13-23, LAMMAS GREEN

A terrace of eleven houses at 13-23 Lammas Green, built between 1955 and 1957 by Donald McMorran of Farquharson and McMorran, with Peter Nuttall as assistant, for the Corporation of the City of London. The houses are constructed from brick, colourwashed, and have pantiled roofs with brick stacks. Each house is of two storeys and has three bedrooms. The design is based on pairs of houses, some set forward and others set back, following the slope of the land. The plan incorporates a more compact design with a dining-kitchen and dormer windows, separated from a wider house by a round-arched entry. The windows are metal casements with side-opening lights and toplights; those to numbers 14, 15, and 21 have been replaced but retain the original pattern. The plank doors are set within timber porches with pointed hoods that echo the style of the dormers.

Internally, the living rooms have picture rails, and the staircases have timber balustrades. There are numerous fitted cupboards, particularly on the upper floors. Kitchen and bathroom fittings are not of particular interest. Donald McMorran’s work embodies a traditional style while embracing progressive building types such as public housing, demonstrating influences from architects like Giles Scott, Vincent Harris and Tayler and Green. This is the smallest, but most refined, of four housing schemes commissioned by the City Corporation. The arrangement of the three terraces around a village green, with views of the North Downs, is enhanced by the presence of two blocks of flats that act as a buffer from the road. The density is 57 dwellings per acre, deliberately set below the permissible maximum of seventy, to allow for a thriving community. The contrast between the colourwashed terraces and the well-proportioned brick flats is a particularly notable feature.