Some people think Hampstead Garden Suburb is a bit twee, but I like it. What’s not to like about an estate that was created with green spaces and social cohesion in mind? When the estate was created in 1907, two fruit trees were planted in every garden and community allotments were built into the design. Mature trees were kept to give a sense of maturity and hedges were used as boundaries to give a rural feel. You don’t see many estates created with an ethos like that nowadays.
HGS has strict rules about everything from fences to satellite dishes, but presumably there’s nothing in the regulations that say that you can’t do something a bit different with a privet hedge. My friend Naomi tipped me off to this one. As she points out, it’s got real depth to its curves.