London's Suburban Architecture: See The Semis, the Thirties and more

London Suburbs

On many road, and diverting out of the Wembley traffic jams in the morning and evening rush hour, down the residential side roads, you can also see London's distinctive London red brick houses. Terraces are also built of brick.

Brick decoration

Those brick walls are built from bricks using London's clay. Sometimes the red bricks are dirtied to a grey or brown. Other times the grey or brown bricks are the original colour, deliberately, creatively mixed with orange or red or other colours to create checkerboard patterns. Occasionally the entire wall is a pattern on grand buildings. On small houses, more often on borders or friezes or across the tops of windows like eyebrows and over doorways like moustaches or noses.

Semi-detached 'semis' in mirror image

Pairs of homes are called semi-detached, pleasing mirror image twins. When first built, and in the old days they were always decorated in matching styles. Now everybody paints their front doors different colours, installs double glazed windows in assorted styles. It's a h o t c h p o t c h. (Predictive text tried to insert hitch pitch). But, when you are visiting a friend, easier to find the house with the turquoise door.

Victorian Mock Tudor

In addition to the brick semis and terraces, you will see the black beams on white (in Singapore called black and whites) which are mock-Tudor, with sharply angled triangular gables. 

Thirties Curves

My favourites are the Thirties buildings are even more distinctive and attractive with their soothing curves. Many have pretty but impractical flat rooftops, which leak and eventually sink under rain. The smarter and better kept Thirties buildings, (some in Hatch End) sometimes have delightful green tiles on sloping roofs which allow the rain to drain off. Both styles have white fascias and wide widows with horizontal top windows.

P a v e d Gardens and Parking Places

Looking for a place to pull in to let a screeching police car and ambulance pass, or for a convenient place to park, you understand why so many homes have paved in their front gardens. The advantage to visitors is that you can park on your friend's front drive, if they don't have a car for every adult resident and already overflow their own available parking. 

Read more about Wembley in a later post.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, author and speaker.