Petts Wood: The Making of a Garden Suburb
by Peter Waymark

One Man's Vision

Petts Wood is widely regarded as one of the most successful of the new inter-war London suburbs and has been celebrated as such in print and on television. It owes its reputation largely to the vision of one man, Basil Scruby, who was responsible not only for planning and developing the suburb but establishing its character. Unlike William Willett, whose connection with the area is more tenuous, but has a recreation ground and two roads named after him and a pub which recalls his campaign for daylight saving, Scruby is nowhere commemorated in Petts Wood. The suburb itself is his monument.

Originally from Harlow in Essex, Scruby went into business as a developer after the First World War. During the 1920s he created estates in Harlow and other parts of his native county, as well as in Peacehaven in Sussex. These developments were mainly of cheaper, lower quality housing.

For what became Petts Wood, however, his ambition was loftier: a "garden suburb" which would provide a high-class quasi-rural environment for London commuters. Possibly because of a contact with the Southern Railway he came south of the Thames to find suitable land. By October 1927 he had found it. In that month he took an advertisement in the London Evening News to announce that a 400-acre site was "being opened up for building".

Two Estates

Stretching either side of the railway line from London to Sevenoaks, the 400 acres comprised two estates.

The Town Court Estate is mentioned in medieval records and was for 200 years in the ownership of the Walsingham family. By the 1920s it was partly farmed, a mixture of dairy and arable, but mainly an area of woodland, lakes and strawberry fields.

The smaller, 120-acre Ladywood Estate to the east of the railway had at its centre Ladywood House, built in the 1870s in a French chateau style. Like Town Court, the Ladywood Estate was partly farmed but mostly woodland.

Although only 14 miles from central London, the land acquired by Scruby for development was still essentially what it had been for centuries, peaceful and unspoilt countryside enjoyed by people wanting to escape the smoke and noise of the capital.

Rural Quality

Scruby was determined to retain, as far as possible, this rural quality. It was the key to his concept of the "garden suburb". In several respects the prototype for Petts Wood was Hampstead Garden Suburb, which was established before the First World War by the philanthropist Henrietta Barnett. Like Petts Wood it was an attempt to create a new community in which the housing would retain a rural flavour. Like Petts Wood, it was designed as a retreat for London commuters, with the railway as an essential prerequisite. Alan A. Jackson, in his masterly study of suburbia, Semi-Detached London (George Allen and Unwin, 1973), describes Hampstead in words that could equally be applied to Scruby's Petts Wood: "Purchases of plots were able to employ their own architects but designs had to conform with the general scheme, the objectives of which were to retain an open setting, to maintain as close a harmony with nature as possible and to create a mood of rural peace and security".

Having secured an option on the 400 acres for his garden suburb Scruby laid out the roads and arranged the essential infrastructure of drains, gas, water and electricity. Starting east of the railway, he bought the land in sections, which he divided into plots and sold to speculative builders. Scruby's finance came mostly from trust funds administered by a firm of solicitors in Cambridge. They lent the capital on a mortgage and made further advances as plots were sold. The builders, in turn, raised enough finance to put up a few houses, hoping to sell them quickly and buy more land with the proceeds. The chain was a precarious one and the development of the Petts Wood suburb saw many bankruptcies. In designing the estate Scruby was helped by an architect, Leonard Culliford, who ensured that wherever possible the roads emphasised the natural sweep of the landscape. Culliford also supervised builders' plans to ensure that the houses met Scruby's demands for a quality neighbourhood.

The Essential Railway

Scruby realised from the start that his garden suburb could not function without access to a railway. When he first came to the area the line was there but the nearest stations, at Chislehurst to the north and Orpington to the south, were too far from his proposed development. In February 1928 he reached an agreement with the Southern Railway for the building of a station to serve the estate. The railway company, sceptical about the need for a station, drove a hard bargain. Scruby not only provided the land for the station buildings and a goods yard, but agreed to put up £6,000 towards the cost of construction.

The station opened in July 1928, just as the first houses were going up, giving residents a direct link to the main southern termini of Victoria, Charing Cross, Holborn and Cannon Street. It also confirmed the suburb's name. With the area to the south known as Crofton one suggestion for the new station was Crofton Halt. But there was already a Crofton Park on the Southern Railway, so Petts Wood it became. Rail travel from the suburb grew rapidly and a survey in 1996 found that Petts Wood was the third busiest station of the 26 in the Borough of Bromley, after Bromley South and Orpington.

Shopping

After the railway, the next essential service for the new suburb was a shopping centre. Again, Scruby planned this from an early stage. The shops were grouped around a square adjacent to the station, giving Petts Wood a logical centre. Echoing the mock-Tudor style of many of the houses, the shops had flats above and service areas behind with a generous width of pavement.

