The creation of Lynnwood was an initiative to establish a new suburb on the outskirts of the Pretoria of the time. The design brief was to create a “Garden City.” In today’s terminology, an estate expanding Pretoria to the east.

The designers of Lynnwood did a truly remarkable job. In contrast to the more regimented grid designs of Waterkloof and Brooklyn, Lynnwood had no straight lines and no parallel streets. It had no square or rectangular stands. It truly was a huge flowing garden.

Lynnwood was lavishly endowed with open spaces. Many of those spaces were developed as mini-parks, invariably colourful playgrounds for children. On a typical Sunday afternoon, families would walk their children from playground to playground, from one end of Lynnwood North to the other.

The street names of Lynnwood North evoke romantic mythology based on the Royal visit to South Africa of 1947. It is claimed that King George VI would have travelled through the farm that became Lynnwood, hence the street called King’s Highway. Queen Elizabeth also inspired the naming of a street or two. Hence Queen Elizabeth Road and Queens Crescent. We have Lover’s Walk, and Flinders Lane too may allude to an atmosphere of flirting. Sappers Contour probably refers to some dynamic involving the entourage; perhaps involving a security detail. Many of the first homes were quite Bohemian. Homes had the feel of independent dwellings on a great farm. Boundary fences were uncommon, and the children from the neighbourhood wore footpaths through each other’s properties on their daily ventures to school and elsewhere.