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There is a threat to our historic street
• ONE of the disadvantages of the current boom in house prices is the potential dismantlement of Camden’s Georgian housing inheritance by property developers.
Doughty Street, one of Camden’s most attractive Georgian streets, vaunted as such by local estate agents, is currently facing assault at its rear by property developers.
This is the street (not that long) that boasts blue plaques to such former residents as Sydney Smith, Charles Dickens, Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby, and has a steady stream of visitors to the Dickens museum who often stop to admire other houses in the street.
On the south east side there is an important enclave of about six or seven houses which still have their original size gardens backing onto the original mews houses which are largely untouched; (Camden’s local studies archive at Holborn Library has Ordnance Survey maps going back to the 1880s, and even then this section of the rear of Doughty Street was largely unspoilt).
These mews houses have windows onto the mews but in general do not face onto the Georgian houses, thus protecting these houses’ privacy.
The garden of a Georgian house is as much a part of the overall design of these houses as the beautifully-proportioned rooms, banisters and wooden shutters.
This enclave of houses whose backs have remained largely untouched for 200 years are now threatened by developers who want to alter some of the mews houses so that they will have back windows facing the Georgian houses, and may also take part of their gardens.
This will totally alter the feel of living in these Doughty Street houses, not only for us, but for all future occupants. Tranquillity and privacy, a key feature of the design of these houses, will be replaced by a loss of privacy and a likely increase in the number of people using the gardens, thus adding to noise pollution.
Anyone who wants to see what has been allowed to happen to the rear of some of these houses should visit the Dickens museum soon.
Look out from the back and see the huge building put up in the past few months behind it and other houses at the north east end of Doughty Street.
We moved here 13 years ago because of the architecture: we were struck by how the Georgians had a natural concept of beauty.
In the coming weeks the Camden’s Planning Department will be considering whether to grant developers planning permission for the south east end of the mews.
It will be a crucial time for a small but important corner of Camden’s Georgian heritage.
JAMES SHILLINGFORD
Doughty Street, WC1
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