100 Buildings 100 Years

1922: 152 Slough Lane, London

Status: Listed Grade II
Type: Housing
Architect: Ernest George Trobridge
Location: Kingsbury, Brent, Greater London

Of the 4 million houses built in the inter-war years, 2.9 million were constructed by private builders, including 400,000 erected with state subsidies; 2.5 million were semis. How many were in the mock-Tudor style remains unknown.

Curiously undefinable is the work of Belfast-born Trobridge (1884-1942), the son of a painter and a disciple of Emanuel Swedenborg, who inspired his sense of proportion and the balance between architecture and nature. He chose green elm for building quickly and cheaply; a model house was the surprise of the 1920 Ideal Home exhibition. He bought a site at Kingsbury, but prices collapsed and he built only ten houses. In 1922 he moved into Hayland, to which he added Midcot in 1928, with lead lights and thatched roofs, and an inglenook. Nos. 142 and 148 Slough Lane of 1921-2 contribute to a quirky group and remind us that Middlesex was then still heavily wooded.

by Elain Harwood

Listing description