Numbers 85 To 91 And Attached Walls Gates And Gatepiesr

Terrace of four houses on Genesta Road, built in 1933-4 by Berthold Lubetkin in conjunction with A V Pilichowski, who secured the commission from C J Pell and Co. developers. George West Ltd. were the builders. This was Lubetkin's first building in Britain, undertaken shortly after his arrival from the Soviet Union in late 1931.

The houses are constructed of monolithic reinforced concrete, painted, with flat roofs. They are arranged as mirrored pairs, each narrow frontage house measuring 7.7 metres deep and rising over three floors. The ground floor sits lower than the road level due to the extremely steep site. The ground floors contain entrance halls, loggia rooms and garages, the first floors have reception rooms and kitchens, and the second floors contain three bedrooms and bathrooms each.

Entrances are set back behind single pilotis supporting the projecting upper storeys, with further enclosure provided by curved projections to the side. Most houses retain their original Crittall metal doors, and No. 91 has its original bell. The original Crittall metal frame windows with side-opening casements survive throughout the front and to the rear except where noted. The first floor features a continuous horizontal band of windows across the facade, each containing ten vertical lights with some opening casements, set in a projecting concrete frame – a very early example of this feature. The second floor has a similar five-light window, with doors opening on to a balcony featuring a cyma-curved concrete front and steel sides. This distinctive design, possibly derived from Bauhaus principles, became one of Lubetkin's most characterful 1930s design features. The rear elevation is simpler, though original Crittall windows survive to Nos. 87 and 91 and to the upper floors of No. 85. Small bathroom and toilet windows at No. 89 survive, though others have been altered.

The ground floors originally had open loggias, now infilled with wood or glass but retaining their garden room character. The interiors are remarkably well preserved across all four houses, with No. 91 being the most complete. Entrance halls feature magnesium chloride floors, except No. 87 which has a woodblock floor, with curved cloakrooms in side projections. Circular staircases with cupboards beneath have timber newels scooped out on the ground and first floor levels to create semi-circular features that admit more light and space, with curved details completing the newel wall at roof level. First floor landings have cork floors. Reception rooms are divided into two halves by a square archway, creating spatial division without loss of light and openness, with two doors to the landing enhancing circulation. The second floor at No. 91 retains original bathroom fixtures with tiled walls and floors, while bedrooms have composition floors. Ladders secured over the stairwell provide access via rooflight to the flat roofs.

The front and side retaining walls with planting boxes form an important part of the overall composition, as do the surviving gates and gatepiers. Rear gardens on steeply sloping sites incorporate some walling and edgings.

These houses form the only completed terrace in England built in the modern idiom during the 1930s. This is a confident and mature work revealing many design details that appeared in Lubetkin's later and better-known public commissions. Lubetkin himself designed only two other private houses, both in Whipsnade and including one for his own residence.