1-42 Headlam Green, Including Chirton House, Bowling Green Pavilion, Garages, Entrance Gates, Retaining Walls And Attached Fences

1-42 Headlam Green is a group of 42 flats and sheltered housing (Chirton House) arranged around a central bowling green, built between 1976 and 1978 by Swedish architect Ralph Erskine's Arkitektkontor, with site architect Vernon Gracie, structural engineer White, Young and Partners, and main contractor Shepherd Construction. The complex occupies a prominent high site on sloping ground that falls away on all sides, with the green appearing to be partly made up ground.

The development uses red modular metric brick facing Union Road, with pale brick to the central green, and concrete block cross-wall construction. Brown and green balconies are supported on pre-cast cantilevers, and blue metal sloping roofs with very deep eaves top the square buildings, which range from two to four storeys.

The composition is three-sided around the bowling green, extending on the fourth side to enclose an earlier 20th-century community centre (not included in the listing).

Nos. 1-12 form a two-storey terrace of flats set over garages, with upper flats reached by short access galleries accessed via staircases boldly expressed by supporting struts braced by timbers reaching to the eaves. Small raised attic areas sit over the walkway. Distinctive oriels of brown timber with steeply sloping roofs occupy the rear. Garages project under the first-floor patio at bowling green level.

Nos. 14-21 form an L-shaped three-storey block in the corner, linked across a one and two-storey carriage arch. The extra storey is set lower into the sloping land at the rear, maintaining the green's two-storey profile. A high timber attic tops the block. Distinctive projecting brown timber oriels under sloping roofs face outward, while the access gallery on the green side continues over the carriageway.

Nos. 22-24 occupy a two-storey block on the opposite side, attached to large steel gates with old stone flanking wall. The west elevation has open ground floor with brown and green timber walkway above.

Chirton House occupies the north side, of two and three storeys with a projecting rear three-storey range. Paired windows project on exposed concrete cantilevers under sloping blue roofs. To the square, projecting brown timber first floor beneath deep eaves is supported on timber struts and braces, with green balconies.

Nos. 25-32 rise two storeys to the green, three storeys at the rear. An access gallery of brown timber with green balustrades sits under eaves behind timber struts and bracing.

Nos. 33-37 and Nos. 38-42 are two striking blocks of red brick with buff brick facing the green only, under steeply sloping roofs. They are three and four storeys with brown timber eaves detailing, projecting balconies, oriel windows, and porches under sloping roofs. Nos. 33-37 have a linking access gallery forming a bridge to Nos. 25-32. Nos. 38-42 feature prominent access stairs at the end, of brown timber with green balustrading on brick base and plastic sheet roofing.

Windows throughout are timber in timber subframes with aluminium opening lights, mostly sliding. Some original red doors with glazed panels survive; others have been renewed in hardwood. Chirton House has a broad projecting four-bay entrance with double doors at left, set behind a red brick garden wall.

The bowling pavilion at the centre of the green features exposed timber framing with Eternit panels and a tiled roof over prominent eaves, set against a low stone wall surviving from earlier development. Two small gables face the green, with small benches. Green fences border the rest of the green.

Built-in green fences, bin stores, and steps are features throughout the Headlam Green development. Big brick retaining walls lie to the east of the square. The scheme represents a distinctive variant of Erskine's characteristic brick and bright timber idiom, creating a cohesive one-off development.