“Reflecting on Corner Green in Blackheath some years after its completion, Eric Lyons judged it to 'have survived (or matured) as the best of all Span schemes'”
This three-bedroom house, built by development company Span in 1959, is located on the sought-after Cator Estate in Blackheath. It retains the essence of Eric Lyons’ design, while having been elegantly remodelled inside with rigour and attention to detail by the current owner and Friend and Company architects who collaborated with renowned engineers Arup. A refined palette of wide Douglas fir boards by Dinesen, bare plaster and glass pays homage to the intentions of Span housing while bringing light and geometry to the centre of the house.
Simply put, everything horizontal is wood, while everything vertical is either structural glass or finished plaster. While there is a sincere focus on raw and natural materials applied with honesty throughout, the re-design is technical in its execution. With no extra fixings, the centrepiece is an excellent staircase that slots together as a single installation with Jenga-like precision. Panes of glass and planks of Douglas fir merge seamlessly into the kitchen worktop and a library whose shelves run through to form the treads of the stairs. Full-length floorboards continue throughout the house, and in each application of the wood, the thickness and length has been carefully considered.
Entry is from a small porch to the open plan living spaces, with a separate study to the left and the kitchen beyond which continues the extensive use of beautiful Douglas fir, with Miele appliances and steel fittings.
Lyons’ designs for Span housing often included double aspects that look to both private and communal gardens. Here the huge windows have been sensitively replaced with lovely wooden framed double glazing, and a back porch with poured concrete floor has been added to mimic the instantly recognisable Span front porch. This leads, through a garden planted with wild flowers, bamboo and small trees, to an outbuilding covenanted for use as a garage. A striking Corten steel fence delineates the garden edge.
Upstairs are two bedrooms and a third space currently used as an office. The stairwell and landing have been crowned with a two-by-three metre roof light, which can be slid open fully.
The upper rooms of the house employ a system of pocketed sliding doors to maximise space, and the two larger bedrooms share a walk-through wardrobe. The family bathroom is finished with traditional Moroccan lime tadelakt in the wet areas, and fitted with a Japanese-style bathtub and a walk-in shower with Vola fittings.
The 23 houses built in 1959 at Corner Green formed one of twenty developments completed by Eric Lyons and Span in in the South East London suburb of Blackheath. Using standard Span T7 and T8 types the design sees blocks of houses offset from one another to adapt to the contours and boundaries of the site and create a sense of enclosure by defining a central green.
Corner Green is approximately ten minutes’ walk from Blackheath mainline railway station, which is one stop from the Docklands Light Railway, with easy access to both the Docklands and City. Trains from Blackheath to London Bridge take approximately 10 minutes, and approximately 25 minutes to Victoria. Blackheath offers a selection of restaurants, shops and services as well as the large green space of the heath. The A20 and A2 give rapid access to the M25 and Kent, and the A102 crosses the Thames via the Blackwall Tunnel.
The house has featured in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Wallpaper, and the Building Centre.
Service Charge: approx £1,560 per annum
Please note that all areas, measurements and distances given in these particulars are approximate and rounded. The text, photographs and floor plans are for general guidance only. The Modern House has not tested any services, appliances or specific fittings — prospective purchasers are advised to inspect the property themselves. All fixtures, fittings and furniture not specifically itemised within these particulars are deemed removable by the vendor.
History
The development company Span built 30 housing estates between 1948 and 1984. In his book The Spirit of Span Housing, James Strike says: “Span housing was the inspiration of two young men, who, during the 1930s, met as architectural students at the Regent Street Polytechnic. Eric Lons and Geoffrey Townsend both had a keen interest in modern architecture[…] They believed that there was a market for well-designed houses in carefully designed landscapes for the sort of people who recognised good design when they saw it – and they were right.”
Span housing was the subject of an exhibition at the RIBA, and the accompanying book, entitled Eric Lyons & Span (ed Barbara Simms), gives a comprehensive survey of its history. “The work of the architect Eric Lyons,” it states, “is as well-loved now as it was vibrantly successful when first constructed. Built almost entirely for Span Developments, its mission was to provide an affordable environment ‘that gave people a lift’.”
Outlining the background to the Span Estate at Blackheath, it says: “Span’s attention had turned to the Cator Estate in Blackheath, a charming preserve of late 18th-century and early 19th-century terraces and villas[…] The area’s history was stoutly defended by the Blackheath Society, founded in 1937, and Blackheath Park – the core of the Cator Estate – was becoming admired for its ‘Regency character’. But many of the houses had been damaged beyond repair, and the long gardens and backland nurseries of Blackheath Park and the roads immediately to its north and south were ripe for speculative development.”
The book continues: “Today, the area takes its distinctive character from the combination of Regency and Span developments, and the mature landscaping of both. That Span estates were not diluted in their execution was due to Lyons’s sheer determination to defy the planners, termed by him ‘aesthetic controllers’, and restrictive building regulations[…] He won around 20 housing medals from the MHLG [Ministry of Housing and Local Government], three in 1964 alone.”
