Bayer House and raised pavements to north and south

Bayer House and raised pavements to north and south

A block of thirty maisonettes on the east side of Golden Lane. The design won a competition in 1952, with Geoffry Powell as competition winner. The building was constructed to revised designs between 1954 and 1956 by the architectural practice Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, with Ove Arup and Partners as engineers.

The construction uses pink brick cross-wall construction with brick end walls in pink mortar, concrete floor and roof slabs, concrete balconies (now painted) and coloured infill panels. The building is six storeys over basement stores with a flat roof. The maisonettes are set in pairs along two rows, with ten pairs per floor. Balconies face south, with the lowest row featuring paired steps down to a shared garden area and further steps to a pool adjacent to the community centre. The flats are reached from access galleries, with the upper maisonettes accessed via an end staircase shared with Stanley Cohen House and a secondary escape stair in the penultimate bay at the opposite end.

Most maisonettes contain two bedrooms, with larger units in the western two bays. On the south elevation, the crosswalls project forward to provide privacy to each maisonette, creating the visual effect of three terraces of houses stacked one above the other. Aluminium windows with timber facing serve the living rooms. The aluminium system appears on both elevations and continues as a framework for brown cladding panels (possibly originally red) set in bands beneath the windows. Upper floor bedroom windows project outward. Set-back staircase windows serve each unit on lower levels, with continuous bands of glazing and brown panels appearing on the top floor of upper maisonettes. A brown-clad projection marks the end maisonettes at the rear of the escape stair.

Concrete balconies feature steel top rails. Ground floor balconies are fitted with glass screens between each pair of units. Brick piers on the courtyard entrance side mark timber doors set in pairs. Access galleries have steel railings and wired glass balcony fronts on the first, third and fifth floors, serving fire escape balconies between bedrooms and escape stairs at the ends. A part-glazed open-well staircase with storey-high panes set in timber frames appears at the end. Original signs survive.

The interiors feature hardwood veneer floors and glazed screens between kitchen and dining spaces. The double height of the internal stairwell, combined with this glazing, creates a sense of spaciousness despite the restricted dimensions of the units, which reflect minimum standards introduced in 1951. Open tread staircases enhance this sense of airiness. On lower floors, these rise from within the living room; on upper floors they are positioned opposite the floor door. On the top floor, central bathrooms sit beneath clerestory glazing. Fitted cupboards and shelving of interest remain where they survive, though kitchen and bathroom fittings are not of special architectural interest.

A raised walkway on the north side of the block forms part of the composition linking Stanley Cohen House to the rest of the estate. On the south side, steps descend to a garden laid with decorative paviours and planted areas, with further steps leading to the community centre and pool.