10, Blackheath Park

This is a private house built in 1968-9 by Patrick Gwynne for the contractor Leslie Bilsby. It is constructed of concrete and load-bearing brickwork, with cladding of near-black slate and aluminium-framed bronzed curtain walling. The roof is near flat, with a central skylight. The house extends over two storeys and a basement, and was originally designed with two garages for three cars, one side of which has since been adapted into a guest room. The plan is symmetrical and double-fronted, arranged around a central staircase. The design features pentagonal rooms of equal size at each corner, connected by rectangular circulation spaces.

A slate-covered staircase and ramp lead to the central entrance door. Windows are arranged in vertical bands above and in projecting corners to either side, set in bronzed aluminium frames. Double doors at the rear open onto a patio, with a short flight of steps leading to the garden, which incorporates an aluminium handrail. The rear elevation largely mirrors the front.

The interior walls are lined with plywood panels faced with white and black plastic cloth, with the exception of the central walls, which are plastered. These plastered walls, and the staircase, incorporate built-in niches for displaying ornaments. Numerous original built-in cupboards are located around the central staircase core, particularly on the first floor and in the servery. The servery retains some sliding kitchen cupboards and a storage unit; a similar sliding unit is also found on the opposite side of the house. Red, counterweighted, double-sliding doors link the rooms, allowing both doors to be moved with a single pull.

No. 10 Blackheath Park was commissioned from Gwynne by Leslie Bilsby, the contractor responsible for numerous nearby Span developments, with whom Gwynne had a longstanding professional relationship. Bilsby had previously carried out joinery work for Gwynne on The Homewood in Esher. The house was built to replace No. 115 Blackheath Park, which was demolished to make way for Span's Parkend estate. Bilsby specified a layout with a separate living room, dining room, kitchen, and study, which directly influenced the plan. The design provides a contrasting yet complementary infill between two earlier nineteenth-century double-fronted bayed houses, using different materials and a distinctive architectural idiom.