White rendered 1930s villas with curved balconies, and the Kossakowski villa where Black Pearl was filmed in 1934.
What Saska Kępa looks like
The district's densest run of interwar villas stands along , two and three storeys in white render and red brick, with flat roofs and horizontal bands of windows. Several corner houses have curved stair towers and balconies, and low walls or clipped hedges front small gardens along the sidewalk.
runs as the commercial spine, trees planted along both sides and shopfronts set back from the road. The Łepkowski villa at number 2 opens onto a garden terrace reached by a winding stair. at number 4, built in 1930, has an openwork balcony railing on three pillars that repeats on its terrace and staircase. A gallery access apartment block designed by Bohdan Lachert stands at number 12, its ground floor now used as shops. Walled embassy residences sit among the villas nearby, seventeen of them within the immediate area.
A row of gabled terraced houses fronts Dąbrowiecka Street as part of the Kolonia Łaskiego development, each with its own small garden behind a low fence. Farther along the same street, an interwar villa with a garden and a garage is registered with the regional film commission as an available filming location.
The side streets off Francuska and Katowicka are quiet, asphalt paved with sidewalks and largely free of through traffic. Tram lines run along Aleja Jerzego Waszyngtona at the district's western edge, reaching , the roundabout where traffic and trams cross the Poniatowski Bridge into central Warsaw. Park Skaryszewski borders the district on the same side, open lawns framed by mature trees.
Shot in Saska Kępa
Black Pearl used the Kossakowski villa at 4 Francuska Street as a location in 1934, a film starring Eugeniusz Bodo and Lena Żelichowska. The villa's ground floor sits high above the street, reached by the same staircase and openwork balcony railing that still front the house today.
Black Pearl (Czarna perła), 1934
The Kossakowski villa
The Kossakowski villa was built in 1930 for Kazimierz Kossakowski, who lived in the house. Its openwork balcony railing, supported on three pillars, repeats on the terrace enclosure and on the staircase leading up to the high ground floor. Street View
What Saska Kępa can double for
Frohnau in Berlin, Germany
Frohnau is a garden city of curving streets and freestanding houses set in gardens, planned from 1910 on the same idea behind this district's own grid. Many of its houses are larger than these villas, but the wooded, tree lined streets and the detached plan give a close match in a street level shot. Frohnau's houses are often set further back and behind more planting than these villas, so keep them close or the extra scale will show. Try searching freestanding houses in gardens now.
Römerstadt in Frankfurt, Germany
Römerstadt was built from 1927 as part of Ernst May's New Frankfurt housing programme and uses the same flat roofs, white render and horizontal window bands as these 1930s villas. The houses are built as short terraced rows on a tight grid rather than freestanding villas with gardens. Keep frames tight enough to hide the shared party walls and row spacing, since a wider shot gives away the estate's terraced density. Try searching flat roof white render houses now.
Hampstead Garden Suburb dates from 1906, with wide tree lined streets and hedges instead of walls between plots. Individual gardens surround every house, the same planning idea behind this district's own grid. Its houses are Arts and Crafts brick and tile rather than white render and flat roofs, so the street pattern is the match rather than the architecture. The pitched tile roofs and brick gables date the buildings to England in any wide shot, so this holds up best for the garden suburb layout rather than a direct match for the villas themselves. Try searching tree lined garden suburb street now.
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