Brentham Garden Suburb became a conservation area in 1969.
Mostly built between 1901 and 1915, it was the first garden suburb in London to be built in cooperative principles, predating the better-known Hampstead Garden Suburb by some years.
Brentham’s origins can be traced back to the Arts and Crafts and Garden City movements.
The Arts and Crafts movement was led by William Morris. It was a movement of social reform who advocated the need for beauty in people’s daily surroundings. Morris promoted the revival of traditional methods of building, using locally produced and hand-crafted building materials.
The Garden City movement was founded by Ebenezer Howard. He published a detailed account of his ideas about the planning and economic foundation of towns and cities.
In 1891 Howard established his own building firm, General Builders Ltd. This was a co-operative production venture which by 1897 comprised 17 branches.
One of these was in Ealing, where six members of the firm decided to club together and buy plots. The group met with Henry Vivian (1868-1930), a carpenter, trade unionist and Liberal Member of Parliament.
Vivian was concerned with the improvement of housing conditions, especially for working people encouraged the group of builders not only to build houses, but to form a tenants’ association, which became known as Ealing Tenants. Brentham, as the area was later called, was the pioneer garden suburb of the co-partnership housing movement. It was designed to a plan by the leading garden city architects Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin, with houses, mostly in the Arts and Crafts style.
Hampstead Garden Suburb followed six years later in 1907.
Brentham is noted for its annual May Day festival and for the Brentham Cricket Club.
