“Palace Gardens [Thames Street, Old Palace Road, West Palace Gardens, Grotto Road”, part of a pleasant council estate by Lanchester & Lodge, Louis de Saisons and A. W. Kenyon”

It’s undated, but I make it out as somewhere between 1920 (when it’s not on the map) and 1934 (when it is).

It’s another case of the guide saying almost nothing, so I’ll give a description and then focus on the only thing we are told—its pleasantness.

c. 22 brick buildings (c. 44 homes) U-shaped semi-detached one-bayed gable-end with canopied entrance in recess. (Lotta hyphens)

They all have at least a front garden, and the estate is set back from the road by a park: mainly lawn but some established trees. The use of space is good—nothing is cramped, and it feels more semi-rural than suburban. https://goo.gl/maps/L3hzdcR1qH2zdCi46

There’s some lovely detailing on the roof brackets. They’re layered terracotta tiles and remind me of the stacks in hypocaust or Schichttorte.

It’s worth noting that so far, this thread has barely touched on residential buildings. It’s been me walking around, and talking about design that I like. But that’s not what a house is for.

Looking at what I do like, I’m confronted with the risk of favouring “design” over “function” and the historic architect over the current resident. The new roof, the conservatory, the PVC windows, the new door, the carport, the trampoline—that’s the home in use.

Let’s look at two of those in turn: here are the original pleasant single-glazed steel-framed windows. They show us what the place looked like 100 years ago; but we know they warp, may leak, are inefficient, insecure and hard to maintain. That’s not pleasant.

Here are the very pleasant original doors. We know they’ll be drafty, will warp and leak and aren’t as safe as new ones, don’t give much privacy and need regular maintenance. That’s not very pleasant either.

I don’t feel guilty about these views, but wanted to be clear that aesthetics won’t always or even often match with utility or self-expression. A beautiful house can be a terrible home, and vice versa.

The estate is a pleasant place.