Page 23 - HGS Suburb News 151 - Autumn 2022

Even if I knew that tomorrow
HAMPSTEAD GARDEN SUBURB ARCHIVES TRUST

No streets on the Suburb the world would go to pieces,
I would still plant my

Blandford and Harford Closes are apple tree. MARTIN LUTHER
all places in the West country.
Sybella Gurney (Gurney Drive)
was the Secretary of ‘Coparts’. MARIE-CHRISTINE O’CALLAGHAN
William Thomas Thornton (Thornton
Way) was a social reformer and pples have a long association with the Suburb, Henrietta Barnett
wrote on co-operation. Brunner gifted an apple tree to every new householder. Apples have an
Close commemorates Sir John A even longer connection to humans. Scientists have shown that
Brunner, Chairman of the 750,000 years ago, early Paleolithic food gatherers in southern
Coparts board. Kazakhstan were eating the fruit of a wild apple tree now called Malus
Litchfield Way was named sieversii. This tree became the ancestor of almost all of the 7.500
after Frederick Litchfield who held varieties of apples we have today. The original tree showed immense
posts in the Tenants Societies. diversity in the apples it produced: they could range from large to
Sutcliffe Close was named for the small, sweet to sharp, and red to yellow and green. Its genome was
Copartners architect, George sequenced in 2010 and was found to contain approximately 57,000
Lister Sutcliffe. unique genes, making it the most diverse plant genome ever studied.
Edmund James Cooper an Humans rarely stay in one place for very long and as the food
architect, gave his name to gatherers moved along nomadic and later trade routes, they took the
Edmund’s Walk. Chalton Drive apple with them. It reached the Middle East around 2,000 BC where it
was named for Chalton Hubbard, began to be farmed, and when Homer composed the Odyssey in the
the Coparts solicitor. Greenhalgh 8th century BC, he could describe ‘a great orchard of four acres where
Walk for John H Greenhalgh who trees grow tall and luxuriant, pears and pomegranates and apple-trees
was on the Committee of with their bright fruit’. The Ancient Greeks so valued the fruit that they
Hampstead Tenants. Hutchings considered the apple tree the sacred tree of the goddess Hera. Apples
Walk recalls William Hutchings who were also a favourite fruit for the Romans, the Roman armies carried
was Copart’s Deputy Chairman. apples across Europe, planting pips wherever they settled. They brought
Emmott Close was named for the apples with them when they conquered Britain.
Lord Emmott who was Chairman Where the apple went, stories would follow. A golden apple
Henrietta and Samuel, pondering street names? (Photo: Toynbee Hall) of the Institute Council. inscribed ‘To the fairest’ started the Trojan war, Wilhelm Tell shot an
Some of the roads were arrow into an apple placed on his son’s head, a feat which led to
MICKY WATKINS Closes all quite near to each named after Christian Socialists: Switzerland’s independence*, the fall of an apple helped Newton to
other. Hogarth and Creswick are John Ludlow (Ludlow Way) wrote the theory of gravity, the evil queen offered Snow White a poisoned
uburb founder Henrietta further North. many Christian Socialist tracts apple, and a new computer company was founded which took its name
Barnett had great fun She was interested in poets and was cofounder of the Working from this iconic fruit. Of course, there is also Eve eating an apple and
S naming the streets of the and writers, so Coleridge and Men’s College. Kingsley Way after being thrown out of Eden; but did she? The Bible does state that: ‘God
Suburb. Yet there are none! The Wordsworth Walk, Addison Way Charles Kingsley (founder of did tell Adam and Eve: ‘Of every tree of the
very word ‘street’, she thought, and Ruskin Close. Spencer Drive Christian Socialism and author garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the
suggested the modern industrial and Milton, Carlyle and Kingsley of The Water Babies). Kingsley was tree of the knowledge of good
city and its slum dwellings. So Close are in the ‘new’ Suburb. born in Holne in Devon, hence and evil, thou shalt not eat of
instead, we have Way, Road, Hill, Browning was Henrietta’s Holne Chase. it: for in the day that thou eatest
Close, Square, Walk, Chase, Rise, favourite poet, so it is puzzling Denison Close and Maurice thereof thou shalt surely die.’
Croft, Mount, Garth, Holne and that there is no Browning Walk. Walk after Frederick Denison The fruit of the tree of
Lea. All of these are Saxon words, Legal and political names Maurice, an adult education knowledge is not named but
and celebrated the medievalism appear in Erskine Hill (Lord pioneer. Neale Close after Edward paintings, like the beautiful
of the Arts and Crafts movement Chancellor Thomas Erskine), Vansittart Neale, co-author Adam and Eve of Lucas
and its style of architecture Chatham Close (after the elder of Tom Brown’s Schooldays. Cranach, spread the idea that
Many of the Suburb roads were Pitt), and Denman Drive (Lord Lytton Close was named for the forbidden fruit was an apple,
named after existing local fields or Chief Justice). Howard Walk was Lord Lytton, who was Chairman of though, it probably was not.
farms: Wellgarth Road from Well named after Ebenezer Howard, the HGS Trust from 1913 to 1920, Despite this nefarious association,
Fields, Asmuns Hill (Assmans), who came up with the idea of the and became Governor of Bengal. apples have thrived, possibly
Temple Fortune Hill, Temple Garden City. Ralph Neville (Neville Lyttleton Road is in memory of because they are such a homely and
Fortune Lane, Willifield Way (from Drive), was Chairman of the Garden Alfred Lyttleton who was first comforting fruit. They are used to
Willeyford Grove), Farm Walk, City Association. President of the HGS Trust from make cider, to add a subtle
Wyldes Hatch. After 1918 most of the houses 1906-1913. As he was a great sweetness to main dishes and as the
Some simply showed a were built by ‘Co-partnerships’, cricketer, he would be delighted main ingredient in a plethora of
direction or location: Hampstead and the roads were named with Lyttleton Playing Fields. desserts. Perhaps we should all plant
Way, Heathgate, Heath Close, accordingly. Holyoake (Holyoake Arthur Foley Winnington Ingram an apple tree in our garden and
Northway, Middleway and Southway, Walk) was the author of ‘The who was Bishop of London, and a thank our Paleolithic ancestors.
Church Mount (where a church History of Cooperation in England’ member of the first Trust, has
was planned), Brookland Rise and and was the last man in England three roads named after him: *Legend has it that William Tell refused to
Linden Lea (lined with limes). to be convicted of atheism and Winnington Road, Bishop’s salute the hat (!) of the Austrian ruler Albert
Henrietta was herself an artist sent to prison. Henry Vivian MP Avenue and Ingram Avenue. Gessler who then forced Tell to shoot at
and admired English painters. So (Vivian Way) was Chairman of an apple placed on his son’s head.
we have: Turner Drive, and Linnell, Coparts nationally, and MP for Abbreviated from Tell shot the apple and later killed
Constable, Morland, Cotman, Totnes (Totnes Walk) in Devon ‘What’s in a Name’ by Brigid Grafton Gessler initiating the fight for
Raeburn, Reynolds and Turner (Devon Rise). Widecombe Way, Greene, First Suburb Archivist. Switzerland’s independence.

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