40, THE GREEN

Details

790/0/10105
06-AUG-07

THE GREEN
SOUTHGATE
(East side)
40

GV
II

House, early C19 with some later C19 alteration.

MATERIALS: Yellow stock brick, built in Flemish Bond, with slate roof and brick chimney stacks. The rear extension is weatherboarded. Windows and doors at the back of the house are uPVC.

PLAN: This is a three bay, two storey house, two rooms deep, with single storey extension attached to the south-east corner. The roof is pitched with chimney stacks at either end.

EXTERIOR: The front elevation is symmetrical, with three twelve-paned unhorned sash windows above a centrally placed six-panelled door flanked by two tripartite windows with horned sashes. The door has a fanlight above, and is set within a round gauged brick arch: all the windows, both front and back, have cambered gauged brick arches. The rear elevation is slightly narrower than the front, pinched by No.41 to the north. The arrangement of windows is regular, with two casements in each storey, and a back door placed slightly off centre between the two ground floor windows. An additional narrow window has been inserted into the upper storey. Local Blue Plaque on right of the facade (see below).

INTERIOR: The ground floor has four rooms, two front and two back, arranged either side of a central corridor that runs from the front to the back of the house: there is a step down to the two back rooms. The dogleg staircase rises between the north rooms, set against the north wall. A shallow lozenge shape has been cut into the ceiling just inside the front door to make allowance for the height of the fanlight. The hall has a dado rail, and the doors on the two front rooms are six-panelled with mouldings. The north front room contains a late C19 fireplace with decorative tiled sides, and the window has sliding shutters which are concealed within the wall. The doors to the back rooms are four-panelled without mouldings: the north back room contains the understairs cupboard.

The closed string staircase has stick balusters and simple panelling to ceiling height. Upstairs, the arrangement of rooms is as on the ground floor, again with a step down to the back rooms. The toilet at the end of the corridor seems to be a late insertion. The north front room extends across the corridor: it has a wood panelled east wall behind which is a walk in cupboard. All doors are four-panelled, and all three bedrooms have fireplaces with plain surrounds. Those in the north front and south back rooms are blocked, while that in the south front bedroom retains its original grate. The ceiling over the back rooms and corridor is battened.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: There are iron railings along the boundary with the footpath to the front of the house, and beside the front door.

HISTORY: Southgate was originally a wooded hamlet in coppice woods outside Enfield Chase (the name referring to the Chase's south entrance) in the parish of Edmonton. The Chase was enclosed in 1777 and High Street, Southgate, formerly South Street, became an area of small businesses and services, while The Green seems to have been favoured by the slightly more affluent classes. On the Tithe map of 1801 there are narrow rectangular buildings in the plot now occupied by Nos. 40 and 41, which are shown in their current form for the first time on the 1882 OS map. However, elements of their appearance suggest an early C19 date, and this is substantiated by the history of the development of the south end of the High Street, immediately to the north of The Green. Surviving houses and documentary evidence indicates that this area was redeveloped in the first half of the C19, and it is probable that The Green was subject to the same economic and social forces that were driving change elsewhere in Southgate. In the later C19 alterations were carried out to both houses which included the replacement of the original unhorned sash windows with larger, tripartite sashes. In the front elevation of No. 40 only the ground floor windows were replaced. Recent changes include the replacement of all the windows and doors at the back of the house with uPVC. A local Blue Plaque attached to the right front of the house records that 'In 1881 this house became the first seat of local government in Southgate' following the separation of Southgate from the Edmonton Board of Health in that year.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: No. 40 The Green is an early C19 house which, despite some later C19 and C21 modifications retains its distinctive architectural character, and is therefore of special interest for its date, and for the survival of plan form and internal detail, which reflects the social context of the house. It is also is of local historical interest as an illustration of the development of Southgate, and with its neighbour, No. 41, it makes a considerable contribution to the character of the conservation area. It also has group value with the Grade II listed Nos. 38 and 39 The Green, immediately to the south.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

502379

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.