Basterfield House including steps to garden

Basterfield House is a block of 54 maisonettes on the east side of Golden Lane. The design won a competition in 1952 and was built to revised designs between 1954 and 1956. Geoffrey Powell won the competition, and the built scheme was designed by the architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, with Ove Arup and Partners as engineers.

The building is constructed in pink brick using crosswall construction, with brick endwalls in pink mortar, concrete floor and roof slabs, concrete balconies (now painted), and coloured infill panels, some of opaque glass. It has a flat roof and rises six storeys over basement stores. The maisonettes are set in pairs along three rows, with eighteen per pair of floors. Balconies face south, and the lowest tier of maisonettes has steps paved in quarry tiles leading down to a large courtyard garden. Upper flats are reached from access galleries via a staircase at the east end, which is shared with Stanley Cohen House, and from a freestanding lift tower on the north side of the west end, located next to an escape stair set within the block. Most maisonettes have two bedrooms, with three-bedroom units in the western two bays.

On the south elevation, the crosswalls project forward to provide privacy to each maisonette, making the block read as three terraces of houses stacked on top of each other. Living rooms have aluminium windows with timber framing. The aluminium system is repeated on the north elevation and continues as the framework for matt red cladding panels set in bands under the windows. Upper floor bedroom windows project forward. Set-back staircase windows serve each unit on lower levels, and the top floor of the topmost maisonettes features continuous bands of glazing and red panels. A red-clad projection marks the end maisonettes at the rear of the escape stair. Concrete balconies have steel top rails; those on the ground floor have glass screens between each pair of units. Brick piers at the entrance side mask timber doors set in pairs. Access galleries with steel railings and wired glass balcony fronts on the first, third and fifth floors serve fire escape balconies between bedrooms; those at the end serve escape stairs. A glazed open well staircase at the east end features storey-high panes set in timber frames. The lift shaft with rubbish shute is set in freestanding concrete sheets. Original signs survive.

The interiors have hardwood veneer floors and glazed screens between kitchen and dining space. The double height of the stairwell, combined with these screens, creates a sense of greater spaciousness than the units actually possess, as their dimensions were restricted under reduced minimum standards introduced in 1951. Staircases have solid risers, with stepped bookcases continued behind them in the living room. On lower floors, staircases rise from within the living room; on upper levels, they rise from opposite the front door. The upper level has top-floor central bathrooms with central glazing. Fitted cupboards and shelving survive in places and are of interest, though kitchen and bathroom fittings are not of special interest.

The development and importance of the Golden Lane Estate is explained in the entry for Great Arthur House.