Swedish Quays, 1-95 Rope Street

Swedish Quays, 1-95 Rope Street

A complex of 95 flats and houses built between 1986 and 1990 by architects David Price and Gordon Cullen for Roger Malcolm Homes. The scheme comprises two phases of near-symmetrical design arranged around two rectangular courtyards, with datestones of 1988 on both sections recording "design and built by Roger Malcolm, London, architects Price & Cullen". The bespoke windows are by Archer Joinery of Belvedere, Kent.

The building uses a reinforced concrete frame supported on piled foundations. The ground floors and corner pavilions of the dockside elevations are clad in white Yorkshire limestone, with the upper floors in dark brick over blockwork. The courtyard elevations have rendered entrances to the upper maisonettes contrasting with buff brick. The roofs have steel trusses and slate coverings, and internally the cross-walls are of conventional construction.

The complex is formed of two rectangular courtyards defined by blocks of housing, separated by a central street wide enough to give views of the river. The western courtyard accommodates 48 units and the eastern courtyard 47 units, with each having central access from Rope Street to the south. The housing comprises four-storey houses with doors to the front and back on the short sides of each courtyard; two-storey maisonettes entered from the rear (some on Rope Street have balconies); three-storey maisonettes entered from both sides facing Greenland Dock and South Dock (Rope Street); flats in the corners towards Greenland Dock; and a single-storey unit raised on pilotis facing Rope Street (numbers 48 and 49). The massing is broken down by stepped entrance blocks to the courtyards.

All elevations feature bespoke top-hung dark hardwood casement timber windows with square glazes defined by thick glazing bars. The windows are either flush with the elevations in rectangular and inverted L-shapes, or projecting in a variety of forms including triangular, square and tall round-arch headed oriels.

The elevations to Greenland Dock are continuously tall and bold. The upper floors overshoot the battered-back ground floor on pilotis with rendered giant order columns supporting a pent hood above the second floor. Double-height round-arch headed oriels in singles and pairs alternate with pairs of recessed balconies, all beneath gabled roofs. The corner pavilions containing flats are generally of four storeys with attics, though the northernmost block has five storeys. The two inner blocks have hipped and round-arch dormer windows; the south block is topped by a penthouse with glazed elevations. They have shallow, slightly-canted hipped roofs with a deep oversail supported on slender metal eaves brackets. The elevations have L-shaped and rectangular windows and a near-continuous vertical line of windows lighting the communal stairs accessed from the ground floor. At the outer corners are open balconies with slender metal balustrades, through which the vertical corner column passes.

Access into the courtyards from Rope Street is through openings framed by stepped blocks, each with shallow hipped roofs letting maximum light into the courtyard. The Rope Street elevation has three storeys with attics. The upper floors clad in buff brick are supported by pilotis over the limestone-clad ground floor. Balconies at the first floor are some open, others with enclosing conservatories. Above are projecting double-height round-arched oriel windows, the upper part within the attic spaces of the hipped roof. The internal long courtyard elevations are similar in composition but have subtle differences. There are no pilotis or giant order columns except for the corner column to each projecting corner block. There are projecting rendered stair turrets with round-arched upper lanterns, and each range has a continuous band of upper clerestory windows. Above the pent hood at second floor are conservatories, above which are pairs of round-arched oriel windows.

The elevations of each house at the short sides (west and east ends) of each courtyard comprise an entrance door at ground floor with projecting triangular and rectangular windows at the first and second floors. At the third floor is a continuous band of clerestory windows to the hipped roof.

The interior was not inspected in 2017. Price and Cullen's intention was to blur the distinction between interior and exterior, clearly expressed by the glazed oriel windows and roof-top conservatories which push out from the main structure. It is understood that there are open staircases with grid motifs and the townhouses have partly double-height master bedrooms and sleeping alcoves near the clerestory windows. Press reviews of the time note the spaciousness of each unit and the use of high-level gardens and terraces, but there is no evidence that the internal arrangement or fixtures and fittings of each unit are distinctive.

The courtyard structures and surfaces are not of special architectural or historic interest.