The prince of Holloway Road

There’s a red doormat on the floor outside the three-bedroom flat where six-year-old Kenadee Stephenson lives with her 18-year-old brother and mum Angela, 39.

The mat marks the fact a very special guest is about to arrive at the ground floor social-rented home on the Highbury Gardens development in Islington, north London. The Prince of Wales is due any minute to tour the Stephensons’ home. Inside Housing is, naturally, excited. But is Kenadee? ‘No,’ she answers resolutely.

‘She keeps saying that, but she’s excited because she couldn’t get to sleep last night,’ laughs Ms Stephenson, who admits she’s also a bit on edge.

The heir to the throne is visiting in his role as president of the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community, the organisation he founded in 1998, which aims to transform lives ‘through engaging, educating and empowering people’.

The Prince’s Foundation advised developer and investor First Base and its partners, 25,000-home housing association Southern Housing Group and the Homes and Communities Agency, in the early stages of planning the scheme in 2007. It facilitated the community consultation process and talked through options for the design of the £35 million, 119-home, mixed-tenure scheme.

The visit marks the launch of the foundation’s Quality: the key to delivering more homes report. The report, published last Tuesday, states: ‘Britain needs more homes, and we need to find a way to not only meet that demand, but to do so in a way that helps create beautiful, affordable and sustainable communities.’

Traditional design

Highbury Gardens is judged to be just such a sustainable community. The report argues it is exemplary because it ‘blends the best of traditional architecture with functional contemporary living’. Today the prince - who holds notoriously strong opinions on such matters, often openly criticising high-profile modern developments which he believes will date quickly - is inspecting the scheme for himself. Will it get the royal seal of approval?

Highbury Gardens has a London mansion block-style design, and although it is located on the busy Holloway Road, all the properties are accessed via an arch with a security gate which leads to a peaceful inner courtyard.

The Stephensons live in one of Southern Housing Group’s 18 social rented units on this site. The housing association also has 39 shared ownership properties here. Developer First Base, meanwhile, has 62 properties - one half of which are shared equity properties for key workers and the other half for private sale.

Until a year ago, Ms Stephenson was living nearby in a two-bedroom flat, and shared a bedroom with Kenadee. ‘It’s a completely different standard of living here,’ she says. ‘I feel secure and happy. I don’t feel any different from anyone else here - and obviously I don’t own.’

From the Stephensons’ open plan kitchen and living room, patio doors look out onto the courtyard where a marquee has been erected and dignitaries await the prince’s arrival. Housing minister Mark Prisk, Richard Hill, interim chief executive of the HCA, Rick Blakeway, deputy mayor of London, Elliot Lipton, managing director of First Base and Dale Meredith, group development director at Southern Housing Group, are among the welcoming party.

‘A key part of making a scheme viable is to make sure that the payment for the affordable housing works for the developer,’ explains Mr Lipton. ‘Although [on this development] the HCA was the landowner, it was also an investor in the affordable housing and that wraps it up into a viable scheme.’

Southern Housing Group received £5.6 million in grant from the HCA to help fund its social rented and shared ownership properties, adds Mr Meredith. He says the key is making the scheme affordable to ‘a whole range of people - not just wealthy people who can afford to buy expensive flats.’

Suddenly there is a hush. The Prince of Wales has arrived. Dressed in a long, navy blue overcoat, he strides into the courtyard escorted by Hank Dittmar, chief executive of The Prince’s Foundation. Keeping a respectful distance are Clarence House staff members and a man one presumes is a bodyguard.

The heir to the throne looks around and nods approvingly at what he sees: a new development that follows classical design, with pleasing attention to detail, such as discrete ventilation (all vents are hidden along the tops of floor-to-ceiling windows).

One by one, the prince is introduced to each member of his welcoming party. He speaks with a whisper. Quiet descends on the courtyard, and for the first time all morning, the roar of traffic can be heard.

Secrets revealed

The prince asks Mr Blakeway if he’s already been into the Stephensons’ home. ‘I’ve had a look around,’ he answers. ‘There’s a very pink bedroom’. Once inside, the prince decides to spend most of his time in the pink room - which turns out to be Kenadee’s. The royal soon-to-be grandfather is happy to be led to meet her pet hamster, which refuses to emerge from its bed. ‘Is it hiding?’ he asks her. ‘Has it gone to sleep?’

Next is a look at one of First Base’s key worker, shared equity apartments. Shortly after that, the prince is whisked off to the last stop, a privately owned apartment where he takes a seat at a table, ready for a short discussion with Mr Prisk, Mr Lipton and co about lessons that can be learned from Highbury Gardens.

The prince takes a cup of black tea with honey - which we’re later told is his usual refreshment of choice - and asks Mr Lipton: ‘What is the secret to attaining the quality and the affordability?’

‘It’s about making sure that when land is released, people care about the quality and they care about the community,’ he answers. ‘You can mix different tenures together in a high-quality development. You can deliver high quality at a reasonable price.’

After 45 minutes at the scheme, bang on schedule, the prince is escorted back downstairs where he bids farewell, before disappearing through the arch, flanked by his entourage.

He says something to Mr Lipton on his way out. What was it? ‘Carry on the enlightened work,’ reveals the developer, with a smile.

Back in her flat, Ms Stephenson and her mother Shelley are dissecting their brush with royalty. ‘What a lovely man’ they agree. ‘He’s so down to earth.’

Kenadee, meanwhile, is unfazed by the morning’s excitement. She sits quietly in a perfectly designed corner watching kids’ TV.