One of the early arrivals in Petts Wood was the Dunstonian Garage, which sold Hillman and Humber cars. To conform with the character of the Scruby estate, the owner agreed to put the petrol pumps under a canopy and use oak beams on his sales office and workshop. On Station Square, too, Scruby set up his estate office, directly facing the station and with a car ready to take prospective buyers to the show houses.

Quality Control

Building began east of the railway, in 1928. In an era of light building byelaws, Scruby's own stipulations, legally binding on both builders and house owners, shaped the character of the estate. Caravans and bungalows were banned, and there were detailed requirements on building lines, walls and roofs. Builders selling their houses stressed the rural aspect of a suburb that was only 22 minutes by train from London. An early estate brochure referred to "orderly roads, tree-planted, wide grass verges, low stone walls, hand-made tiles giving every roof a mellowed appearance" and "houses that, despite their widely differing styles, merge naturally into the green vistas of woodland that form the background. A sylvan town with birds, trees, flowers - a real country home …". The natural contours of the landscape were exploited, old trees were retained and, once the houses were built, new trees were planted.

Many of the houses underlined the idea of "rus in urbe" (country amidst town) by evoking the idealised country cottage. This was particularly true of the mock-Tudor style which flourished in Petts Wood. Externally it was distinguished by dark oak beams on while walls, the roofs broken up by barge-boarded gables, verges and valleys. The windows had leaded lights, sometimes with coloured glass, and there were elaborate porches sheltering oak front doors with their gothic panels, iron hinges and ring knockers. The theme was often continued inside, with oak beams and panels and inglenook fireplaces.

The most flamboyant expression of the Tudorbethan style came in a cul-de-sac of 29 houses called The Chenies. It was the creation of the builder, Noel Rees, a colourful character who left his mark in many parts of Petts Wood and whose name was still being used as a selling point by estate agents more than half a century later. In 1982 The Chenies was designated a Conservation Area as being of architectural and historic importance. Another Conservation Area included the single largest dwelling put up on the estate, the appropriately-named Tudor House, set in extensive grounds on a corner plot. A separate garage had space for four cars and a flat on top for a chauffeur. It was designed for his own occupation by another prominent Petts Wood builder, Leslie Carter-Clout.

Rapid Growth

In an article in 1930 the Estates Gazette counted 45 builders working in what became known as Petts Wood East. Some were responsible for entire roads, others for just a few houses. By no means all of them followed the Tudor style. But while allowing for variety and individuality, Scruby, with the help of Culliford, ensured a common standard.

The main challenge to the rural-romantic style came just outside the Scruby development and was the work of Davis Estates, one of the most prolific builders in the London area during the 1930s. Davis used the "modern" style which had been pioneered on the Continent and was chararacterised by smooth, white walls, steel-framed windows which often turned a corner and, sometimes, flat roofs. The latter were promoted as sun traps but tended to let in the rain and were disliked by building societies. The Davis houses provided a stylish, smaller and cheaper alternative to the prevailing mock Tudor.

The prices of new houses reflected the sort of area Scruby was trying to promote. The average for the London area in the 1930s was between £650 and £750 but until the Davis estate went up there was little in Petts Wood as cheap as that. Typically houses cost between £795 for a small semi to as much as £2,200 for a detached four-bedroomed property. This in turn defined the social make-up of the area, which was overwhelmingly middle-class and professional. Husbands, some dressed in black coats and pinstripe trousers, took the train to their offices in the City or West End. Less formally attired were the Fleet Street journalists attracted to the area by the all-night trains which ran from Blackfriars. In keeping with the convention of the time, most Petts Wood wives did not work. They did the shopping and immersed themselves in the new suburb's fast-growing social and charitable activities.

Religious Provision

As well as providing the new suburb's railway station and shops, Scruby gave the land for the parish church. For four years a temporary wooden structure served the Anglican community until the permanent building was consecrated in 1935. The only church designed by Geoffrey Mullins, an architect who lived nearby in Chislehurst, it provided a contrast to the most ostentatious appearance of the Petts Wood houses. Built mainly of wood and handmade Sussex brick, with a long straight hammerbeam roof, it followed the plan of a medieval tithe barn. It is the only Petts Wood entry, though not an entirely complimentary one, in Sir Nikolaus Pevsner's monumental survey, The Buildings of England. With a woodland setting which echoed the philosophy of the suburb, the church appropriately took the name of St Francis, a man who loved nature.

East West Divide

Having established his estate on the east of the railway, Scruby intended to develop on the other side as well, but by the early 1930s he was heavily overlent and did not have the resources to continue. He therefore decided to dispose of the land west of the line and Petts Wood West, where building started in 1933, assumed a different character. Instead of more than 40 builders there were just two and the houses were generally cheaper and more standardised. Although some used half-timbering, Tudorbethan extravagances were shunned. The Morrell brothers, the main builders, no doubt anxious to echo what Scruby had created across the railway line, still referred to their development as a "garden estate". Indeed, they went as far as to call it a "veritable paradise". As in Petts Wood East, a shopping centre was built close to the railway station.

