For years the founders’ vision of beautiful houses in a peaceful, verdant landscape was fulfilled. Then along came the leaf blowers and hedge trimmers.
Hampstead Garden Suburb is being blighted by the rise of modern gardening implements, its residents say.
In an attempt to wind back the clock to “old fashioned” manual gardening tools, they are to introduce a disciplinary system for residents who favour petrol-driven gizmos.
The residents’ association of the north London district, where houses can fetch upwards of £30 million, has set up a “noise abatement committee” empowered to hand out yellow cards to noisy neighbours.
Repeat offenders would be given a red card which would be quietly slipped through their letterbox.
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Gary Shaw, the association secretary, said that residents, nearly all of whom in line with the founders’ vision have spacious gardens, were finding it impossible to enjoy peace in them.
“Noise problems have grown in recent years and it has made it difficult for residents to relax or work,” he said.
“We can’t impose anything on people but we hope to nudge them into recognising noise can be very disturbing.”
The noise abatement committee, formed after a noisy association meeting in July when the “widely shared feeling” was that “local noise levels were often intolerable”, is considering a range of measures, Mr Shaw said.
“One of the things we are thinking about doing is putting polite red and yellow cards through residents’ doors.
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“It’s all about trying to remind people — politely — of the impact that noise can have on their neighbours.”
The suburb has much to protect from hedge trimmers. It was described by Nikolaus Pevsner, the architectural historian, as “the most nearly perfect example of that English invention and speciality, the garden suburb”.
Inspired by Henrietta Barnett and laid out by Raymond Unwin and Edwin Lutyens, the archetypal leafy suburb, which originally aspired to being a model community for people of all classes, now houses the moneyed elite.
Their pedigree dogs are also being targeted by the residents’ association. Its chairman David Lewis told a local newspaper that as well as the leaf blowers trumpeting all afternoon, dogs should not be allowed to bark relentlessly.
“It is not just a question of volume but of duration,” he said. “We want garden and other contractors to use quieter equipment and for people not to leave their dogs to bark outside.”
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Mr Shaw said that while they had very limited powers to curtail the noise, they wanted to use social pressure to target the serial culprits.
The noise abatement committee will be given a year to see if it is able to restore peace and tranquillity, he said.