1-12 Herrick Court

Block of twelve flats built between 1954 and 1956 by architect Eric Lyons for Bargood Estates Ltd, subsequently operating as Span Developments Ltd. Geoffrey Paulson Townsend was the developer, G Scroble the project architect, and Wates the builders.

The building is constructed with brick end and partition walls, concrete, tile hanging and Eternit blocks, with a flat felted roof and brick stacks. It rises three storeys and follows an H-plan with a central entrance and stairwell. The entrance front features a centre section of four fully-glazed bays with metal panes, with an open entrance to the right side. The ground floor is masked by a covered walkway of timber bearing the block's name, with concrete lattice ventilation panels to the sides. The flank walls are characterized by continuous horizontal glazing in timber frames, divided by tile hanging.

The side elevations display the principal rooms through their fenestration. The first and second floors have two deeper windows with window boxes on the right side, divided at sill level with the uppermost opening. The ground floor alternates between three bays that are fully glazed with French windows on the left, and other windows with sill rails. The remaining bays match the upper floor composition. Tile hanging runs between each storey. The brick end walls each have one square window positioned towards the centre on every floor.

The entrance retains its original sign and numbering. The impressive staircase hall has a paved ground floor with grey terrazzo stairs and landings, and steel balusters with timber panels. The flats were originally fitted with timber floors, though the interiors have not been formally inspected.

Herrick Court represents one of Eric Lyons's most accomplished compositions in contemporary style. Lyons and Geoffrey Townsend first met in the late 1930s and renewed their partnership after wartime service, developing a number of select private schemes on the south-west London and north Surrey borders. When Townsend established himself as a developer in 1954, he was forced to relinquish his RIBA membership. Herrick Court was their first mature work and their first project as Span Developments Ltd, constructed on the site of a former nursery. The development was carefully planned to preserve existing trees, and the nursery stock and its gardener were retained as part of the scheme. The blocks are arranged as a series of cul-de-sacs and pedestrian squares, with taller blocks like Herrick Court positioned as distinctive focal points within a grid of lower-rise ranges. The combination of two- and three-storey blocks is distinctive to Parkleys, as is the mixture of traditional tile hanging with concrete panels.

Parkleys was developed at relatively high density for first-time buyers, and Span was among the first companies to promote the endowment mortgage. It also pioneered a system of residents' management companies that has maintained many Span developments in exceptional condition. Each leaseholder contributes to funding paid maintenance staff and holds membership in the management company running the estate. The mixture of materials—brick with tile hanging—was subsequently repeated in other Span works, particularly at Blackheath.

Lyons was admired for bridging the gap between speculative development and the creativity that many architects of his generation found only in the public sector. His working relationship with the sympathetic developer Townsend enabled him to pursue his own ideas in materials, layout and design, while maintaining the constraint that blocks had to be economically simple, designed and organized so that construction could be achieved at the same cost as a standard builder's scheme providing equivalent accommodation.