Highfort Court, Buck Lane, NW9 0GQ

Ward: Fryent

Date: 1935-36

Architect: Ernest Trobridge

Style: eclectic medieval

Original use: residential

Existing use: residential

Description

Architectural significance – 4 flats to designs by Ernest Trobridge. Materials: rendered brickwork plus reinforced concrete and brickwork side returns. An iconic Trobridge ‘castle’, with its chimneys and dust-bin cupboards in crenellated turrets, fortification and battlements around roof gardens for the first-floor flats. An eclectic mix of stylized medieval and Arts and Crafts detailing. The primary entrance is approached via a ‘bridge’ up to a portcullis. It is whimsical castle with stylised machicolated battlement with cruciform arrowslits. The fenestration has exposed rendered surrounds. Beside the entrance archway ’sentry boxes’ do duty as dust-bin stores.

Conservation area: Buck Lane

Significance score - 11

Authenticity: 2

Architectural: 3

Historical/archaeological: 3

Townscape: 3

Historic significance – Highfort Court with its crenelated roofline and tower, reflects the theme that ‘the Englishman's home is his castle’. It was designed by Ernest George Trobridge (1884–1942) who was designing homes for private clients. The Kingsbury Cross Co Partnership had been formed in 1929 to develop the Wakeman Hill area. His early examples used a singular system of wooden framed cottage construction, developed after WW1 as a way of building affordable housing for returning soldiers; a prototype house was shown at the 1920 Ideal Home Exhibition. By 1930, housing subsidies were no longer available. The rising cost of timber and the more plentiful supply of brick must have influenced his design approach and his response was typically unorthodox and dramatic. On Wakeman's Hill he created what has been described as ‘English architecture through the ages’. Highfort Court (1936-37), with its crenellated roofline and tower, reflects the theme that ‘the Englishman's home is his castle. His designs encompass historical types, illusion, humour and insecure looking construction.

Authenticity – The flats have been altered by replacement windows and the original portcullis gate is missing but the building is otherwise remarkably well-preserved and serves as one of Trobridge’s best examples of the castle idiom.

Townscape significance – The corner plot and iconic nature within the street makes the castle stand out. The building is well known locally. It forms a group with Stonegate Court.

Sources: Ernest George Trobridge, 1884-1942, Architect Extraordinary, Graham Smith, 1982. The Trobridge Trail, unpublished guide, 1997.