The separate development of the two parts of Petts Wood was unfortunate in creating social snobberies which took a long time to break down. They were highlighted as early as 1936 by the local MP, Sir Waldron Smithers, who even drew a parallel with the Civil War which had just broken out in Spain. He denounced what he called "silly squabbles" and pleaded with residents from the two sides of the railway to get together and promote "tolerance and good friendship". But as an early resident of Petts Wood West recalled: "You got chatting to someone on the train and when they found you lived on the 'other side' they did not want to continue the friendship."

Social Development

Meanwhile the new suburb was soon acquiring social amenities. A public house, the Daylight Inn (a reference to William Willett's daylight saving campaign) opened on Station Square in 1935. The prospect of a pub was not universally welcomed but a promise to adopt the Tudor style helped to defuse opposition. In the early years it was also a residential hotel, while its spacious banqueting hall-cum-ballroom became a popular venue for dinners, amateur dramatics and public meetings. It was effectively the "village hall" until after the Second World War. Petts Wood's cinema, the Embassy, opened a year later on the west side of the railway. Its first presentation, ironically in view of the social divisions of the new suburb, was A Tale of Two Cities. In contrast to much of residential Petts Wood it was built in the modern art deco style. The auditorium with a rose and gold décor seated 1,300 people and there was a large café/lounge on the first floor with fashionable tubular chairs. The Saturday morning children's shows were popular, particularly in the early years, but the Embassy eventually fell victim to the post-war decline in cinema going and closed in 1973.

Sport and Recreation

A recreation ground, in a triangle of land between three residential roads, was provided for in the original estate plan. By 1930 a tennis club was playing on two courts and it was decided to make full use of the rest of the six-acre site. A club house was opened and by 1937 the Petts Wood sports club had 600 members, running tennis, cricket, bowls, hockey, table-tennis and badminton sections.

The early years of Petts Wood saw the formation of many other clubs and societies. The Dramatic and Operatic Society was so successful that it soon split in two, one for plays and the other for opera. Although eventually forced to move out of the area to find a suitable venue for its productions, the Operatic Society was still flourishing into the 21st century.

A residents' association was formed in Petts Wood as early as 1929. One of its main campaigns was to get the road surfaces, which easily turned to mud and puddles, made up. An early, and impressive, example of Petts Wood community enterprise was a Gala Day of special events in May 1937, culminating in a fireworks display and dancing into the small hours, to mark the Coronation of King George VI.

Modern Petts Wood

By the outbreak of war in 1939 the Petts Wood suburb was in its essentials complete. Although Basil Scruby's direct involvement had ended some years before, he had left a strong and lasting legacy. His achievement was twofold. First, Petts Wood was a logically planned development, with station, shops, houses and open space all envisaged from the start as part of a coherent scheme. Secondly, Scruby's insistence on an estate of quality with a rural ambience but easy access to the centre of London gave Petts Wood its particular character.

Many of the early residents came from areas closer to the capital, happy to move out to a leafier and more spacious environment. People spoke of Petts Wood as having a "village" atmosphere.

The suburb was lucky to be surrounded by unspoilt countryside. Woods taken over by the National Trust in 1927 provided a welcome amenity to the north of the estate as well as a buffer against further development. After the war more areas of green belt land around Petts Wood were secured, largely through local pressure.

In Petts Wood itself after 1945 there was little new housing, for the estates on both sides of the railway had been virtually completed before the war and left few gaps. A Memorial Hall to commemorate the war dead was completed in 1954 and became a valued community and social centre. Up until the war St Francis was the area's only church and other denominations had to make do with temporary premises. But the 1950s and 1960s saw the building of Congregational (later United Reformed), Methodist and Roman Catholic churches. In the centre of Petts Wood the pressure for office space led to a number of commercial developments, seen by some as compromising the residential nature of the area.

Of more direct and immediate impact was the Safeway supermarket, which opened in 1982 on the site of the Embassy Cinema. With its generous opening hours, later extended to Sundays, 18 checkouts and an extensive range of goods from food to flowers, medicines and kitchenware, it offered "one-stop" shopping and was perfectly suited the needs of a community where increasing numbers of women worked and most households had a car. The casualties were the small shops, grocers, greengrocers, butchers and fishmongers. In their place Petts Wood saw a proliferation of estate agents, hairdressers, restaurants and fast food outlets.

Despite these changes Petts Wood retained much of its village atmosphere, while Scruby's concept of a garden estate, offering a taste of countryside only a short train journey for the centre of London, remained largely intact. For its 15,000 or so residents, it was still an attractive, and convenient, place in which to live.

(Peter Waymark is the author of A History of Petts Wood, the fourth edition of which was published by Petts Wood Residents' Association in 2000).