14 And 16, Sycamore Avenue

Nos 14 and 16 Sycamore Avenue are a pair of semi-detached houses built in 1914 by Parker and Unwin for the Joseph Rowntree Village Trust. They feature a lobby-entry plan with a living room and scullery side by side, along with a coal shed and WC in an outbuilding. Constructed from brick and topped with a French tile roof, the houses are two stories high and have four first-floor windows with a shared central gable. Each cottage has a door beneath a tiled canopy, with 2-light and single-light casements on either side, and an outbuilding at each end. On the first floor, there are 2-light casements in the gable and single-light casements in the outer bays. The original stacks have been removed. New Earswick is particularly significant for its role in the development of low-cost housing in Britain. The practices and experiences from this area were influential in the Tudor Walters Report of 1918, which helped lead to the Addison Act of 1919. Plans from New Earswick also shaped the Government Manual on low-cost housing that followed the Act.