1, Park Lane

House and studio built 1959-60 by architect Patric Guest for David Mellor, the metalware designer and manufacturer, with two-bedroom additions made circa 1965 on Mellor's marriage.

The building is single-storey, constructed with loadbearing crosswalls in fair-faced light-brown facing brick and painted sand-lime brick, timber joists, and flat roofs. It occupies a long plan on a sloping site. Windows are double-glazed in thick varnished and stained cedar frames with sliding openings, complemented by large glazed doors. A deep timber fascia runs along the building, with projecting screen walls at the upper end providing privacy to the garden.

The interior retains the integrated house and studio arrangement for which it was originally designed. An L-shaped living room incorporating a former kitchen area sits behind the glazed entrance, which was formerly the receptionist's office. A drawing room (now kitchen), store, and photographic studio occupy the corridor spaces, with steps leading down from the studio to the principal workshop. The walls throughout are painted brick, with the entrance hall and adjoining corridor separated only by large glass panels—one to the lounge fitted with blinds, the other between corridor and former drawing office (now kitchen) tiled on the rear. Teak strip floors cover the living areas and corridor, with a marble inset slab in front of the living room stove (renewed) and a mosaic bathroom floor. Softwood timber ceilings are throughout. Full-height solid teak doors hung on pivots serve the rooms. The metal workshop area contains fitted cupboards, with five steps descending to a larger workshop whose continuous roofline creates the tallest interior space, designed to accommodate the heavy machinery and industrial plant required for metalware design and production.

David Mellor, born in Sheffield and trained at Sheffield College of Art and the Royal College of Art, London, emerged in the 1960s as one of Britain's leading designers of tableware and street furniture, his restrained modernist style integral to the internationally significant British 'Look' of the period. This house represents the first example of Mellor's patronage of modern architecture through his collaboration with Patric Guest of Gollins Melvin Ward. It is notable as an early example of naturally finished, overscaled timber use, and marks a significant point in Mellor's career. Between 1960 and 1972, working with four or five assistants, Mellor produced all his designs, limited editions, and prototypes here, establishing his international reputation during these formative years.