5-9, Sycamore Place

A terrace of five houses at 5-9 Sycamore Place, New Earswick, built in 1914. The terrace was designed by Parker and Unwin for the Joseph Rowntree Village Trust, as part of a scheme for low-cost housing. The houses are constructed of brick with a French tile roof and follow a lobby-entry plan, with a living room and scullery at the rear. They are two storeys high, with 14 bays, and the entrance bays project slightly. A round-arched through passage is located in the sixth bay and is flanked by recessed half-glazed doors within round-arched porches. A similar recessed half-glazed door is found in the porch to the twelfth bay. The windows are four-pane sashes. The roof is hipped with sprocketed eaves, although the stacks have been removed. Entrances to numbers 5 and 9 are located on the side. New Earswick is historically significant for its contribution to the development of low-cost housing in Britain, influencing the Tudor Walters Report of 1918 and the subsequent Addison Act of 1919, and impacting government guidelines on low-cost housing.