PROJECT
Front Drive
Muswell Hill N10

CLIENT
sally
October 2014

WORKS UNDERTAKEN
York stone paving
gravel driveway
brick walls

Our client lives on a busy road where most of the houses have drives which reduces the availability of street parking. She made the difficult decision to turn part of her front garden into a drive. The brief was to retain as much of the original kiln brick wall as possible as well as using sustainable materials and retaining planting areas.

One of the most important considerations for a front drive is to comply with Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS) practices which involves diverting water towards natural drainage to relieve pressure from drains and prevent flooding. The best way of doing this is to use a permeable surface for the drive so here we built a gravel drive reinforced to support the weight of a car with Gridforce, a system made from recycled plastic.

In the back garden previous gardeners had lifted some broken York stone and we reused some of this along with additional reclaimed broken York stone to form a front path in keeping with the house. We also used reclaimed Victorian rope top edgings to continue with the original features.

We dismantled part of the front walls and rebuilt and repointed them to make them more stable. We also added piers to give the ends a finished look and add strength.

The final product is a balanced garden that still has lots of planting, ample space for a car that won't add any pressure to drainage systems and plenty of original features to tie it to the house.

BEFORE