The History of Watchfield Estate
Watchfield Court
Watchfield Court is built on land which was owned by The Royal Horticultural Society and used as a market garden until 1870. In 1880 a large mansion was built here, called Watchfield Court.
In 1934 the house was demolished and replaced by the current block of flats; the first residents moved into Watchfield Court in 1936. It also appears that some other Victorian houses were demolished at the same time. A number of well-known people have lived here as well as Europeans displaced before and during the 2nd World War.
Racecourse Houses
The buildings were designed by the distinguished architect Sir John Brown 1880-1960 and he was in partnership with A.E.Henson (architect) and their offices were in Sloane Street Chelsea. Sir John was a bit ahead of his time in that he specified for ‘American style living’, airy spaces and domestic appliances.
He was well known for his ‘Post-Modernist’ style and all of his buildings were clean-lined and devoid of surface embellishment: these are the only buildings by him in Chiswick. He designed other residential schemes in North London, namely in Hampstead. His most well-known municipal project was Friern Barnet Town Hall and one can see distinct architectural similarities between it and the Racecourse Houses.
The first to be built was Goodwood in 1957 and it was billed and marketed as ‘luxury, spacious apartments’ and the other Racecourse Houses were built in the early 60's, detail was modified as construction progressed. So there are slight variations in each of the houses.
