Hampstead Garden Suburb

Sunny days have been rare in London this last little while, and we find that whenever it looks like it's going to stay sunny for more than fifteen minutes, we set out for a walk. Today was such a day, so we headed on a self-guided walk through one of the most unique areas of London, Hampstead Garden Suburb. As the name suggests, Hampstead Garden Suburb is a suburb of London, but not an organically formed extension; rather, it is an excellent example of a "garden city" suburb, with every aspect of the new area planned with the aims of harmony and balance between town and country. Its founder, Henrietta Barnett, sought to create a place where the middle- and working-classes could live together in close proximity to urban London while retaining advantages of the country, with low density, wide, tree-lined streets, greenery (not walls) separating houses, and gardens open to all. Hampstead Garden Suburb is celebrating its centenary this year, and so it's been in the news recently and I was curious to have a look. We started our walk at Golders Green tube, where the nearby "Courage" clocktower dominates the high street.

Once in the suburb, we noticed these two hedgehogs guarding their front door,
and started to get a sense of buildings typical of the area.
This building had a lovely mural above the door
and the streets were very quiet, wide, clean, and full of greenery.
Two nearby squares were equally serene,

and once near the high street,
we popped into M&S to buy a picnic lunch before continuing with the rest of our walk. Many houses had narrow stretches of garden beside them, perpendicular to the sidewalk, giving a sense of calm and relaxation from the street.
Quiet greens popped up now and then
and we were repeatedly struck with a sense of displacement as we wandered on Hampstead Garden Suburb (apparently, the preposition "on" is used when talking about the area). I had to stop at one point to take a photo of this typical streetscape,
because, more than any other place in London, this looks and feels a lot like Vancouver. Even the fact that the dark car in the photo is parked facing the wrong way adds to this perception. The photo above looks like it could be of a street in Vancouver (maybe in Kerrisdale?), with its grassy boulevards, trees planted between the sidewalk and the road, and clean and quiet streets. It didn't feel like London! The suburb's Free Church was begun in 1911, but wasn't completed until the 1960s:
St Jude's church was completed in 1911; this view is from the end of a street leading directly onto the northwest corner of Hampstead Heath.
No. 2 Heathgate, at the end of the road, wouldn't be a bad address,
with the heath just seconds away:
Every time we're on the heath, we are always struck by its beauty.

Toward the end of our walk, I noticed this topiary which hadn't been trimmed in a while:
It looked like a dog to us, but we weren't entirely sure. I liked how it was perched on top of the shrubbery though!