegetables and hang out the washing. Garden Suburbs named after them.

    Sites:

    made available for shops, postal pillar boxes and a school.

    Develop Social Life:

    As well as the Open Space activities, there was the Club House on Thingwall Road. This held a variety of meetings such as choir, horticultural society, women’s guild, magazine club, Parliament Debate Society, Reading Room, Dancing, Junior Club, Billiards and Snooker, Concerts, Children’s Sunday School and Sunday Adult School.

    The Liverpool Garden Suburb Institute was there almost 200 years before the Suburb itself. Originally a farm building. It was then used as a school for the children of the new suburb before Northway Junior Mixed and Infant School was built in the late 1920’s (having been promised in the plan).

    Travel:

    The land area chosen for the Liverpool Garden Suburb was most appropriate because it had convenient local transport. One side of the estate adjoins Broad Green Station (LNWR), an eight minute walk away. The Broad Green to Lime Street 10 minute journey cost 1s 7d return in 1914, with a special workmen’s weekly cheap rate of 1s 6d or £3 16s Od per year. Trains ran from 6.00 am to 11.30 pm. The East side of the estate was bounded by the Southport and Cheshire Railway line with its Childwall Station within a few minutes walk.

    Also, the new Queens Drive roadway was under construction through the estate. In 1912, the Edge Lane Drive provided fast electric tram service to Liverpool Centre for only 2d. Journey time of four minutes with trams running from 5.00 am till 11.00 pm. In the early days of the Suburb, trams left from Picton Clock (Wavertree High Street), an eight minutes walk from the estate. This was one of the main reasons for starting the Suburb at that end.

    The residents also had Roby Golf Course and Calderstones Park within half an hour’s walk away.

    HOUSES PRICES:

    The first semi-detached villas in Wavertree Nook Road had rents of £21.00 per annum. Other annual rents cost from £15.00 to £60.00 per year. Nook Rise seemed to have the cheapest rental of eight shillings per week, including rates. Other evidence suggests that weekly rents went from 8s 8d to 9s 3d, plus 5s a month for rates, plus a season ticket on the LNWR at 1s 6d a week. (All in cost about 13 shillings a week).

    INHABITANTS: (Gore Directory 1915)

    Clerk. Civil Servant. Salesman. School Teacher. Bank Manager. Joiner.
    Ship’s Steward. Tram depot Supervisor. Tailor’s Cutter. Printer. Motor Driver. Churchman. Musician. Journalist

    Half the inhabitants list NO occupation and therefore more likely to have
    “working-class”.

    Liverpool Garden Suburb at that time had fairly ordinary lower middle-class/upper working-class Liverpudlians.

    RESIDENTS OPINIONS:

    About their new artistically designed modern dwellings: -

    “There is a new interest and zest in our lives. We feel we are partners in a social experiment full of promise for the future and that in helping to build up an organised community, we are makers of History”.

    “18 months ago, we were living in an ordinary house, crowded with our neighbours. In front were spiked iron railings, while at the rear was a tiny back yard surrounded by six-foot brick walls and overlooked by the windows of the next row of houses. Now, what a change! For the same rent we are living in an artistically designed dwelling where light and air have free access, with electric light and every modern comfort at hand. At the front and rear we have gardens with scent and colour and vegetables. We are surrounded by congenial friends and a vigorous social life. Our children have the free run of the playground where they can live the open air life free from the dangers and contaminations of the streets. We have voting power to elect the Tenant’s Council which manages the social affairs of the Suburb. We have received our dividend upon our investment of Loan Stock, and are looking forward to an increased return as the estates develops”.

    Second Phase:

    Two years of the Liverpool Garden Suburb was celebrated on 29 June 1912 with the Tenants’ Council organising the Children’s Summer Festival on the Estates Green. The Garden Suburb social life was inaugurated on 1st July 1912.

    On Sunday 16 July 1912, the Surburb was visited by a party of distinguished Germans (Mayor, Town Councillors, Architects, Town Planners and Businessmen who were making a Town Planning and Housing Tour of Great Britain). They were very impressed with the Wavertree Garden Suburb.

    Third Phase:

    4 July 1914, a Festival was held on Fieldway Green to commemorate four years of the Suburb.

    The third phase of construction began in the Summer of 1914. Although there was a declaration of war with Germany, 6 August 1914, work continued on the houses until December 1914. Then it stopped, never to begin again.

    Finally:

    The end of the First World War brought enormous inflation in building costs. Sutcliffe find it too difficult to continue building. Only about one quarter of the estimated 1800 houses that had been originally planned were ever to be completed.

    With this sudden halt, the temporary shops in Wavertree Nook Road (a newsagent’s, hairdresser, fish and chip shop and a co-op store) became a permanent feature. They gave present day Liverpool Garden Suburb a small-scale village like quality.

    RESOURCES/ AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

    1994-1995 The Liverpool Garden Suburb Study by Cornelius Kavanagh
    Liverpool Library rare book sequence.

