2 And 4, Sycamore Avenue

This is a pair of semi-detached houses located at 2 and 4 Sycamore Avenue, built in 1914 by Parker and Unwin for the Joseph Rowntree Village Trust. The houses feature a through living room plan and are two storeys high, with four first-floor windows and a central gable. They have standard "New Earswick" window panes, with replacement doors beneath divided overlights, flanked by single-pane casements in the outer bays and single-light casements in the central bays. A wide tile band runs across the façade. On the first floor, there are two single-light casements in the weatherboarded gable, flanked by low two-light casements. The eaves are sprocketed, and the chimney stacks have been removed. New Earswick is particularly significant for its role in the development of low-cost housing in Britain, with practices and experiences from this area influencing the Tudor Walters Report of 1918 and the subsequent Addison Act of 1919. Plans from New Earswick also shaped the Government Manual on low-cost housing that followed the Act.