1, 2 And 3, Willow Road

A terrace of three houses at 1, 2, and 3 Willow Road, designed in 1938 by Ernő Goldfinger. The terrace was intended to appear as a single building. Constructed from reinforced concrete with external walls faced in red brick, the houses are notable for their structural approach, with floors supported on reinforced concrete columns, and a central cylindrical drum from which a spiral staircase is cantilevered.

The houses are three storeys to the front, and four to the rear. A continuous window opening is present at the first floor level, and there are seven windows on the second floor. The ground floor features recessed entrances and garages; the garages of numbers 1 and 3 project to support first-floor balconies. Entrances feature plain doors and rectangular sidelights. The external window frames are metal, with first-floor window openings in concrete architraves, featuring vertically set panes that act as French windows to the balconies, alongside picture windows with two rectangular lights. The second floor has seven rectangular two-light casements set in concrete architraves that project from the brickwork. A parapet tops the facade. The rear facade is simpler, with a balcony overlooking the garden.

Number 2 Willow Road possesses the most significant interior, retaining a richness of detail reflecting Goldfinger’s ongoing design evolution. He lived there with his artist wife, Ursula, until his death in 1987. A lower floor has been divided into a separate children’s flat. The narrow ground floor includes a rubber-floored entrance hall, from which a top-lit spiral staircase with a slim steel balustrade rises through the house, anchored by a sculpture by Victor Passmore. The first floor features a living room overlooking the rear garden with fitted bookcases and furniture, a curved frame for displaying paintings above the fireplace, and a study behind. A fitted workbench, set over a change in levels, is provided with pairs of sliding screens to adapt the space for use as an artist's studio. The broad front dining room has a window shelf, fitted furniture, and a dining table designed by Goldfinger. A kitchenette, added in the mid to late 1960s by Goldfinger, is located to the side. The bedroom floor retains much fitted furniture, and the top-lit bathroom has fitted cupboards and fittings.

Historically, the interiors represent a principal surviving artistic interior from the 1930s, showcasing a collection of modern artifacts and fittings within a Modern Movement house. The design demonstrates a return to brick as a facing material within the Modern Movement in Britain. The terrace replaced an 18th-century row of cottages, designed by Goldfinger as "an adaptation of 18th-century style," employing a hierarchical arrangement of spaces replicating Classical divisions: basement, piano nobile, and attic. Number 2, Goldfinger’s own house, was acquired by the National Trust in 1992.