1960s modern housing
Estate architect Russell Vernon proposed to develop The Estate with houses with small gardens while preserving trees and other amenities. He trained at Regent Street Polytechnic in London and also had a Town Planning degree. He was part of a 1960s movement of architects and landscape architects who were influenced by buildings designed by Ludwig Mies Van de Rohe (1886-1969), and Walter Gropius (1883-1969) founder of the Bauhaus, school of design. The idea to create group housing in communal grounds was inspired by modernist movements in Scandinavia and the USA.
Russell Vernon (1916-2009), right with colleagues Victor Knight and Manfred Bresgen at Austin Vernon and Partners. On return from active service during World War II, Russell worked with his uncle Frederick Austin Vernon (1882-1972). In 1959 Russell replaced his uncle when he retired as Estate Architect
Russel Vernon's 1957 Dulwich Development Plan took 15 years to complete. Building works were carried out by Wates and Company, a large construction firm which still exists today. Developments such as College Gardens, Dulwich Wood Park, Rock Hill, Peckarmans Wood, Whytefield Estate and Woodsyre were mainly two or three-storey terraced town houses with small gardens. The architects frequently used 'Radburn planning', with houses in park-like settings, free of fences, with lush planting, mature trees and the parking in separate courts or 'en-bloc' garage areas.
Sites in established residential areas were earmarked for more expensive properties, such as the copper-roofed development at Ferrings on College Road. The Woodhall Estate, built between 1960-65 on the site of a bomb damaged Victorian mansion, also had arge detached houses set in landscaped grounds.
Interior photograph of a show house Rock Hill 1962
Peckarmans Wood 1960-61. Designed by Malcolm Pringle of Austin Vernon and Partners
Ferrings, College Road. Designed by Manfred Bresgen of Austin Vernon and Partners
Architect's drawing for a house at Woodhall Drive from 1960
