50-56 Ferry Street (evens)

50-56 Ferry Street (evens)

A terrace of three houses and a flat, developed between 1976 and 1979 by Dr Michael Barraclough to designs by Stout and Litchfield.

The building is constructed of structural pre-cast concrete faced in white flint lime brick, with roofs covered in Westmorland slate. Windows are a mixture of timber and aluminium. The houses back directly onto the River Thames to the south and are approached from the north, off Ferry Street, through a gate in a high yellow stock brick wall.

Although the terrace reads as four separate buildings, there are in fact three houses in total. Number 50 occupies a double-width plot above the ground floor, beneath which number 52 forms a self-contained ground-floor flat. Number 56 to the east is larger and more irregular in form. Each house is arranged over three principal floors with rooms under the roof and the stair positioned against a side wall.

In numbers 50 and 54, the principal living areas are on the first floor and are largely open-plan, with kitchens facing the street to the front and living rooms to the rear overlooking the river and Greenwich beyond. Bedrooms are distributed across the ground and second floors and under the roof. Number 56 has a more complex plan comprising several double-height spaces and mezzanines, with a deep footprint that cuts in and out to the east, maximising river views and varying the accommodation on each floor. The main living spaces are arranged over the ground and first floors at the back of the plan, directly facing the river, whilst bedrooms are spread over all three floors and a garret-like attic room towards the front. The front and back parts of the plan are linked at ground floor by a single-storey range, whose roof provides a first-floor terrace crossed by a glazed link (now replaced with uPVC) connecting the double-height stair hall at the front with the double-height living room to the rear. The living room and kitchen/dining area below are irregularly shaped, with the corner cut back to create outside terraces and an angled wall to the east giving wide river views without obscuring views from rooms at the centre of the plan.

The most distinctive external characteristic of the terrace is the roof form. The roofs have a diagonal split-pitch arrangement: opposing pitches meet at a skewed ridge and continue up to form two opposing apexes with triangular clerestory windows beneath. Number 56 has two such roofs to the front and one large stepped variation at the rear, adding complexity to the angular geometry of the composition. Numbers 50 and 56 are crowned with slender square brick chimney stacks with angled caps, providing strong vertical counterpoint to the angles of the roofs.

The river frontage is broken into five bays by strong vertical concrete and brick cross-walls, with storeys expressed horizontally by tall full-width bands of glazing. An undercroft exists beneath each house and the first floors are jettied out over the river. The westernmost bay of number 50 steps back slightly, creating a ground-floor balcony now enclosed by a conservatory. Number 56 occupies the two east bays, with the end bay stepping back from the river. As the house turns the corner to the east, the composition breaks down into an intricate series of angular brick volumes partially screened by mature pine trees brought from Epping Forest during the house's construction. The first-floor conservatory linking the front of the house to the living area at the back has been rebuilt in uPVC.

The northern elevations of numbers 50 and 54 are articulated by brick cross-walls with horizontal bands of glazing on the first and second floors, the latter jettied out over the floors below. Smooth rendered spandrel panels sit beneath the windows. On the ground floor, each address has a glazed hardwood timber door set inset from the brick wall-face to create a small porch, and a full-height window lights a room to the front. The steeply pitched roof of each bay is punctuated at the diagonal ridge by a pointed apex with clerestory window. Number 56 has the same basic character but the front elevation is of two storeys, broken down into three irregular bays with the first floor partly jettied. The roof has two pointed apexes with clerestory windows. A glazed, off-centre entrance screen with timber-framed door leads to an inner porch.

The interiors vary as a result of being built for different clients, different planning configurations, and subsequent alteration. Number 54 retains much of its original kitchen, a more compact version of that found in number 56, with cupboard doors panelled within a mitred frame. The stair has chunky softwood joinery with open treads and horizontal plank balustrades, whereas the original stair at number 50 has more slender joinery with square stick balusters. The attic rooms of both houses have mezzanine levels with timber boarded ceilings, open to the pitch of the roof, and varying levels of built-in cupboards and joinery.

The interior of number 56 is characterised by dramatic use of double-height space and a simple, consistent palette of materials, notably exposed brick and chunky varnished softwood joinery including reused timbers from earlier industrial buildings. Floors of the living and circulation spaces are generally timber or tile, with detailing including timber boarded ceilings, exposed floor joists and square rope netting as balustrading. The planning creates a series of spaces ranging from enclosed and intimate to large, dynamic and light-filled.

The first-floor living room best captures the character of the house. A double-height space open to the underside of the angular roofs, it features a timber mezzanine under the highest part, reached via an open stair and high-level walkway. A sitting area below is enclosed overhead by deep exposed floor joists of the mezzanine, with an elevated office above. Light floods through glazed walls to the south and large triangular clerestory windows at the roof apexes. A brick chimney with raised tiled hearth and bookshelves set into the side completes the space. The undersides of the ceiling are faced in narrow timber boards, floors are timber, and all joinery, including stairs up to the mezzanine and down to the kitchen and dining area, is varnished softwood.

The details and palette remain consistent throughout the house, with a quantity of original built-in storage and joinery, including kitchen units with panelled doors set in mitred frames and built-in bedroom cupboards.