The old 600-home Stonegrove and Spur Road estate in Edgware Close was one of the first things you’d see coming down from the north and exit the M1 at junction 4.
It looked north over some of the finest Green Belt in London, and it should have been a landmark estate given its gateway into London, with each block being named after an aircraft connection: an engine, a plane, a maker, etc. Instead it was a ‘Large Panel System’ construction haphazard collection of tower blocks and low and medium rise homes built in the late 1950s and early 60s, and showing severe signs of distress.
The old Stonegrove/Spur Road estate
A new development – and a new name
I worked with the residents, architects and Barratt Homes to develop almost 1,000 new mixed tenure homes in six different neighbourhoods. Together with a new academy school, the new development – known as Academy Court – is the landmark that was probably always intended by the old Hendon Urban District Council.
The new development