    Gores Directory

    Liverpool Garden Suburb Souvenir Book
    July 1910-July 1914

    Available from Bookshops:
    DISCOVERING HISTORIC WAVERTREE VILLAGE AND GARDEN SUBURB by Mike Chitty. Published by the Wavertree Society 1999 ISBN O 9536441 0 3

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  2. #2
    Senior Member marie's Avatar
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    Default Wavertree Garden Suburb

    Wavertree Garden Suburb

    Why is the Garden Suburb special?

    "Wavertree Garden Suburb is a community in a garden ... an important example of good civic design and town planning" Liverpool City Planning Officer 1974.

    Wavertree Garden Suburb was built between 1910 and 1915 by Liverpool Garden Suburb Tenants Ltd - a 'co-partnership' housing company in which the tenants themselves were shareholders. The original intention was that the estate should comprise up to 1,800 houses, but only 360 had been built before the First World War brought development to a halt.

    The houses began to be sold off to owner occupiers in the 1930s, but the Institute remains as a reminder of the community ideals of the Suburb's founders. Most of the original houses - together with the row of shops in Wavertree Nook Road and the Victorian villas in
    Heywood Road - became part of the Wavertree Garden Suburb Conservation Area in 1971.

    What you need to know

    TELL your neighbour what you plan to do. You may need their approval.

    ASK the Council's Planning Office for details of their requirements, including the documents which they will need.

    TRY to use a professional to draw up your initial plans. Make sure they appreciate the special character of the Garden Suburb.

    CHOOSE a first-class contractor, preferably one who has previously worked in the Garden Suburb.

  3. #3

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    Some pictures would be nice

  4. #4
    Senior Member marie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by goldenface View Post
    Some pictures would be nice
    Sorry!

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    Otterspool Onomatopoeia Max's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by marie View Post
    Sorry!
    Never knew there were shops around there.
    Gididi Gididi Goo.

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    Senior Member lindylou's Avatar
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    There are a few shops. The aqarium shop is very good.

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    Re-member Ged's Avatar
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    How's your shop doing these days Lindy?
    www.inacityliving.piczo.com/

    Updated weekly with old and new pics.

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    Senior Member lindylou's Avatar
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    what shop ? you've must have got me mixed up with someone else

    has someone opened a shop ?

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    Re-member Ged's Avatar
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    Don't go all coy now, well done anyway
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Lous.jpg 
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    Updated weekly with old and new pics.

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    Re-member Ged's Avatar
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    Framed pics of the 'Wallace house' £2.99
    www.inacityliving.piczo.com/

    Updated weekly with old and new pics.

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    Senior Member lindylou's Avatar
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    ha,ha, where is that Ged ?

    hey, that would be my kind of shop too .... as I like painting, and arty crafty stuff.

  12. #12
    Re-member Ged's Avatar
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    Pemberton, on the way into Wigan. I was getting some pies for Gerard.
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    Senior Member ChrisGeorge's Avatar
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    Hi Marie

    Others can expand on this but a number of the neighbourhoods of Liverpool were known as "garden suburbs" because they characteristically had semi-detached or lines of attached houses with a garden front and back, as opposed to the terraced housing closer to the city center that had little or no garden, usually just a paved back yard and maybe a hedge in front behind a wall or a small garden. I grew up on Aigburth Hall Avenue in Mossley Hill in a semi-detached house that was part of a garden suburb developed in the 1930's.

    All my best

    Chris
    Christopher T. George
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  14. #14
    Senior Member marie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ChrisGeorge View Post
    Hi Marie

    Others can expand on this but a number of the neighbourhoods of Liverpool were known as "garden suburbs" because they characteristically had semi-detached or lines of attached houses with a garden front and back, as opposed to the terraced housing closer to the city center that had little or no garden, usually just a paved back yard and maybe a hedge in front behind a wall or a small garden. I grew up on Aigburth Hall Avenue in Mossley Hill in a semi-detached house that was part of a garden suburb developed in the 1930's.

    All my best

    Chris
    I understand it. But I think that its a beauty project. Maybe somes neighbourhs cannot have a good garden coz its too much free time or too much money.

  15. #15
    Senior Member ChrisGeorge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by marie View Post
    I understand it. But I think that its a beauty project. Maybe somes neighbourhs cannot have a good garden coz its too much free time or too much money.
    Hi Marie

    As stated, the garden suburbs were a phenomenon of the twentieth century in contrast to the terraced housing of the nineteenth century when people did not have gardens. This wasn't just in Wavertree or Liverpool but throughout Great Britain. People in terraced houses often had what were called "allotments" e.g., there were a number of them in the Dingle and Otterspool, where people who did not have gardens of their own could do their gardening, grow flowers, tomatoes and other vegetables, etc.

    Chris
    Christopher T. George
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    Editor, Loch Raven Review
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