Where it all began...

 1949 - and construction begins on the first 120 permanent houses of the New Town we now know as Harlow. Chippingfield - to the south of the original village of Harlow - now Old Harlow. 

The first houses were tenanted by employees of the Development Corporation and many of the tradesmen brought in to construct the new town, and their families. It must have been very strange for their wives in particular - having come from places like Walthamstow and a Tottenham in London, areas which would at the time have had an infrastructure that they knew and house styles that were familiar - in the new town neither of these things applied.

Not only were shops more distant, and initially fewer than the new residents were used to. The houses too - the traditional London terrace build of the time would have seen a sitting room at the front, looking into the street, with living/dining room behind and the kitchen behind that. The toilet would likely have been either directly adjoining the kitchen, via the back door, or in a building across the yard. The designers of the new houses favoured kitchens at the front, theoretically allowing the “modern housewife” to feel like she was part of the community even whilst going about her day. In some cases the interior layout would have also been far more open plan than these families were used to also. 

Chippingfield today is a pleasant area, surprisingly quiet considering it’s proximity to Gilden Way. Many of the original features of the estate remain - the “open fronts” are far more universally maintained than in many areas of the town. The biggest change is that there are of course now cars everywhere - clogging the streets in a way that the designers could probably not have anticipated! 

Parking solutions...

 I mentioned in the post about Bishopsfield that when the properties there were built, the expectation was that every property having an allocated underground garage would cover all the parking requirements for the development. Now of course with so many properties having more than one vehicle, the parking spills onto the surrounding streets too. 

Bishopsfield is not the only area to have been given this sort of underground parking either - some of the tower blocks have a similar arrangement- including Nichols Tower - pictured above. 

Now, the underground garages are closed off and disused - and mostly full of rubbish

The garages are quite narrow, and even with working lighting (you can’t tell from the photos but it was very dark inside) I’m none too sure I would fancy having to park my car in the very back of that area. I suspect this is the reason why they are no longer used. I’m sure when the town plan was written it seemed inconceivable that it would be possible for the majority of households to have a car, and also that in a town like Harlow, that so many people would consider they needed one. 

Passmores...

Passmores Academy has some of the most striking architecture of the schools in the town, but did you know it was originally in an entirely different location? 

Formerly situated further across to the West on Tendring Road, the site is now flattened and half is lying empty - all that remains is the old concrete foundations, some light standards..

...and the entrance, plus some fencing... 

 There is a “West Essex Community Education Service” sign lurking over to the left hand side there too. The other side of the site is in the process of having the new Sir Frederick Gibberd College built on it - currently looking as though it might just top Passmores on the architecture front. 

The original location of course makes sense of the name of course, being actually in the Passmores area! 

Bishopsfield

 In 1961 the Harlow Development Corporation held a competition open to all architects for the design of a housing area in the new town - they were looking for something unusual, and different, with the brief being “to solve old problems in a new way” and the design put forward by 24 year old Michael Neylan appeared to fit the idea perfectly. 

Featuring 256 dwellings - a mix of maisonettes and houses, the development is known as “The Kasbah” locally, and even now looks very different to almost anything else in the town. 

Bishopsfield consists of a horseshoe shaped development with alleyways radiating off it and green spaces between each section. 

Pedestrian walkways are vehicle free - with access being provided via a large open platform leading to a wide walkway accessed via either ramps or stairs. Parking was originally provided via garages tucked away beneath the blocks, but has now unsurprisingly spilled over into the street also. 

Beyond the 5 main blocks forming the horseshoe, the majority of the properties are built on a “back-to-back” pattern, with an L shaped design surrounding a courtyard style garden giving a great deal of privacy - the aim here was to achieve an almost Mediterranean feel. 

Bishopsfield was awarded a Civic Trust Award in 1968, and Housing Design Award a year later. 

Sculpture trail... (1)

During the first lockdown, we began the long overdue mission of finding and photographing as many as possible of the town’s many Sculptures. Although we’ve looked at a few of them before, and there is even an earlier post on here about Harlow’s Sculpture Town Status we had never actually attempted to walk the trail. 

We ticked them off on groups - taking an area at a time, walking to it, finding all the sculptures in that area, then moving on to the next area the next time we went out with this particular task in mind. For the purpose of these posts through, I’ll post in trail order. 

No. 1 - Cat - unable to access as inside the Civic Centre.

No. 2 - Well Head - Museum Gardens - finally got to this one last weekend...

No. 3 - Stone seat - Museum Gardens as above. 

No. 4 - Butterfly - Newstead Way, Fifth Avenue Development

No. 5 - Sophrosyne - The Chase, Newhall

No. 6 - Madonna & Child - unable to access - inside St Paul’s Church. 

No. 7 - Organic Farm - Fifth Avenue Development but we were unable to locate.

No. 8 - Energise - Harlow Leisurezone

No. 9 - Soldier Bending a Bow - unable to access - inside The Playhouse Theatre

No. 10 - Echo - Southern Way

To be continued... 

(All photos copyright www.photozone72.org.uk)