22, Avenue Road

SK 60 SW 718/18/10060 15.7.1998

LEICESTER AVENUE ROAD (South side) No. 22

GV II

Private House. 1953-4 by James Cubitt and Partners; Fello Atkinson, partner in charge; Brenda Walker, job architect; for Mr and Mrs H Goddard. Single storey, white brick walls on recessed red brick base with dark green painted timber fascia. Flat roof on 'Benfix' timber and light steel joists with 2" Thermacoust panels of wood wool bonded with cement. L-shaped plan with open-plan living space and children's wing. Entrance set back from street with timber gate from garage driveway. Cobbled area with paved upper platform with projecting timber porch (painted duck-egg blue) on thin steel columns. Flush timber front door (painted dark blue), vertical timber panels to right-hand side, painted duck-egg blue. Garage to right, with white-painted timber doors hung from track. Steel framed windows in hardwood subframes except where noted. Garden front has full-height window to living room with steel top-hung lights centre section and roller blind in box over. To the left, a full-height wall section and bedroom window with large fixed and small opening lights. To the left of this, the rear of the garage has bright yellow painted vertical boarding recessed under overhanging roof, supported on two steel columns with boarded soffit. To right a glazed garden door (frame replaced in aluminium) with timber framed windows over, and a similar arrangement adjoining at right angles in wing. Timber-boarded water tank and small brick chimney project from flat roof. No external drainpipes. Interior. Small entrance hall with fitted cupboard and door to kitchen, leading through glazed door into living room, with exposed brick fireplace wall with Westmorland slate hearth and mantlepiece. Door to bedroom to the left and the right recess with fixed cherry-wood display cabinet and twin fitted drop-front desks (made by Pegram, London). Dining end has sycamore panelled wall (now painted over) and fitted shelf unit with hatch to kitchen and built-in picture frame. Floor of African Mahuhu wood blocks. Kitchen includes coloured plastic sliding cabinet doors and skylight. Bedroom with fitted wardrobe and bathroom. In children's wing, one single bedroom and one with sliding central door/partition and paired fitted desks in each half. Underfloor heating throughout the building. Freestanding garden room (q.v.) forms part of the composition. A fine example of an early 1950s architect-designed house. It is American influenced, with an open plan and built-in fittings of high quality, entirely unaltered. It was extensively published at the time as an exemplar of a new way of designing and of living.

Listing NGR: SK6021002454