The "Picturesque" English suburb

In recent architectural survey field trip, I paid a visit to the Hampstead Heath of London. Since I am getting used to the "typical" city landscape of (central) London which is complicated mixture of glass, steel, brick and stone, the tranquility and "picturesque-ness" of the suburban view of London really surprised me. In this region, the architecture is no longer the absolute dominant elements in the images. Instead, large portions of the landscape is filled by the natural environment.

The nature adds dynamic elements to the architecture.

The suburbs of London is the experiment grounds to realize the ideas of the late 18th century and 19th century architects like William Kent, John Soane, artists like JMW Turner. The key concept is to "blend in " the architecture with the landscape. Taking the nature as a force to help improve the design of architecture.

The area of the front yard replaces the "bridges" over the basement floor of the town houses which are common in the city. When looking from the street side, the houses/villas are able to set back in the background. On one hand the landscape in the front yard provide a certain level of privacy to the residents. On the other hand, it is also an interesting way to imply the aesthetic tastes of the house owners. In the photo above, it seems like the owners want to replicate the classical British and French Royal gardens into their own lawns in front of the house.

The exterior of the church is rather a product from the era of the "battle of the styles". The roof of the nave of the church imply the style of the medieval time, Gothic architecture. The tower and dome in the transept reminds people of Wren's Baroque architecture in the late 17th century. the use of red bricks and ornaments on the front entrance resulted from the influence of the neoclassical architecture in the Victorian Era. 

The brick pattern detail on the public buildings represents the respect to the craftsmanship, emphasizing the handcraft motif at that time. The corner of the school building uses two different kinds of bricks and respective layout patterns.