London's secret suburbs

Most were built in the Arts and Crafts style, which took its inspiration from English village architecture and traditional building materials such as brick and tile, with leaded-light windows and oak joinery. Arts and Crafts features abound, such as simple oak panel doors with wrought-iron strap hinges and wooden latches, metal windows with decorative handles, exposed beams and inglenook fireplaces. All these garden suburbs are now conservation areas.

Romford Garden Suburb, Gidea Park, Essex

The Liberal MP Sir Herbert Raphael was the driving forced behind Romford Garden Suburb, which had close links with Hampstead Garden Suburb. Unlike Brentham, the houses and cottages were for sale rather than renting, with the houses costing £500 and the cottages £375.

Romford garden suburb began life in 1911 as an exhibition to showcase the work of some of the most eminent architects of the day and to demonstrate new ideas in town planning.

By 1912, 159 houses and cottages had been built by more than 100 architects, including Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin, the planners and chief architects of Letchworth Garden City and Hampstead Garden Suburb; Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, of Portmeirion fame, and Charles Robert Ashbee, a prominent member of the Arts and Crafts movement and founder of the Guild of Handicraft.

The style of Romford Garden Suburb is predominantly Arts and Crafts and, as well as detached houses and cottages, there are shops with flats above in the same style. Six of the exhibition houses are now listed buildings and the suburb has been a conservation area since 1970. In 1934, the suburb was extended. A "Modern Homes" exhibition was held after 35 mainly modern-movement houses with white stucco walls and flat roofs were built in Heath Drive, Brook Road and Eastern Avenue. One of the houses, now listed, was designed by Berthold Lubetkin, the architect of the penguin pool at London Zoo.

Brentham Garden Suburb, Ealing, W5

Brentham Garden Suburb is a littleknown area of Ealing. It has mainly cottage-style houses which are popular with young families. The homes are all owner-occupied, but this was not the original intention of the estate's pioneering founders, who were motivated by the need to improve the housing conditions of the poor.

Brentham was set up as a housing copartnership scheme by Henry Vivian, a carpenter and trade unionist. At Brentham, the pioneers all bought shares in a co-operative housing venture: the properties were owned by the cooperative and the members rented them. The profits were ploughed back into the co-operative and used to buy more land and build community facilities, including the still-flourishing Brentham Club.

The first houses were built in 1905, and by the beginning of the First World War the estate had expanded to more than 600 houses on 60 acres of north Ealing. This model development has been copied as far afield as Germany, Canada and Russia.

Merton Park, Wimbledon

The history of Merton Park is inextricably linked with John Innes, the man who brought us the famous potting compost. It was here that Innes, a successful City of London property developer, set up one of the first garden suburbs in the 1870s.

His idea was a new suburb for wealthy professionals who hankered after a more rural way of life. To maintain the village atmosphere, the estate also included cottages for estate workers. Holly hedges, which are still one of the most characteristic features of the estate, were used to unify the street scene.

The famous garden institute was set up in 1904 as a result of a bequest in John Innes's will. The institute, which is now based in Norfolk, moved from the area in the early 1950s, but the pretty local park with its bandstand, where summer concerts are held every year, still bears his name, as does the local conservation area.

Merton Park's most famous architect, John Sydney Brocklesby, designed dozens of houses in the Arts and Crafts style, including three large houses in the style of Greystones (see opposite), and a number of unusual flint cottages in Sheridan Road, inspired by his love of the Norfolk-cottage style.